Negotiation Strategy Article Analysist Paper

Negotiation is a process by which two or more parties, each with its own goals and perspective, coordinate areas of interest through concession and comprise to reach an agreement and take joint decisions about areas of common concern in a situation in which neither side has nor wants to use complete power. “we know that lawyers and car salespeople spend lots of time negotiating, but so do managers. Managers have to negotiate salaries for incoming employees, cut deals with superiors, bargain over budget, work out differences with associates, and resolve conflicts with subordinates.
Negotiating is something that every one engages in almost every day and most of the time without even realizing it. . Negotiation occurs when two or more conflicting parties attempt to resolve their divergent goals by redefining the terms of their interdependence (Pruit and Carnevale 1993) Some researchers have suggested that in negotiations, collaborative style is the most effective, but the truth is that it may be too overbearing for the negotiations (Brett, 1984). While collaborating, one is most often to share all the information to arrive at a satisfactory solution.
However, information is rarely shared until trust is established. As a result, negotiators adopt a cautiously collaborative style in the beginning, slowly trying to find out whether the other party will share the information that it knows. This also helps build trust (Fells, 1993). If trust is not established, negotiators shift to the win-lose style of negotiation from the win-win style, there by trying to maximize their returns. The success for negotiation depends on the bargaining technique used by both the parties involved. There are basically two major types of strategies.

The first one is the distributive bargaining. The most distinctive feature of distributive bargaining is that it operates under a zero-sum game, that is, the gain made by one person is the loss incurred by other person. Each person involved in the negotiation defines the ultimate point where the settlement will be made, Then there is a resistance point that marks the least settlement that is acceptable. The negotiator generally settles in the area between these resistance points, which tends to overlap. The second strategy is integrative bargaining.
The characteristics feature of integrative bargaining is that it relies on a win-win and therefore, uses a collaborative model of conflict resolution. Both the parties involved in the negotiation process jointly look at the problem, try to search for alternatives and try to evaluate them and arrive at a mutually acceptable decision or solution. If the process is successful, it results in satisfaction and positive-long relationship. In this paper we have analyzed the case of United Parcel services. United Parcel Service is one of the messagengerial companies in USA.
The company was founded the year the world’s largest global provider of package delivery. It has created its good name so far as logistic and the transportation services are concerned. So far as the workforce of the company is concerned, their work forces are young. It is because the company employs the part time activities. The young people generally prefer to join in the company as stop gap arrangement. The workforce of the company is also very large. The company part time workers constitute one of the major constituent of the total.
There are around 2, 00,000 part workers in the company working all over the country day and night. They generally work for 27-28 hours in a week. These part time workers had number of problems. Their working condition was not satisfactory. The remuneration was not adequate they will not get the facility which the permanent workers were getting. So, all these factors lead to the dissatisfaction among the employees. The labor union wanted to take this problem to their hand. So the union decided to fight for this issue. The union decided there will be strike in the company.
There were a public support from outside the union, who decided to go for it. This was intimated to every one through e-mail. The union demanded full hiring and also demanded other benefits what the full employees are getting from the company. The union came with list of demands. The reasons were mentioned why they are going on strike. Both parties agreed for the negotiation. In the beginning, the company studied the present status of the part time workers. The data was collected to know the disparities between the full time workers and the part time workers.
They went for comparison between the part time workers and the full time workers. All the issues were discussed in detail regarding salaries, retirement benefits and the opportunities for full employment. The demand was basically for full time job and the job security in future. Finally the agreement was made. Many of the demand were accepted by the company for the benefits of the company as well as the benefit of the employee. More than ten thousand jobs were regularized. The part time jobs were converted to full time occupation at UPS. Ten thousand job positions are now available to non union members.
The part salary increased. The disparities between the part worker wage rate and the full time workers got reduced. Measures were taken to improve the working condition of the employees. There was replacement of the older car fleets with power steering features and additional ventilations. The incentives were also given to the workers who went for extra time. The leave system liberalized. There was relaxation of leaves. The expansion of maternity and the paternity leaves were extended for the employees. The company made huge amount of losses for this strike.
If we compare the situation with the strategy we have the combination of both the strategy. In case of distributive bargaining strategy the negotiator tries to be both helpful and rude to the other party alternatively. In this case the negotiator may initially be abusive and threaten to walk out, and suddenly, later, takes, on an affectionate and helpful behavior, thus affecting the attitude of the other party until the other party decides to give in and lose. In case of integrative bargaining while negotiating, individual personalities with his or her egis should not take precedence over the objectives or the interest involved.
The dynamics of interpersonal relationship between the people involved in the negotiation process should not take priority over the main issues. Negotiators should try to work on mutually acceptable solutions rather than trying to let each other down while negotiating. The negotiating parties should focus on some standards evolved at the negotiation table in the form of some rule and law. This will help the parties to focus on objectivity rather than the desires of the parties involved. By using objective criteria, neither party has to give in to the other, not must both the parties defer to a fair solution (Fisher and Ury, 1991 )