Page 70 - DMGT519_Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Notes Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
 Define and explain the meaning of negotiation

 Discuss about conscious and unconscious determinants of negotiation
 State the characteristics of statistics
 Discuss Statistics as a science or an art
 Describe the limitations and scope of statistics

Introduction

Negotiation is process of adjusting both parties’ views of their ideal outcomes to an attainable
outcome.
In journey of our lives, we negotiate at every step to achieve success both in our personal and
professional lives. People negotiate in their personal life (e.g., with their spouses, children,
school teachers, neighbours) as well as in their business life. Thus, the scope of negotiation
ranges from one-on-one to highly complex multi-party and multi-nation interactions. In the
business world, people negotiate at multiple levels and contexts – within departmental or
business units, between departments, companies, and even across industries. For this reason,
managers must understand enough about negotiations to be effective negotiating within, between,
and up and across all of these business environments.

4.1 Definition and Scope

In this unit, we use the following working definition of negotiation: Negotiation is an
interpersonal decision-making process necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives
single-handedly. Negotiations not only include the one-on-one business meeting, but also multi-
party, multi-company, and multimillion-dollar deals. Whether simple or complex, negotiations
boil down to people, communication, and influence. Even the most complex of business deals
can be broken down to a system of one-on-one relationships.

Somehow the term ‘Collective Bargaining’ and ‘Negotiation’ have been often used
synonymously. It would be more logical and meaningful to consider negotiations as part of
collective bargaining. ‘Collective Bargaining’ refers in the structural and/or institutional
arrangement Relations and also covers the parties, goals, environments, and contents as well as
the process often used for resolving the conflict of interest between the management and unions.
Whereas the negotiation processes has been described by Walton and Mc Kersieas “the deliberate
interaction of two or more complex social units which are attempting to define or redefine the
terms of their interdependence”. Gottschalk defines negotiation process as “an occasion where
one or more representatives of two or more parties interact in an explicit attempt to reach a
jointly acceptable position on one or more divisive issues.” The term negotiation as described
by Micael Salamon as “the interpersonal process used by representatives of management and
employees/unions, within the various institutional arrangements of collective bargaining, in
order to resolve their differences and reach agreement. Negation is a process for resolving
conflict between tow or more parties whereby both or all modify their demands to achieve a
mutually acceptable compromise.

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