Page 79 - DMGT519_Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Unit 4: Negotiation

4.9.1 Pre-negotiation Planning Notes

This is the most important stage of negotiation. The success or failure of negotiation depends on
how well the homework has been done before one is in a face-to-face actual negotiation situation.
Pre-negotiation planning requires consideration of the following factors:
1. Know thyself: One of the most significant factors is the knowledge about one’s own
personality and predispositions. Some people are good in bargaining while others get
confused and irritated more easily. As a result, they either give away some very useful
information or block the process of negotiation. Evidence shows that people who have
lesser tolerance for ambiguity tend to be losers in negotiation. Weingart et al. (1988)
found high interpersonal orientation as the most significant characteristic in making
negotiation effective. It involves sensitivity to the needs of others, power balance and the
requirements of the immediate situation.

2. Know the adversary: Knowing one’s self is not enough. It is also necessary to do a
background check on the individual/party, one is going to negotiate with, particularly if
it is a first-time interaction. By and large it has been seen that parties belonging to the
same background (ethnic, religious, caste, etc.) and subscribing to the same ideology
(political or otherwise) tend to cooperate with each other. Early evidence has suggested
that women tend to be more conciliatory than men (Wall, 1976). However, some recent
evidence suggests that it is not the gender per se but rather masculine and feminine
tendencies, irrespective of biological gender, that make the difference.

3. Specify your goals and objective: Before walking into a face-to-face negotiation, it is
imperative to be clear as to what are your immediate and long-term objectives in the
negotiation. An understanding of these helps in planning the negotiation strategy. In case
there are a number of issues on which negotiation has to take place it is absolutely necessary
to prioritise your objectives most important followed by the next most important, and so
on. Not only this, it is also necessary to identify those issues which one would be willing
to trade off with the options provided by the other party. In other words, which of the
several issues one is willing to give up if some favourable option is provided. Sometimes
it is also necessary to combine various issues into a single package instead of dealing with
them one by one. The package may have greater cumulative value than each single item.
4. Develop arguments/alternatives: Negotiation is not possible if there is a fixed point
argument. It involves a range within which the individuals/parties in negotiation have to
bargain. Therefore, before going into actual negotiation, it is necessary to decide the entry
and exit points. There is nothing like getting a deal at one’s exit point because that generally
does not happen. Hence, it is necessary to decide what is it that one would like to get, what
would be a tolerable limit without losing much, and finally what is the absolute minimum/
maximum one would finally like to have to receive a negotiation surplus. These are
different points in the range defined by the entry and exit points. Just walking into a
negotiation without these considerations may put one in a surprise situation, getting out
from which may not only be difficult but often impossible.
5. Agenda/procedures: Perhaps one of the most important factors in pre-negotiation planning
has to do with agenda, site selection, physical arrangement, and time availability. These
are the issues/items on which negotiation has to take place. The agenda tends to set the
tone for negotiation. An agenda must be prepared in consultation with the individual/
party involved in the negotiation and should be made known to them before the actual
negotiation. Site selection plays a significant role in the process of negotiation. Most
negotiations usually take place at a neutral place. Negotiations taking place at either
individual/party’s office/city/country may provide the individual/party in negotiation

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