Mini-Case - Reaching a Win-Win Solution

The advantage of an integrative negotiation is that the goal is to end up with a win-win resolution. It is to be hoped that both parties will leave the negotiation feeling satisfied with the agreement. This is not always a simple process, and both parties need to be willing to work together to reach a winning solution. This week, you will have the opportunity to consider the give and take required in such a negotiation.

Consider the following scenario:

The department you manage is currently understaffed, due to recent budget cuts. There are several major projects under way, but without additional support staff, the members of your work team are overburdened and are forced to perform minor but necessary tasks. Three months ago, an intern was hired by your department to help with the overload, and since this time, the intern has performed very well. As a result, everyone is now trying to commandeer this individual to support their various functions. This intern was initially brought in to help run an ancillary program that Ben, one of your team members, is heading. He now finds himself at odds with Jocelyn, another team member, who keeps funneling her work to the intern.

Yesterday, you overheard Ben and Jocelyn conversing in the hall. She said that she has already scheduled the intern at three different local companies over the next two weeks to conduct best-practice reviews related to her work functions. She estimates that this project will consume 6 days of time over the next 2 weeks. Ben has had enough and comes to you to help resolve the issue.

1. Briefly describe the situation as you see it and the type of negotiation that you would propose to ensure a successful outcome and why. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages?

2. Using information from this week's readings and Learning Resources, how would you determine the underlying interests of the parties? How will you ensure that you have identified the true interests? What effect will it have on the negotiation process if you do not accurately identify these interests?

3. Using Figure 3.2 in your Negotiations text, identify which quadrant this negotiation would fall into and explain why.

4. Explain how you would work through each of the four major steps described in your Essentials of Negotiation text.

5. Using Table 3.1 in your Negotiation text, discuss what types of questions you could use to refocus the situation into a win-win situation. In your assessment, what would a win-win solution look like? Based on research in the Walden University Library, are there ever circumstances where a win-win negotiation would not be appropriate to use? Explain on your answer.

6. Describe an example from your own experience where a particular type of negotiation was used to achieve an outcome. Briefly discuss the type of negotiation that took place and describe how the concepts you learned in this week contributed to making the outcome successful or conversely how the concepts from the week might have been applied so that the outcome could have been better.