The Negotiation Process and Preparation

Essay questions

1. Explain the five steps of negotiation process? ( LO-)

The Negotiation Process. The negotiations process is made up of five steps:
(1)preparation and planning 
(2) definition of ground rules
(3) clarification and justification
(4) Bargaining and problems and
(5) closure and implementation.

2. Explain the five steps of negotiation process? Which is hardest part

The Preparation Stage. This is the hardest part as well as the part that most people resist.
The process and the result will be only as good as the preparation. Thought, analysis,
creativity, and the knowledge gained in this course are required for sound preparation.
The steps are outlined below.
A. Gather information.

B. Determine what you want and need.

C. Rank your wants and needs.
D. Assess your counterpart’s perception of your wants and needs.
E. Assess what you think your counterpart wants and needs.
F. Determine what you can give.
G. Determine where there is already agreement.
H. Assess and analyze your power.
I. Assess your counterpart’s power.
J. Assign a value to all components.
3. Explain the rules of negotiation process?

Rules of negotiation
A. Do not think of negotiation as a game.
B. Be prepared.

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 C. Know relevant aspects of your own personality and behavioral tendencies
as well as your needs, goals, and power.
D. Perceive and assess relevant aspects of your counterpart’s personality,
needs, power, and behavior.
E. Practice the rules of effective listening, speaking, filtering, and watching.
F. Never lose control of yourself.
G. Always look for common ground and common goals.
H. Know when to continue and when to walk away.
I. Maintain your personal integrity, and trust yourself. Persuasion is not
possible where there is lack of trust.
J. Never negotiate with someone who has no authority to decide or commit.

4. Name few Common Mistakes made in negotiation process?

a. Assume what the other side wants.

b. Overestimate your weaknesses and/or underestimate the weaknesses of
your counterpart.
c. Hold to a fixed plan in the face of new information.
d. Set your goals too optimistically or too pessimistically. (
e. Set goals or take positions without reasoned support.
f. Make a counterproposal to an unreasonable or unsupported offer.
g. Let the other side know of a tight time deadline.
h. Jump at the first offer.
i. Focus on what the other side gets.
j. Say “no” the wrong way.

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II. Negotiating Terminology.
A. Approach to conflict and negotiation describe one’s general view of and
attitude toward the matter.
B. Style is the manner of interaction—avoiding, competing, compromising,
and collaborating.

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 C. Strategy is the overall plan that includes whether one will avoid, manage,
or resolve, and the style selected.
D. Strategic behavior arises when two or more individuals interact, and each
individual’s decision turns on what that individual expects the other(s) to
do. The action that will effect the best mutual result is the rational choice.
E. The prisoners’ dilemma presented in the text demonstrates game theory and
a strategic behavior problem. (Teaching Note: Students should be given
time to contemplate and discuss this example.)
F. Counterpart is the term best used to describe parties to a negotiation.
G. Tactics are the actions and/or moves one makes in the negotiation.
H. Gambit is a chess term and is often used in negotiation parlance to refer to
a move, or a tactic.
I. Technique is the term that describes the combination of tactics used. The
term is addressed further in a later chapter.
III. Stages of the Negotiation Process. There are five stages in the process:
Preparation, introduction, initiation, intensification, and closing. The latter
three phases do not occur in precise order. Rather, they are intertwined as
elements of the negotiation are addressed and progress is made on issues until
complete resolution or agreement is reached.

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