Scenario Summary:

A supervisor in a large accounting firm is scheduled to interview a job candidate who comes highly recommended and has excellent qualifications. Jim has an accounting degree (bachelors) from a prestigious Ivy League school and has been working on his MBA by attending an online program for the last 18 months and is close to earning his degree. In addition he has been working for one of your competitors for several years and has excellent references attesting to his ability. Your payroll budget has recently been reduced significantly as a result of a declining client base and your manager has the final authority in establishing salaries for the new hires but generally is responsive to what his supervisor's propose to a job candidate. In addition, the HR Director has published salary ranges for new hires that are to be adhered to, unless there are extenuating circumstances such as the candidate having special expertise, the ability to bring in additional clients, or excellent credentials including having the CPA certification.

Your Role/Assignment:

Your role is to determine whether distributive or integrative negotiations will be preferred in this scenario between the job applicant and the supervisor, and respond to the questions regarding the other parties who have an interest in hiring the job applicant. You must apply course concepts in your answers.

Use the worksheet to answer the questions related to this scenario.

Questions:

What is the appropriate negotiation strategy that would be most advantageous for Sharon and Jim in this scenario, distributive or integrative bargaining? List and describe the factors that should be considered in making this determination?

What are HR's interests in this scenario, and what would be the potential negotiation strategy between the Accounting Manager and HR assuming that there is a decision that the published salary range for attracting Jim will have to be exceeded in order to hire him?