Negotiation Strategies: Business or Political Perspective. What Negotiation is all About? Considering the Interest and Values of Conflicting Parties Separately

Name:
Institution:
Course:
Tutor:
Date:
Negotiation Strategies
1.0 Introduction
With increasing globalizations, business organizations operating both in local and international markets often find themselves in disputes. Dispute resolution one way of settling disputes between business organizations outside the courts of law. Alternative business resolution (ADR) has been used for many years as a dispute resolution process. Among the known types of ADR which are mediation and arbitration, mediation is sought first in resolving disputes in business (Sgubini, Alesandra and Merighetto). In the past decade, leading global business organizations have been making headlines in the New York, Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other media outlets with hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars compensation suits in courts in which negotiation has been the centre of focus on finding settlements and resolutions (Jergler & Ha, 3013). A number of hardball negotiations have backfired, many costly legal battles ending up in court settlements and fines that could have been avoided and many disputes arising from faulty contracts. The largest compensation packages in business conflict suits in the U.S. include cases such as the one for Starbucks and Kraft Foods that lasted for three years. The dispute was cause by disagreement on Starbucks packed coffee in grocery stores in which negotiations and arbitration was used to make Starbucks compensate Kraft over its breach of contract with a settlement of $2.75 billion in 2013.
Apple and Samsung conflict was a perfect example of the success of negotiation in business. At first in August a California court ruled in favor of Apple instructing Samsung to pay more than $1 billion as compensation for damages relating to patent violations of Apple products. After various negotiations, the payout was reduced to $600 million and eventually to $290 million. Time Warner in 2013 summer was also in conflict with CBS over fees. Through negotiations, the two companies were able to reconsider their stand with CBS getting a higher fee for its programming from $1 to $2 and also got the digital rights to sell its content to other web distributors including Netflix. The negotiations ended with no fines or penalties (Lutz). Business negotiations is an important leadership and management skill that is applicable both internal and external business environment. Business negotiations involve deal making between one company and another, with government institutions, employment discussions, labor management agreements, business acquisitions and employee compensation. Business negotiation require well-crafted strategies in a business environment. Business negotiation strategy involves breaking problems that occur in a business organization into smaller parts, analyzing unusual situations and inventing new ideas to solve problems (Buell). This paper seeks to discuss the importance of negotiation in business providing an analysis of negotiation strategies in business.
2.0 What Negotiation is all about
2.1 Considering the interest and values of conflicting parties separately
When carrying out negotiations, it is important to separate the person or the organization itself from the problem. Issues should be engaged separately by identifying the actual problem and highlighting its cause. This will enable the negotiating team to identify and agree on the solutions to the problems separately (Sherwin). This is done by first determining the value that opponents give to their positions and understanding their interests and personal or organizational values. This helps the negotiators to develop the best approach to the problem while putting in mind their counterparts needs (Sanibel;Cohen, 2015).
2.2 Relationship building dialogue
Dialogue helps people in conflict to talk out issues and highlight the sources of the problems bringing their differences. Dialogue is an important component in business conflict resolution processes. Healthy dialogue during negotiation helps to build the right attitude that enable individuals to handle differences and relate positively with the spirit of having mutual respect, broader understanding and cooperation. Organizations in business should uphold good communication and responsible attitude towards their internal and external customers, this also applies to the process of conflict resolution in negotiations. This helps to build eternal relationships that are based on trust and partnership. Considering that conditions can vary during negotiations, dialogue opens up an avenue for the parties in conflict to hear out their opponents and understand their expectations. This involves exchanging information and thoughts through open communication. New ideas on how to solve problems can be influenced by dialogue that can benefit both parties in conflict (Maude).
