Page 127 - DMGT519_Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Unit 6: Negotiation Style

Notes
authority to go against the manager’s instructions, and that she planned to return to
graduate school the following semester anyway, Elizabeth asked to be assigned to another
project for the duration of her time with the company.

6.2 Choosing the Appropriate Style

Do you feel that someone is continually taking advantage of you? Do you seem to have to fight
your corner aggressively, or ally with others, to win the resources you need? Or do you struggle
to get what you want from people whose help you need, but over whom you have little direct
authority? If so, you may need to brush up your win-win negotiation skills.
Effective negotiation helps you to resolve situations where what you want conflicts with what
someone else wants. The aim of win-win negotiation is to find a solution that is acceptable to
both parties, and leaves both parties feeling that they’ve won, in some way, after the event.

There are different styles of negotiation, depending on circumstances.
Where you do not expect to deal with people ever again and you do not need their goodwill,
then it may be appropriate to “play hardball”, seeking to win a negotiation while the other
person loses out. Many people go through this when they buy or sell a house – this is why house-
buying can be such a confrontational and unpleasant experience.
Similarly, where there is a great deal at stake in a negotiation, then it may be appropriate to
prepare in detail and legitimate “gamesmanship” to gain advantage. Anyone who has been
involved with large sales negotiations will be familiar with this.
Neither of these approaches is usually much good for resolving disputes with people with
whom you have an ongoing relationship: If one person plays hardball, then this disadvantages
the other person – this may, quite fairly, lead to reprisal later. Similarly, using tricks and
manipulation during a negotiation can undermine trust and damage teamwork. While a
manipulative person may not get caught out if negotiation is infrequent, this is not the case
when people work together routinely. Here, honesty and openness are almost always the best
policies.

6.2.1 Negotiating Successfully

The negotiation itself is a careful exploration of your position and the other person’s position,
with the goal of finding a mutually acceptable compromise that gives you both as much of what
you want as possible. People’s positions are rarely as fundamentally opposed as they may
initially appear – the other person may have very different goals from the ones you expect!

In an ideal situation, you will find that the other person wants what you are prepared to trade,
and that you are prepared to give what the other person wants.
If this is not the case and one person must give way, then it is fair for this person to try to
negotiate some form of compensation for doing so – the scale of this compensation will often
depend on the many of the factors we discussed above. Ultimately, both sides should feel
comfortable with the final solution if the agreement is to be considered win-win.
Only consider win-lose negotiation if you don’t need to have an ongoing relationship with the
other party as, having lost, they are unlikely to want to work with you again. Equally, you
should expect that if they need to fulfill some part of a deal in which you have “won,” they may
be uncooperative and legalistic about the way they do this.

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