PD103: Professional Skill Development

LESSON 4: NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT

BSMA Fourth Year, Second Semester

Negotiation - Mutual discussion and arrangement of the terms of a transaction or agreement.

Types of Negotiation Situations

1. Positional Negotiation - Participants have distinct positions, opinions, or desired outcomes.
2. Emotional Negotiation - Emotions can complicate negotiations, potentially hindering the ability to
reach a satisfactory outcome, especially when significant differences exist between positions.
3. Number of Participants and Positions - Negotiations may involve varying numbers of participants
and positions.
4. Everyday Negotiation - Negotiations are not always recognized immediately and can range from
mundane decisions to significant matters.
5. Long-Term Impact Negotiation - The importance of considering the long-term consequences of
negotiations, as relationships may persist beyond the initial agreement.
6. Professional Negotiations - Various business situations in professional life that may require
negotiation including customer/supplier deals, complaint resolution, performance reviews, pay raises,
task delivery timescales, and work distribution.

Some typical business situations that may require negotiation are:

● customers/supplier business deal;
● Complaint resolution;
● Performance review;
● Pay rise;
● Product or task delivery timescale;
● Work distribution.

Negotiation Outcomes
● Everyone feels content with the outcome;
● No one feels resentful or annoyed.

Common Problems found during Negotiation

1. Binary Outcome Belief
2. Soft or Hard Positions
3. Conceding without Acceptance
4. Winning at all Costs

Dovetailing - Dovetailing in negotiation refers to an approach where participants strive to align and fit their
desired outcomes together, balancing values to to meet everyone’s needs to an acceptable level.
- Joseph O’Connor and John Seymour (2003) discuss this dovetailing approach in their book on NLP.

O’connor and Seymour highlight 4 major drawbacks for those that impose solutions or manipulate
situations:
● Remorse
● Resentment
● Recrimination
● Revenge

The Getting to Yes Approach - The ‘Getting to Yes’ approach, developed by The Negotiation Project and
detailed in the book authored by Roger Fisher and William Ury (and, in the latest edition, edited by Patton). It
outlines a principled negotiation method that deviates from traditional approaches.

Principled negotiation consists of four stages

1. People - Separate the people's issues from the problem under negotiation.

Fisher and Ury have identified three aspects to consider when thinking about people:
● Perception - How they perceive the situation.
● Emotion - How they feel about the situation.
● Communication - How they will be communicated with.

2. Interests - Focus on the interests of the negotiating parties rather than the positions they have
adopted.
 3. Options - Look at the possible options to resolve the negotiation before making any decisions.
4. Criteria - Set criteria that will provide a basis for the decision and ensure objectivity.

Objective Criteria that you might consider are:

1. Market value
2. Cost of repair/updating
3. Time available/constraints
4. Quantifiable data
5. The legal implications

PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATION

Figure 4.3 Negotiation process

1. Identify situation- One of the key steps in ensuring a successful negotiation involves identifying in
advance that a negotiation is required.
-Early identification of negotiation situations enables participants to ensure that they are prepared.
2. Prepare to negotiate- Here, the participants should examine the situation, research or collect any
required information, consider the other participants and assess their position.

a. Research information
Areas such as:
1. financial;
2. timescales;
3. legal requirements;
4. business policies;
5. geographical locations;
6. people.
b. Define the problem-Sometimes negotiations take place because people believe there is an
issue to be negotiated, but this may not be the case. Sometimes they feel that particular aspect
is the root of the problem, when it isn’t.
-Failing to understand where the issues lie can seriously undermine a negotiation.
c. Consider participants
Perspectives- This means identifying not only that there is another point of view, but also
actively trying to understand this view.
-It is important to understand and accept that, in the person’s opinion, this is a valid view.
Feelings- The way that people feel during negotiations can often be as important as the words
that are spoken.
-It is often helpful to allow people the opportunity to express their worries, grievances or anger.
d. Evaluate position- Part of preparation involves understanding the level beyond which a
negotiated outcome would not be worth accepting.

