Negotiations in Organizations

1. Negotiations in Organizations

2. Why Negotiation Skills are so critical now? • Blurring of Organizational Boundaries • New Organizational Structures (flax, flexible) • New Managerial Roles (linking, liaison) • Working with distributed resources • Change initiatives from below • Others?

3. Forms of Conflict Management • Forcing -- use of power and position • Smoothing/Avoidance -- gloss over differences • Negotiation -- compromise/mutual agreements • Third Party --adjudication/mediation

4. Issues, Positions & Interests • The issue is team meetings • The position is a demand • I want to do less work in teams. • The interests are the reasons for the demands • I don’t have enough time. • I know the material already. • My partner hardly sees me.

5. Distributive Negotiations/ Claiming Value • Assumptions • others are adversaries • what I gain you loose • Process • control information • argue persuasively • use power tactics (bluffs, threats, etc.) • Outcome • compromise / split the difference

6. Integrative Negotiations/Creating Value • Assumptions • others are adversaries and partners • possible to solve each other’s problems • Process • establish a dialogue • talk about interests and concerns • identify differences and possible of trade-offs • emphasize interdependencies • Outcome • mutual gains agreements • transformation of the problem

7. Language of Constructive Conflict • Talk about the problem (not who is right or wrong) • Talk in ways that validate and include others • Talk in by giving reasons for why you feel a certain way • Talk about interdependencies • Talk about the future--what we want, not what has been • Talk in language of trades--“what if” proposals

8. Distributive Negotiation Integrative Negotiation high Conflict Avoidance low Accommodation low high Negotiation versus Other Ways of Handling a Conflict Level of concern for one’s own outcome Level of concern for the other’s outcome

9. Take-Aways • Most negotiation situations start as a zero-sum game • a fixed pie or distributive negotiations • To move beyond this we need to work to expand the pie • both create value and claim value