In any negotiations, discussions and talking about issues openly and directly to each other within the negotiating teams is one healthy way of developing a working dialogue environment. Dialogue cannot work without communication, therefore negotiators must ensure that their opponents are willing to talk and discuss about issues and talk about possible solutions in their own view. This then needs both parties to be willing to listen and give their opponents enough time to talks and outline their ideas in every step of the negotiation process (Cohen, 2015). Communication is an impotent factor in any dialogue oriented negotiation process. As much as people in a negotiation table may seem to be communicating to each other, they may totally fail to communicate in a way that allows either party to understand the other. Good listening skills is therefore required that involves acknowledging what other people are speaking and to prevent misinterpretations during negotiations. Asking for clarification when a concept of something is not clear paves way for clear understanding. Most importantly, negotiators can ask to summaries what they have listened to and understood from their components for them to confirm that they agree also agree and are on the same page. This also demonstrates to the opponents that the organization representatives in a negotiation table are listening. Taking notes of all points that the opponent is suggesting is also a good indication that demonstrates to them that what they are saying is important and being considered by their opponents (Malhotra).
3.0 Preparation strategy
Before a business engages in negotiating as a way to end a conflict within its organization or with other organizations outside, planning is a critical step for any win to be attained. Planning is basically the process in which negotiators do their homework to prevent entering negotiation tables with specific demands. It is therefore to make deliberate preparations by putting in place the necessary tools and equipment that will be required throughout the negotiation process. First business organizations must determine whether they are in a negotiating situation (Long & Clerk). Negotiating situations arise when communication between two business entities hit a glitch and only negotiating can give the company the solution to a problem or conflicts. However, must work to the company advantage, otherwise no negotiation should take place. Negotiation in organizations starts from within. Stakeholders and all other decision makers must be brought together to agree on the needs and wants of the organization to determine whether going into negotiations can settle the problem being addressed. According to Maude the first phase of any planning effort should be the BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) (Maude). Preparing the setting for a negotiation is also a critical part of planning. This should answer questions such as who the organizations are negotiating with, where the negotiations will be taking place, when the negotiations are scheduled and how the negotiation process will be undertaken. This involves how the organization plans to present its case and arguments in order to win in the talks. This also requires selection of a team with the right attitude to win the negotiation (Long & Clerk).
3.0 Carrying out background check on opponent
Researching the opponent in a negotiation refers to attaining relevant information about the party the company is in conflict with. Gathering marketing literature, operations policies and organizational values and objectives of the opponents is critical (Long & Clerk). It is important to have a clear picture of what the opponents stand for in terms of their values, their interests in business and their line of operations. Material about opponents can be legally requested by the teams negotiating the conflict or be obtained directly from the company or their website. Looking into the literature that have been published about the opponents is also critical as it helps to analyze and understand their position as pertains to the conflict at hand (Sanibel). Background checks reveals weaknesses of opponents that negotiators can turn into their advantage and win better deals during negotiations. Both the past should be looked into and an analysis of the future to determine where the opponent is headed in the near future so that solid decisions can be made without having to risk entering into agreements that are short lived. Carrying out due diligence is also one of the legal requirements in business negotiations. This prevents business organizations from engaging in illegal activities without consent which may result to serious litigation consequences (Sanibel; Maude).
3.1 Setting Bargaining objectives
Negotiators must know what the conflicting parties need. For a company or business organizations its negotiating team should have specific alternatives that are acceptable by the business they represent. This include the option that can be agreed upon if the negotiations fail. This prevents negotiators from being forced to enter into agreements they do not want that may be of poor standards. Businesses that enter negotiations with alternatives they are ready to consider prevent them from failing to arrive at beneficial resolutions. This is an important part in planning for negotiators representing business organizations when entering any conflict resolution process (Maude).
When objective is set when entering a negotiating table, a company’s negotiating team is able to have the bargaining range for all the issues they need to be settled. Each issue must be unbundled first to underline specific problems and the needed action in order to settle the problems they have created. This therefore requires the negotiating team to set up a maximum and minimum range. Minimum point also draws the walk out line while the maximum range is the starting point for a good deal. The target provided a guideline of what the business desire to settle at after the negotiation (Sherwin).
Before negotiations begin, the negotiating team must first agree on the objective of the negotiating and underline the priorities from less important issues. Objectives are the must win issues that the company needs to benefit from the negotiation process. Objectives form part of the planning process, this therefore should involve all important decision makers of the organization to uniformly agree on what the negotiating team needs to achieve from the negotiation table. At this time, issues that have less weight are identified and the team strategizes how to use them as leverage over the main issues they need to win (Sherwin). Clarifying the organizations wants provides a platform for identifying the objectives the negotiator needs to go to the negotiating table with. First a list of all the needs that the company anticipates from the negotiation process should be identified. These are precisely the terms and conditions of the negotiation process that the representatives or the negotiating team must adhere to as their guide in the process. These objectives must also not be disclosed to the opponent as they are also their sticking point during the negotiating process (Buell).
