Negotiation and Conflict Flashcards
What is Conflict?
A process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about.
Functional: Supports the goals of the group and improves its performance
Dysfunctional: Hinders group performance.
Cognitive vs. Affective Conflict
→ Cognitive: Conflict related to differences in perspectives and judgments.
○ Task or process oriented
○ Results in identifying differences
○ Usually functional conflict
→ Affective: Emotional conflict aimed at a person rather than an issue (personality conflict
○ Dysfunctional conflict
Types of Conflict
Relationship Conflict: Disagreements based on personalities and issues that are not directly related to work
Task Conflict: Disagreements about the work that is being done in a group
Process Conflict: Disagreements about task strategies and delegation of duties and rescources
Antecedent conditions for conflict
- Differing goals
- Communication barriers
- Dependence of one party
- Ambiguous jurisdiction
- Differentiation in organization
- Association of parties
- Need for consensus
- Behavior regulations
- Unresolved prior conflicts
Conflict Resolution Approaches
Concern for other: The degree to which one party attempts to satisfy the other party’s concerns.
Concern for self: The degree to which one party attempts to satisfy his or her own concerns.
Resolving Conflict
→ Agree on a common goal or shared vision
→ Focus on the content, not the style (of
other)
→ Model the behavior you want to elicit
○ Ex. use of descriptive instead of evaluate statements
→ Separate the people from the problem
→ Focus on the future, not the past
Third Party Conflict Resolution
→ Facilitator: Generally acquainted with both parties, working with both sides to reach an agreement.
→ Conciliator: Trusted third party who provides an informal communication link between the negotiator and the opponent.
○ Informal link
○ Used extensively in international, labour, family, and community disputes
○ Fact-find, interpret messages, persuade disputants to develop agreements
→ Ombudsperson: An impartial party, widely respected, and trusted.
→ Peer Review: A panel of peers who have been put together to hear both sides of the issue from the parties involved and to recommend a solution.
→ Mediator: A neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated solution by using reasoning, persuasion, and suggestions for alternatives.
○ Labour-management negotiations and civil court disputes
○ Settlement rate is about 60 percent; satisfaction rate is about 75 percent
○ Participants must be motivated to bargain and settle
○ Best under moderate levels of conflict
○ Mediator must appear neutral and non-coercive
→ Arbitrator: has authority to dictate an agreement.
○ Voluntary (requested) or compulsory (imposed by law or contract)
○ Always results in a settlement
May result in further conflict
Desired Conflict Outcomes
Agreement: Equitable and fair agreements are the best outcomes
Stronger relationships: When conflict is resolved positively, this can lead to better relationships and greater trust.
Learning: Handling conflict successfully teaches one how to do it better next time
What is Negotiation?
→ Negotiation: Negotiation is a process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching a joint decision
→ The work of negotiation is to:
○ Identify possible agreements
○ Estimate the desirability of outcomes to all parties
○ Understand the other parties
○ Communicate and persuade
Negotiation Concepts
BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement): the point at which you are willing to walk away from the negotiating table.
Target or aspiration point: Your ideal outcome
Reservation point: The point beyond which you will not accept a deal and will turn to your BATNA
Bargaining Zone: the range between the buyer’s high and the seller’s low prices
Distributive Bargaining
→ One-issue negotiations become competitive situation:
○ If one party wins, the other loses
○ Examples are negotiating the sale of a house, a car, or a company
○ Good negotiators turn what appear to be one issue situations into multiple issue situations
→ Not just a particular type of negotiation: it is potentially an element of every negotiation
○ Even in integrative situations, the time comes when one needs to apportion the benefits (or the costs)
→ In distributive bargaining, parties are in a “win-lose” situation
○ Single Issue with conflicting goals = Fixed Pie
○ Competitive; Task is to claim value and maximize own gains
Even in distributive bargaining, repeated interactions, or reputational effects, reduce incentives to defect and exploit
Integrative Bargaining
→ In integrative bargaining, there is more than one issue
→ The parties have different preferences across bargaining issues
→ The best way to create joint value is by being open and straightforward about the parties’ preferences and the intensity thereof
→ Value is created by generating options and by exploiting creatively various differences among the parties
Create value by expanding the pie and then claim value
Preparing for Negotiations
→ Consider the structural features of the negotiation (how many issues, how many parties, internal structure of the parties, etc.)
○ What kind of negotiation is this likely to be? Adjust your tactics accordingly
→ Consider your interests. Why are you entering in this negotiation? (ex. peel)
→ Determine your alternatives (what you would do if the negotiation fails) and BATNA
○ Work to Improve your BATNA, if possible
→ Based on your BATNA, determine your resistance point
→ Assess the relative value of multiple options
→ Write all of these down. Make them concrete and refer to them throughout
the negotiation
→ Seek to understand the other party’s interests
→ Look at the problem from their perspective
→ Come up with your best estimate of the other party’s BATNA
Be aware of focal points and of their potential anchoring effects
Fisher and Ury’s 4 Principles
Separate the people from the problem
Focus on interests rather than positions
Generate a variety of options before settling on an agreement
Insist that the agreement be based on objective criteria
