FREE ESSAY ON ENHANCE NEGOTIATING POWER

ENHANCE NEGOTIATING POWER

Sean Courtney
PS 301
Paper 2
How do you enhance your negotiating power? Negotiation: Strategies for Mutual Gain, is an
attempt to answer that. Negotiation: Strategies for Mutual Gain, is a collection of key
ideas and process strategies about negotiating and resolving disputes more effectively.
It is about breaking the paradigm of winning and losing and transforming negotiation into
a search for improved solutions to problems. This book is for all people of all careers
and all purposes whether at work, at home, the store or any place were Negotiations ideas
prove useful. In this paper I will outline and summarize the methods and ideas of the
three main parts of the book, which are: Frameworks for Effective Negotiation, Applying
Mutual Gains to Organizations and Perspectives on Individual Negotiators. In part 1,
chapter 1 outlines the authors Fisher and Ury techniques to negotiating; in chapter 2 it
outlines Raiffa's highly analytic approach to negotiating and chapter 3 outlines Straus's
theories. Part 2 themes are how to apply the authors mentioned ideas of problem -solving
frameworks to organizations. In part 3, each of the authors discusses how the issues of
individual style, perception and gender affect the process of negotiation. All of the
authors offer coherent techniques and incisive ideas for readers to integrate into their
own negotiation frameworks (Hall 2). I feel anyone and everyone can use these ideas of
negotiation in their lives and become a better negotiator.
In chapter one of part one it deals with the issue on how you negotiate and prepare to
negotiate. In negotiation the way you negotiate makes all the difference in the world.
Negotiation power is the ability to persuade someone to do something (4). There are many
sources of negotiation power, one is having good BATNA- Best Alternative To a Negotiation
power are people, interests, options and objective criteria.
Developing a good working relationship between parties is excellent source of negotiation
power. If you treat the other side with respect, use two-way communication with good
listening and show you understand each other sides then negotiations are more likely to
be easier and more successful. Good listening can increase your negotiation power by
increasing information you have about the other side's interests or about possible
options (7). If you listen to the other side they are more likely to listen to you. The
better your working relationship the better able each of you is to influence the other.
You can use standards of legitimacy both as a sword to persuade others, and as a shield
to help you resist pressure to give in arbitrarily (9). So a negotiator can enhance his
or her power by finding precedents, principles and other external criteria of fairness
and by thinking of ways to present them forcefully and tellingly (9). If you are able to
convince the other side that you are asking for what is fair, nothing more, nothing less,
you can make a strong argument.
A fundamental way to increase your negotiation power is by improving your walk-way
alternative (BATNA). The stronger your BATNA the stronger your argument and the easier it
is to persuade the other side. Sometimes it is not only possible to strength you BATNA
but to weaken the other side's BATNA in the process. Improving your own BATNA and
weakening theirs is a critical way to obtaining your negotiating power.
One way to enhance your negotiating power is to make a commit on what you will and will
not do. If you make a commit on what you will and will not do it makes it easier on the
other side to commit on an agreement but this will give up your freedom to haggle over
better terms. You must be careful about locking into a position because this stalls
negotiations but there is far less risk if you understand the other sides interests and
have explored the options for joint gains. Finally, clarify what you want them to do, for
this insures both parties understand the agreement thoroughly and the likely hood of
misunderstanding is decreased.
In order to make the most of your negotiating power you should use all your sources of
power in harmony with other sources of power. You will be a more effective negotiator if
you believe in what you are saying and doing.
Chapter Two deals with introducing a third-party intervener to help resolve conflicts in
the negotiation process. There are several types of third-party interventions that can
help parties reach more efficient agreements. (14) A facilitator helps with the logistics
in the proceedings of meetings. A mediator guides or helps people come to a voluntary
agreement. An arbitrator tries to understand the issues on all sides and then imposes an
agreement, as a judge (14). The first category of intervention activities is that
ordinarily undertaken by a facilitator: convening meetings, leading discussions,
preparing neutral minutes and attesting to the good faith of the bargaining procedure
(15). A third partier biggest contribution in an intervention is bringing the two sides
together to negotiate. The second category is those activities that set the ambience:
maintaining the rules of civilized debate, diffusing personality conflicts, and helping
restrain speakers. The third category is the third party's role in the exchange of
information (15). In integrative bargaining, the pie can grow through the exchange of
information and in distributive bargaining the pie is divided up by a fix rate.
