Negotiation Strategy and Planning

COM 312 Ch. 4 Notes

Negotiation: Strategy and Planning

Goals – The Focus that Drives a Negotiation Strategy

1. Consequences of failed planning
   1. Negotiators fail to set clear goals
   2. Negotiators fail to set clear objectives or targets that serve as benchmarks for evaluating offers and packages in progressing toward their goal
   3. If negotiators have not done their homework, they may not understand the strengths and weaknesses of their own positions or recognize comparable strengths and weaknesses in the other party’s arguments
   4. Negotiators need to consider their alternatives to doing the deal in front of them
   5. Negotiators cannot simply depend on being quick and clever during the give-and-take of negotiation

   Direct Effects of Goals on Choice of Strategy

   1. First step in developing and executing a negotiation strategy is to determine one’s goals

   Indirect Effects of Goals on Choice of Strategy

   1. There are four ways that goals affect negotiation
      1. A goal is a specific, focused target that one can realistically develop a plan to achieve
      2. Linkage between two parties’ goals defines an issue to be settled and is often the source of conflict
      3. There are boundaries or limits to what “realistic” goals can be
      4. Effective goals must be concrete, specific, and measurable
   2. Goals can also be intangible or procedural

   Strategy – The Overall Plan to Achieve One’s Goals

   1. Simple and direct goals can often be attained in a single negotiation session and with a simple negotiating strategy
   2. Other negotioation goals – particularly ones that are more difficult or require a substantial change in the other party’s attitude – may require you to develop a long-range plan for goal attainment

   Strategy versus Tactics

   1. After negotiations articulate goals, they move to the second element in the sequence: selecting and developing a strategy

   Unilateral versus Bilateral Approaches to Strategy

   1. One major difference is that of scale, prospective, or immediacy
   2. Tactics are short-term, adaptive moves designed to enact or pursue broad strategies, which in turn provide stability, continuity, and direction for tactical behaviors
   3. Appropriate tactics include describing your interests, using open-ended questions and active listening to understand the others’ interests, and inventing options for mutual gain

   The Dual concerns Model as a Vehicle for Describing Negotiation Strategies

   1. A unilateral choice is one that is made without the active involvement of the other party
   2. Any reasonable strategy should also include processes for gaining information about the other party, and incorporating that information into the modification of a negotiation strategy is always useful

   Alternative Situational Strategies

   1. A negotiator’s unilateral choice of strategy is reflected in the ansers to two simple questions
      1. How much concern does the actor have for achieving the substantive outcomes at stake in this negotiation
      2. How much concern does the negotiator have for the current and future quality of the relationship with the other party

   The Nonengagement Strategy: Avoidance

   1. The power of this model lies in requiring the negotiator to determine the relative importance and priority of the two dimensions in the desired settlement

   Active-Engagement Strategies: Accommodation, Competition, and Collaboration

   1. Avoidance may serve a number of strategic negotiation purposes
      1. If one is able to meet one’s needs without negotiating at all, it may make sense to use an avoidance strategy
      2. It simply may not be worth the time and effort to negotiate
      3. The decision to negotiate is closely related to the attractiveness of available alternatives

   Understanding the Flow of Negotiations: Stages and Phases

   1. Competition is described as distributive win-lose bargaining and collaboration as integrative or win-win negotiation
   2. Accommodation is a win-lose strategy
      1. It involves an imbalance of outcomes
      2. I lose, you win

   Getting Ready to Implement the Strategy” The Planning Process

   1. Phase research typically addresses three types of questions
      1. How does the interaction parties change over time?
      2. How do the interaction processes relate to inputs and outcomes over time?
      3. How do the tactics used by the parties affect the development of the negotiation
   2. There are seven key steps to an ideal negotiation process
      1. Preparation
      2. Relationship building
      3. Information gathering
      4. Information using
      5. Bidding
      6. Closing the deal