Page 86 - DMGT519_Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Notes 4. Should I make a “Final Offer” or commit to a position?
In general, taking such a stance is not an effective negotiation strategy. The key reason is
that people do so too early in the negotiation process. Indeed, the line “This is my final
offer” would have much more effective impact if said later in a negotiation.
Making an irrevocable commitment such as a “final offer” really should be done only
when you mean it and you feel comfortable walking away from the bargaining table. If
your BATNA is more attractive than what the opponent is offering you, intimidating the
other party by making a commitment is risky. First, it is difficult to make “binding”
commitments that appear to be credible. More important, it is difficult to reverse such
statements once they are made, at least not without looking or feeling foolish.

Saving Face

Saving face in a negotiation has been called “one of an individual’s most sacred possessions”.
Face is the value a person places on his or her public image, reputation, and status vis-à-vis other
people in the negotiation. Direct threats to face in negotiation include making ultimatums,
criticisms, challenges, and insults. Often, it is the mere presence of an audience that can make
“saving face” of paramount importance for the negotiator.

4.15 Finding ways to Abandon a Committed Position

Frequently negotiators want to get the other party out of a committed position, and many times
that party also wants a way out. How can this be done? We suggest four avenues for escaping
commitments.

Plan a Way out

When establishing a commitment, a negotiator should simultaneously plan a private way out.
The negotiator may also reward a commitment to indicate that the conditions under which it
applied have changed. Some to say, “Given what I’ve learned from you during this discussion,
I see I am going to rethink my earlier position.” The same could be done for the other party. A
negotiator, wanting to make it possible for the other to abandon a committed position and yet
not lose credibility, might say, “Given what I’ve told you about the situation (or given this new
information) I believe you will see that your earlier position no longer holds.” Needless to say,
the last thing a negotiator wants to do is to embarrass the other party or make judgemental
statements about the shift in position; rather, the other party should be given every opportunity
to retreat with dignity and without losing face.
Let it Die Silently

A second way to abandon a commitment is to let the matter die silently. After a lapse of time, a
negotiator can make a new proposal in the area of the commitment without mentioning the
earlier one. A variation on this process is to make a tentative step in a direction previously
excluded by the other’s commitment. For example, an employee who has said that he would
never accept a certain job assignment may be asked to consider the benefits to the career of a
“temporary” placement in that job. In bureaucratic institutions, changes can be introduced as
“innovative experiments” to see if they work before they are formally adopted. If the other
party, in response to either of these variations, indicates through silence or verbal comment a
willingness to let things move in that direction, the negotiation should simply be allowed to
progress.

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