BATNA-Fisher and Ury use an approach called ‘best alternative to a negotiated agreement
‘or BATNA. It helps you to look at alternative courses of action by considering the question,
‘What would we do if we do not get what we want?’

Relative Power- Assess the relative power between you and your counterpart. Researching the
situation helps you understand the level of leverage that you have: your bargaining position.

3. Conduct the negotiation

Remove Emotion- This is so important because it enables the participants to be objective and
keep their focus on the outcome not on how they are feeling at a point in time.

Communicate Effectively- One of the techniques that helps to understand people involves
analyzing their world view. This can provide a great deal of insight into priorities and values.
 When exploring the participants’ world views, we can think about the following
questions:

● What do the participants think is the point of the negotiation?

● What do they want their stated outcome?
● Where are their priorities?
● What part of the stated need do they value most?

Some listening behaviours that often cause problems during negotiations:

● Judging- This involves a failure to listen because you are intent on prejudging what the
other party is saying.
● Filtering- This occurs where you only listen to the elements of the communication that
support your position.
● Being right- Where someone needs to be right they place greater emphasis on
winning the argument than achieving a satisfactory outcome, and so they do not listen to
the points.
● Rehearsing- Here, you are mentally preparing points to make in support of your
position.

Other key communication approaches that help when negotiating are:

● Acknowledging- recognizing what has been said and asking for clarification if necessary.
● Rephrasing or Reframing- phrasing explanations form your point of view rather than blaming. The
negotiation should be framed as a meeting of equal participants with the objective of resolving a
problem.
● Keeping language neutral- some people use language in provocative and emotional ways and
exaggerate points or issues; this is usually counterproductive unless you want to shock the other party
into acquiescence.
● Speaking for a Purpose- do not say anything significant without knowing exactly what you want to
communicate and the purpose the information will serve.
● Focus on the problem- keep the focus on the problem to be negotiated and the possible options.

a. Look for options- adopting this process can help to identify potential outcomes that have not
been identified earlier, but may meet both parties’ objectives or at least find opportunities to
satisfy most needs.
NPL advocates a technique known as “chunking” during negotiation because this helps to
increase objectivity and open up creative options.

Two useful approaches are:

● Alternative models- taking any assumptions of other people or other companies.
● Assumption reversal- taking any assumptions or conventional wisdom and turning it around.

These blocks the development of creative options:

● Premature judgement- sometimes we rush to prejudge what the other party might think or say.
● Single answer- there is a danger in believing that there is one best answer and dismissing
options that only meet part of the interest.
● Fixed- sum game- here we focus on one party winning and the other losing, rather than trying
to be creative in identifying options that address interests on both sides.
● Each party solves their problem- in this situation, everyone considers just their own interests
and believes that the other party will suggest options that address their concerns.

b. Evaluate options- It is important that the process separates out the identification of options
from the evaluation and decision making. It is also important that the criteria that may be used to
evaluate the options are based upon the declared interests.
 4. Close the negotiation- There will always be follow-up actions and it is important to ensure that any
decisions are recorded and the momentum is continued. At the close of the discussion, the participants
should reaffirm the decisions and their agreement.

MANAGING CONFLICT SITUATIONS

Conflicts arise when two or more parties disagree about something and this has not, or cannot, be resolved by
negotiation. Typically, this may result from one or more of the following issues:
1. Conflicts arising from differing goals or objectives.
2. Conflicts arising from judgements and evaluations of situations.
3. Conflicts arising from different values.

FIVE POSSIBLE POSITIONS RELEVANT WHEN RESOLVING CONFLICTS:

1. Avoiding- in some situations, avoiding conflict may be the most appropriate approach.
2. Accommodating- seeks only to satisfy the needs of the other party. It involves offering complete
cooperation and subjugation and may be useful where it serves to promote some greater purpose.
3. Competing- this position is concerned with meeting one’s own needs and the needs of the other party
are not considered.
4. Compromising- means giving up some need to gain some benefits. While it is often felt that
compromise is a good way of resolving a conflict, in fact the parties involved may all feel that their
issues are unsolved.
5. Collaborating- seeks to identify and satisfy the concerns of both parties.