List of needs should be well written and documented in a clear manner to avoid any confusion. A need in the negotiation table is part of a deal that the company must have or the deal would not work for them. At times, items on the list may be traded for others. Once the needs are identified, then the wants are listed down. From this perspective, needs are a must win items in any negotiation and wants come second in the list. Wants are items that the company can part with without any major loss of implications from the negotiation table (Sherwin).
3.2 Setting goals in advance
Once the list of wants and needs has been created and details of the items listed described, then goals are set which include specifically all the needs in the list and some of the wants. Needs mark the minimum the organization will accept in the negation also referred to as the bottom line. The wants on the other side can range from ideal requirements to perfect packages which may include some of the wants (Lee & Tabuchi 23). The main goals of any organizations involvement in negotiations is to get their needs met and win many other options as possible and also important is to incur the least costs if fines or penalties are to be paid to the opponents. Goals should be set high but still realistic. Organizations should not be satisfied with less as the negotiation table are unpredictable and the outcomes can turn catastrophic. It is therefore important that the goals set even if all of them may not be attained, the take home should be of high value (Lee, & Tabuchi 24).
3.3 Breaking down items being negotiated
Breaking the items under discussions into smaller pieces help to determine the specific pressure points in a conflict. This makes it easy to identify the specific conflict issues and help in providing solutions based on individual problems than combining them into one large part. When issues are broken into smaller sections, it takes less time to analyze each conflict point and determine specific solution to that particular problem before moving to the others (Cohen, 2015). This makes negotiation processes easy and less time consuming. It also gives the negotiating committee flexibility in exploiting in details every part of a problem to be able to come up with a lasting solution. This is mostly effective when labor trade unions are negotiating salary increment for employees. As much as the actual salary may fail to be increased, other smaller segments within a salary package can be improved making a win for both parties (Sgubini, Alesandra and Merighetto).
3.4 Anticipating opponent’s wants and needs
This involves identifying the actual needs of the other party in a negotiation. This can help in framing the demands to be given as the negotiator already understands the extent the opponent is able to reach. Understanding basic values and organizational culture of a company can provide insight on what the opponent is able to offer and their limit in the offers they can give. This can make the company to give an early decision on whether it is valuable to enter any negotiations with their opponent or to seek other ways to resolve a problem (Malhotra). The main points of the opponents in any negotiation process is their needs. Opponents are willing to sacrifice some of their needs to be able to protect their main interests. It is critical for negotiators to first anticipate the opponents wants and needs in order to get a perfect negotiating range. The best way to know what the opponents in a negotiation process need is by the negotiating team putting themselves in their opponent’s shoes and figuring out what they may be willing to hold on or let go. Negotiating being a give and take game, negotiators can offer the opponents little gain to be able to take advantage and secure a better deal. It is therefore critical that first what the opponents value most is identified to prevent giving out something highly valuable to the company yet the opponent does not value the sacrifice (Lee & Tabuchi 34).
3.5 Putting in place leverage and outlining what can be compromised
In negotiations, opponents are set to lose or gain various issues in the course of the negotiation. It is therefore critical that a business identifies the most important areas and the least important. Negotiators then use the least important areas as leverage for the benefits they want from the negotiation (Maude). It is important to make the opponent to know what the business is willing to give up in order to settle the conflict. This way, the most important items in a negotiation remain intact and safeguarded. Planning is key to this process as it enables the negotiating team to arrange the company needs in a top down design. Most important issues are put on top of the table as top priority that must not be left out while less important issues considered afterwards. The priority in the negotiations should be inclined towards wining in the major issues that have more weight in terms of importance. Less important issues that the company can do without can therefore be used a leverage if the opponents demand some sacrifices to be made. This way, opponents confident on the negotiation process increases as they have proof that the company is willing to negotiate and compromise some issues to the...