A third party while dealing with a distributive bargaining problem can receive
confidential information and determine whether an agreement can be made. Because of this
knowledge a third party representative can urge the parties to keep working with the
agreement and not to give up. Without a third party, information would be kept totally to
the individual party and agreements might never start to form. The third party
representative can urge the parties to keep with it if there is hope for an agreement.
An intervener can employ several intervention mechanisms to improve integrative
bargaining agreements. There are four main mechanisms, which include:
postsettlement-settlement, rules of manipulation, neutral analysis and contingent
contract. A postsettlement- settlement is when parties try to improve on a previous
agreement by having a second negotiation in hopes of finding more joint gains. In another
rules manipulation, the intervener, rather than play the role of a typical mediator or
arbitrator, sets up a dynamic mechanism such as a bidding procedure to resolve the
conflict that would ordinarily be resolved in a different fashion (17). A third method of
intervention mechanisms is neutral analysis. That is the third party is completely
neutral and comes in to analyze the situation. A situation were a neutral analysis can be
used is when a county is worried about the effects of an industrial plants pollution in
the air. Each city has its own interests in the pollution matter and there are many
economic and scientific uncertainties involved. The county or its cities do not have the
resources to conduct its own study so they would bring in the state to give a neutral
analysis.
In a contingent contract, each party agrees to pay a certain sum, with the stipulation
that depending on what happens in the future more or less money will be paid (24). This
is great for agreements were uncertainty of the future market value is present.
These are just some of the techniques used by third party interveners to help parties
resolve disagreements with better joint gains for all. Many of these techniques can be
done without the third party but often it is the case that the intervener is more
knowledgeable about the constructive processes of negotiations.
Chapter Three is Straus's on how collaborative problem solving stresses the value of
inclusivity. Meaning to develop a step-by-step process of resolving problems, rather than
jumping to solutions too quickly. In designing a consensus-based process the first
principle is including all people in position of making decisions into the process. The
second step in designing a consensus is that you agree on what the problem is. The key to
a successful collaborative plan is to first find the causes of the problem before
deciding the solutions. People must feel they are a part of the process that is they own
it and it must be easy for outsiders to join the process and contribute. The process must
also be open and visible to everyone involved. The people involved must be open to
learning new skills so they can teach them later. The consensus-building process allows
solutions to be developed and applied that wouldn't normally be developed under ordinary
conditions.
In general part two is about creating awareness of how different participants perceive
the problem and helping to change locked-in, unproductive habits and applying the
problem-solving frameworks to organizations.
Frank Sanders introduces alternative dispute resolutions mechanisms and the ways in which
they can be further implemented into the court system. He uses three concepts to examine
disputes and their resolution: the dispute pyramid, the process spectrum, and inside-
the- court and outside-the-court mechanisms.
The dispute pyramid is an inverted pyramid (43). At the top of pyramid is perceived
injurious experiences, that is a person feels hurt by someone. The next level is the
person who is responsible for the hurt, hence the grievance. Next is the claim the person
hurt makes against the culprit. The last level is the dispute between the parties. What
is learned from the dispute pyramid is that courts can only resolve a small proportion of
people's perceived injurious experiences.
The process spectrum is another useful tool in examining the dispute resolution process.
(46) As one moves along the spectrum from right to left, third party involvement
increases. At the extreme right end there is avoidance which is comparable with the level
of the dispute pyramid at which a person decides not to voice a claim (46). The most
common form of dispute resolution is bargaining or negotiation. There is increased
third-party involvement in the resolution as you move along the spectrum from negotiation
to mediation and finally to adjudication. There are essentially three types of
adjudication in courts, arbitration, and that in administrative agencies (46).
