Negotiation in Business

Negotiation

Negotiation is the process of two individuals or groups reaching joint agreement about differing needs or ideas. Oliver (1996) described negotiation as "negotiators jointly searching a multidimensional space and then agreeing to a single point in the space." Negotiation is a form of conflict resolution. When we negotiate, the first thing that needs to be established is whether we have two or more parties that have a common objective, but also differ in ideas when it comes to how they achieve the objective. The principle behind negotiating is to finding the middle ground that is suitable for both parties involved. Not all negotiation ends in satisfactory compromise, sometimes negotiations can take a long time to conclude because, there is no common ground, or no one is willing to compromise. When this happens we have what is called a standoff, and this can lead to an argument and in many cases "NO DEAL".

There are two main ways negotiations can be approached, cooperative or competitive. The cooperative approach to negotiating, calls for expertise in tolerance, each party must be willing to listen. All goals and priorities of both parties must be regarded equally important by all parties involved in order for there to be a "win-win" outcome. The Art of Negotiation, published by Gerard I. Nierenberg, states that the attitude of the negotiators decides the path a negotiation will take. Nierenberg's belief that "Everybody Wins" guarantees that all parties benefit from the negotiations, as opposed to the competitive approach. For example: a potential car buyer goes to a car lot to look at possible cars to buy, while on site, a relationship is developed with the sales person. During this time of selling the sales...

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...ways want to make sure all parties included clearly understands the terms of the agreements, and those terms are documented. And finally you always want to recap after the negotiation is final to monitor that the outcome is in line with what was agreed upon and also to learn where adjustments for future negotiations can be made.

References

Dictionary definition of negotiation. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2004, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Oliver, Jim R. (1996). "A Machine Learning Approach to Automated Negotiation and Prospects for Electronic Commerce." http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/-oliver27/papers/jmis.ps. July 31, 1996.

Gerard I. Nierenberg, The Art of Negotiating: Psychological strategies for Gaining Advantageous Bargains, Barnes and Noble, (1995),