Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

MANAGE CONFLICT THROUGH NEGOTIATION AND MEDIATION
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negotiation or to develop a process determining the percentage of revenues that particular
divisions might lay claim to when revenues exceed 10 million. Overall, evidence seems to
support the relative effectiveness of reconciling parties ’ interests as an appropriate confl ict
resolution method for managers. This conclusion brings us to the topic of negotiation.
NEGOTIATION AS A MANAGERIAL TOOL
FOR RECONCILING INTERESTS
Negotiation is a frequently applied technique for reconciling interests. It may be extremely
useful to managers when their perceived or actual interests are directly in confl ict with
interests of others in the workplace. Others include managers’ employees, their bosses,
and those outside their chain of command, for example the support staff charged with
the operations of various management systems in the organization, for example budget,
human resources, etc. As Lax and Sebenius ( 1986 , p. 2) have noted, “ Negotiation is a useful
skill for important occasions, but it also lies at the core of the manager ’s job. Managers ’
negotiate not only to win contracts but also to guide enterprises in the face of change. ”
Negotiation is defined as “ the situation where parties, with some apparent confl ict,
seek to do better through jointly decided action than they could do otherwise ” (Lax and
Sebenius, 1986 , p. 12). There are essentially two types of negotiation: (1) distributive or
win/lose and (2) collaborative or win/win. The body of research on the nature and effects
of negotiation is quite substantial. Because collaborative negotiation is best used in situations:
(1) where a long - term, rather than a short - term relationship exists, or is envisioned
between parties; (2) when those involved share important values or principles that shape
their goals in the negotiation; and (3) where there are a number of different issues at stake,
such that the likelihood of creating a situation of joint gain is higher, we strongly argue
that this type of negotiation is better than distributive in resolving the kinds of confl ict in
which managers are frequently involved. Thus, in this chapter, we provide a number of
principles about the nature of collaborative negotiation and also generate several recommendations
for enhancing managers ’ negotiation effectiveness.
Negotiation principles and recommendations
Which negotiating styles of behavior tend to enable managers to “ do better through joint
action? ” Work by Fisher, Ury, and Patten (Fisher, Ury, and Patten, 1991) at the Harvard
Negotiation School have found that higher joint gains frequently result from collaborative
negotiation focused on achieving the interests of both parties. Principles of collaborative
negotiation include:
1. Parties ’ should engage in a candid and open exchange of information about both
their interests.
2. Each party should intend to satisfy the other ’ s interests to some degree such that
the focal party ’s (the manager ’s) interests are satisfied to the greatest extent and the
other party ’s interests are satisfi ed at least to an acceptable degree.
3. Both parties should be creative in identifying many possible options that might satisfy
the other party ’ s interests.
4. Parties should rely on external standards, facts, or criteria to resolve disputes over the
value of various options (e.g. the use of the Blue Book to determine used car values).