Negotiation and Conflict Management

Negotiation and Conflict
Management
Lecture 1
Negotiation is something that everyone does,
Almost daily!!!!!
Describe any personal, social, professional or academic contexts in
which you have recently negotiated.
What was it that made you define the activity as a negotiation? What
occurred that made you view it as one?
Negotiations occur for several reasons:
• To agree on how to share or divide a limited resource
• To create something new that neither party could attain on his or her
own
• To resolve a problem or dispute between the parties

Misuderstanding the process by not knowing
people are negotiating
Most people think bargaining and negotiation mean the same thing;
However,
• Bargaining: describes the competitive, win-lose situation
• Negotiation: refers to win-win situations such as those that occur

when parties try to find a mutually acceptable solution to a complex
conflict
Give and take at heart of negotiation
What about the pre negotiation process? The complexity …..
Experience as negotiators
The data/ facts

Three Basic Themes
1. The definition of negotiation and the basic characteristics of
negotiation situations
2. Interdependence, the relationship between people and groups that

most often leads them to negotiate
3. Understanding the dynamics of conflict and conflict management

processes which serve as a backdrop for different ways that people
approach and manage negotiations
Lets look at the situation !!!!
Hiring somebody to develop your website
Characteristics of a Negotiation Situation
• There are two or more parties- what about this situation?
• There is a conflict of needs and desires between two or more parties-

where is that?
• Parties negotiate because they think they can get a better deal than
by simply accepting what the other side offers them- so its by choice?
• Parties expect a “give and take” process- modifying?compromising?

always?
• Parties search for agreement rather than:
• Fight openly
• Capitulate
• Break off contact permanently
• Take their dispute to a third party
What about the situation we looked at?
• Successful negotiation involves:

• Management of tangibles (e.g., the price or the terms of agreement)
• Resolution of intangibles (the underlying psychological motivations) such as
winning, losing, saving face – ENORMOUS INFLUENCE ON NEGOTIATION
Interdependence
• Interdependent parties are characterized by interlocking goals- how,
why, example? – must or choose to work together. How this is
different from independent and dependent parties?
• Having interdependent goals does not mean that everyone wants or

needs exactly the same thing
• A mix of convergent and conflicting goals characterizes many

interdependent relationships
Types of Interdependence Affect Outcomes
• Interdependence and the structure of the situation shape processes
and outcomes
• Zero-sum or distributive – one winner - Example: race?
• Non-zero-sum or integrative – mutual gains situation. Example: ??
You are selling your car. You ask a friend to come over and “act”
interested in front of potential buyers. What are you doing
Alternatives Shape Interdependence
• Evaluating interdependence depends heavily on the alternatives to
working together
• The desirability to work together is better for outcomes
• Best available alternative: BATNA (acronym for Best Alternative to a

Negotiated Agreement) – job offers? Any other example?
Mutual Adjustment
• Continues throughout the negotiation as both parties act to influence
the other- how? Information about the other party?
• One of the key causes of the changes that occur during a negotiation-
what changes?
• The effective negotiator needs to understand how people will adjust

and readjust and how the negotiations might twist and turn, based on
one’s own moves and the other’s responses
Mutual Adjustment and Concession Making
• When one party agrees to make a change in his/her position, a
concession has been made
• Concessions restrict the range of options
• When a concession is made, the bargaining range is further

constrained
Examples?
Example
• Jessica wants a starting salary of $60K
• She scales her request down to $55K because she thinks she won’t
get $60k
• Before making a concession she must be sure she won’t be offered
$60K+
• If she makes the concession to $55K she limits all offers above $55K
so the bargaining range is constrained.
Two Dilemmas in Mutual Adjustment
• Dilemma of honesty
• Concern about how much of the truth to tell the other party
• Dilemma of trust
• Concern about how much negotiators should believe what the other party
tells them
On a lighter Note
At the end of job interview, the recruiter asked the enthusiastic MBA
student: “And what starting salary are you looking for?”
The MBA candidate said “125,000 pkr”
The recruiter said “ well what would you say to a package of five weeks
vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical, dental coverege, car lease and
retirement fund?”
The MBA candidate got excited “wow, are you kidding me?”
“of course”, said the recruiter, “But you started it”
But what it tells you?
Value Claiming and Value Creation
• Opportunities to “win” or share resources
• Claiming value: result of zero-sum or distributive situations where the object

is to gain largest piece of resource
• Creating value: result of non-zero-sum or integrative situation where object is

to have both parties do well
• Most actual negotiations are a combination of claiming and creating
value processes
• Negotiators must be able to recognize situations that require more of one
approach than the other- what is this?
• Negotiators must be versatile in their comfort and use of both major strategic
approaches – no preferred, right way? What does that mean?
• Negotiator perceptions of situations tend to be biased toward seeing

problems as more distributive/ competitive than they really are – past
experiences, personality, moods, habits, beliefs etc
Value differences that exist between negotiators include:
• Differences in interest – example- salary negotiations?