The key point of the process spectrum is that mediation will attempt to explore the
interests of each disputant and then come up with a resolution that fits the situation. 
Some of the regularly used outside-the-court dispute resolution mechanisms are: labor
arbitration, commercial arbitration, consumer protection mechanisms, internal grievance
mechanisms in prison and hospitals, media complaint mechanisms, private divorce
mediation, and environmental mediation (50). There are at least five reasons why cases do
not settle out of court. One is the parties have different information and facts. Second
is the parties might have the same information but feels it has a better chance to win in
court. The third reason is the client and lawyer do not see the information the same and
the client won't settle. Sometimes the client will settle but the lawyer allows the case
to drag on through. The fourth reason is the defendant feels he has the upper hand and
drags the process to a crawl in order to win better terms. The final reason is people
allow their emotions to get involved and are only out to prove the other wrong.
There are two categories of mechanisms that courts can use to resolve issues and reduce
cases: categorical referral and individual referral. Categorical referral is a mechanism
by which the legislature takes certain categories of cases out of the courts and requires
that an attempt be made to resolve them through other mechanism (52). Court-annexed
arbitration is one of the more common used mechanisms of categorical referral. Some of
the cases required to go through this process include: personal inquiry, malpractice,
consumer, and other money claim cases below a certain dollar amount and are held outside
the courtroom.
Individual referral mechanisms include mediation (sometimes through a special master),
neutral experts, and minitrials and summary jury trials (54). Special masters do three
things: they find facts, supervise the implementation of the decision and resolve complex
multiparty dispute. A neutral expert is used when there is a technical question that is
preventing the resolution of a case (55). Minitrial is an informal trial created by
lawyers who have ran up court fees for years and need a fast resolution. The trial would
essentially be an information exchange between the top officials of each party and would
last for a set period of time which is usually a day. A summary trial is similar to a
minitrial except that there is a mock six-person jury (56).
All of these mechanisms involve taking different components and putting them together in
some creative way to produce a negotiation process. The significance is that they can be
manipulate in a way to fit particular cases; and parties and the new process can best
suit the situation.
Chapter Ten of Part Three deals with role of gender in negotiation and the dilemmas that
women face in negotiating. (149) Kolb develops two themes, the first arguing from
existing feminist literature, describes what a woman's voice in negotiation might sound
like if given the opportunity and setting, women might create an alternative structure
and process in public negotiation(149). The new voice would open up the negotiation
process and be heard loud and clear and greatly differ from the male dominant views of
negotiation. (149) The second theme relates to the typical situation where the voice is
not only hushed but the speaker is open to compromise and exploitation. To the degree
that negotiation signals conflict and competing interests, a situation often at odds with
the voice she speaks, women may experience anxiety and fraudulence in that place. These
feelings compounded by her demeanor and style of communication may impact and sometimes
impair her efficacy at the bargaining table (149). Women need to become better at
expressing their voices and having it recognized for what it is there voice of
negotiation. They need to try a variety of presentation modes and find their own voice at
the table so they can be fully recognized in the negotiation process and add a new
perspective to the negotiation process to benefit all.
All of these mechanisms and negotiation styles list in detail above can help enhance your
negotiating power at the table. Negotiation power is the ability to persuade someone to
do something the way you see fit and having a good BATNA, working relationship, complete
understanding of both sides of the issue and a grasp of how to coordinate your resources
are all great ways of enhancing your negotiating power. Negotiation : Strategies for
Mutual Gain, is a collection of key ideas and process strategies about negotiating and
resolving disputes more efficiently. This book is for all people of all lifestyles and
all purposes whether at work, home or a peace treaty in the Middle East, these methods
can work any place were negotiations ideas prove useful.
Hall,Lavinia. Negotiation:Strategies for Mutual Gain. Sage Publ. New York 1993 p.205