• Differences in judgments about the future – property sales?
• Differences in risk tolerance – young vs family man
• Differences in time preferences- quick gains (car sales) vs future
gain(investing in budding real estate)
CONFLICT
Conflict may be defined as a:
"sharp disagreement or opposition" and includes "the perceived
divergence of interest, or a belief that the parties' current aspirations
cannot be achieved simultaneously"
• Intrapersonal or intrapsychic conflict
• Conflict that occurs within an individual
• We want an ice cream cone badly, but we know that ice cream is very fattening
• Interpersonal conflict
• Conflict is between individuals
• Conflict between bosses and subordinates, spouses, siblings, roommates, etc.
• Intragroup Conflict
• Conflict is within a group
• Among team and committee members, within families, classes
etc.
• Intergroup Conflict
• Conflict can occur between organizations, warring nations, feuding families,
or within splintered, fragmented communities
• These negotiations are the most complex because of large number of
individuals / parties involved
Functional Conflict
1. Makes organizational members more aware and able to cope with problems
through discussion.
2. Promises organizational change and adaptation – current practices are challenged
3. Strengthens relationships and heightens morale- through discussion and
compromise
4. Promotes awareness of self and others – fact finding exercise
5. Enhances personal development- skill development (listening, speaking, problem
solving)
6. Encourages psychological development—it helps people become more accurate
and realistic in their self-appraisals- less egoistic and more compromising
7. Can be stimulating and fun.
Dysfunctional Conflict
1. Competitive, win-lose goals
2. Misperception and bias- supporting own thoughts and disregarding
opposite view
3. Emotionality- destroys clraity of thought
4. Decreased communication between parties who don’t agree with you
5. Blurred issues- generalisations, fixation
6. Rigid commitments- locked in status quo
7. Magnified differences, minimized similarities- distorted vision
8. Escalation of conflict- one leads to another
Dual Concerns Model
Styles of Conflict Management
1 Contending (competing/dominating)
• Actors pursue own outcomes strongly, show little concern for other party obtaining
their desired outcomes- actions include threats, punishment, intimidation etc
2 Yielding (accomodating/obliging)
• Actors show little interest in whether they attain own outcomes, are quite interested
in whether the other party attains their outcomes
3 Inaction (avoiding)
• Actors show little interest in whether they attain own outcomes, little concern about
whether the other party obtains their outcomes
4 Problem solving (collaborating/ integrating)
• Actors show high concern in obtaining own outcomes, as well as high concern
for the other party obtaining their outcomes- actively pursuing outcomes/
solutions
5 Compromising
• Actors show moderate concern in obtaining own outcomes, as well as
moderate concern for the other party obtaining their outcomes- half hearted
problem solving actions
Matthew Hunter

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Negotiation and Conflict

• To agree on how to share or divide a limited resource

• To resolve a problem or dispute between the parties

• Bargaining: describes the competitive, win-lose situation

• Negotiation: refers to win-win situations such as those that occur

What about the pre negotiation process? The complexity …..

The data/ facts

2. Interdependence, the relationship between people and groups that

3. Understanding the dynamics of conflict and conflict management

• There is a conflict of needs and desires between two or more parties-

• Parties expect a “give and take” process- modifying?compromising?

• Successful negotiation involves:

• Having interdependent goals does not mean that everyone wants or

• A mix of convergent and conflicting goals characterizes many

• The desirability to work together is better for outcomes

• Best available alternative: BATNA (acronym for Best Alternative to a

• The effective negotiator needs to understand how people will adjust

• Concessions restrict the range of options

• When a concession is made, the bargaining range is further

• Claiming value: result of zero-sum or distributive situations where the object

• Creating value: result of non-zero-sum or integrative situation where object is

• Negotiator perceptions of situations tend to be biased toward seeing

• Differences in interest – example- salary negotiations?

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