Negotiation Strategies And Tactics: A Case Study Of The Chocolate Factory

Discussion

Negotiation could easily be identified as a process where it could be seen that two or more parties with dissimilar objectives and goals discuss an issue to get a mutually acceptable and satisfactory solution to the identified problem (Steele & Beasor, 2017). It could be identified that negotiation holds the ultimate ability to get ahead in the workplace. Apart from that, it could also be identified that negotiation helps in resolving conflicts and generating value in contracts. When disagreements ascend in business, with the implementation of negotiation strategies, conflicts can be avoided or overcome so that the entire business can be saved from dissolving (S?vescu, 2019). Based on this observation, the importance of negotiation and conflict resolution could be simply identified.

This essay will primarily focus on the case study of The Chocolate Factory that has been provided. It will analyse the negotiation that took place between the chocolate factory’s management team and the labour union of the factory regarding the new enterprise agreement. The four phases of the negotiation, which include preparation, persuasion, compromise and finalisation, will be discussed in detail. The discussion will enable the readers with the understanding of the negotiation strategies and tactics implemented by both sides. Lastly, it will help the readers to introspect on the viability of the negotiation strategies used depending on the outcome of the implemented negotiation.

The negotiation that has taken place between the management of the chocolate factory and the labour union of the factory could be divided into a different phases. The very first that could be identified is to prepare the entire negotiation. Both sides present their objectives, analyse and investigate all the relevant issues which will be implemented to strategise their tactics. It also includes the factors that the opposite party has to defend. For that, generally, the opposition party comes up with pop-up statements or relevant disputes if they are not happy with the proposal (Wilkinson, 2013). Based on the case study, it could be realised that the management team of the chocolate factory has done very limited industry and market research. They have only found certain issues, which includes work training and minimising labor cost to invest in a new product development and marketing. However, on the other hand, it could be identified, quite the opposite to the management team, the union has done thorough research and ground work of the market. They have reviewed the financial data and other services in order to make sure that the employee’s concerns where properly addressed during the time of the negotiation.

Conclusion

Based on the survey that was conducted, the union members were able to identify or highlight two significant issues. The two issues comprise of increased wages along with occupational health and safety. Apart from that, the union members were also able to create a strong argument where it was stated that the starting point will be 4.5%. The target point will be 3.5% and finally, the resistance point will be 3% (Case Study). It is also getting important to mention that the union was able to create a communication plan for the employees through which they will be able to present their objectives and wants to the management team of the chocolate factory. According to Tofan (2018), effective communication could be considered as equivalent to an effective negotiation. It has already been identified that better the communication is the better the negotiation would be.

The phase two of negotiation which is known as opening consist of several factors. It starts with initiating contact and post that understanding the priorities, determining the priorities and push that developing and expand on the common agenda. Other factors include identifying and locating common interests and accordingly managing the expectations. These Are some of the important factors that get considered in this specific phase (Dygert & Barrett 2016). In relevance to the case study, it could be seen that the union stated a 4.5 wage increase which was countered by 1.5% wage increase by the management team of the chocolate factory (Case Study). It could be identified that both sides have implemented a different variety of integrative and distributive tactics for the negotiation purpose. Both sides had their unique style of representation of their claims. It could be identified that the union team was implementing the distributive highball tactic, and in answer to that, the management team responded with a distributive lowball tactic.

To be specific, Distributive Negotiation is the negotiation strategy where it could be seen that there is a fixed number of resources are divided between the parties (Brett & Thompson, 2016). Whereas on the other hand, Integrative Negotiation could be seen as the type of negotiation where it could be seen that mutual problem-solving technique gets implemented in order to enlarge the assets that are to be divided between parties (Benetti & Ogliastri, 2019). However, it needs to be highlighted that the implementation of both the tactics was a complete failure as they were not able to come to an agreement. Another important factor that could be highlighted is that the management team arrived at the meeting ten minutes late, which implies that they were not taking the meeting seriously under any circumstances.

The management team of the chocolate factory handed out graphs and surveys regarding the company to the union members as they wanted to make them understand that a 4.5% wage increase it is not possible. The ground that they have placed is that the consumers has become health-conscious and therefore intake of sugary substances has reduced. Also, a 4.5 annual wage increase will not be possible for the company based on their current figures. Here it could be realised that the management team skillfully implemented an appropriate communication technique which is projection and empathy that helped them to get control over the situation. Kelly & Kaminskien? (2016) states that in a process of negotiation empathy should be considered as the most important asset. The management team has implemented this empathy technique in negotiation so that the union members understand their perspective.

Implementation of Empathy in a negotiation enables both the parties to understand each other’s perspective and based on that they are able to carry on with the negotiation in a way which will prove to be extremely beneficial for both the parties present in the negotiation states that in a process of negotiation empathy should be considered as the most important asset. The management team has implemented this empathy technique in negotiation so that the union members understand their perspectives. Implementation of Empathy in a negotiation enables both the parties to understand each other’s perspective and based on that they are able to carry on with the negotiation in a way which will prove to be extremely beneficial for both the parties present in the negotiation.

In the end it could be seen that both the parties were feeling optimistic about the direction of the negotiation as there were certain factors implemented by both the sides. The concession strategy could be identified as a plan for reaching a point where there is a win-win settlement (Zohar, 2015). It implies that both the parties are happy with the negotiation results as it has been able to satisfy the goals and interests of both the parties. This gets accomplished by the process of give-and-take and also sometimes been referred to as a trading plan. The implementation of the same has been Beneficial for both the parties since it could be seen that with this implementation, the union members and the management team of the chocolate factory came to a common ground.

Conclusion

On a concluding note, based on the discussion that has been presented, it could be realised that without the implementation of the negotiation strategies, it would have been nearly impossible for the chocolate factory’s management to continue with their business. Adding to that, major employee dissatisfaction would have led to a complete shutdown of the factory, which would also have hampered the workers. Based on this observation, the importance of conflict resolution could be realised. Therefore, the paper was able to conclude that a successful negotiation does not require two parties to fight, on the contrary, it includes implementing the appropriate technique of communication which are projection and empathy. It also implements tactics such as concessions in order to persuade the opposite side in the negotiation. Lastly, the paper has been able to present all the relevant analyses and discussions regarding the case study. All the discussion that has been presented are properly backed with the relevant source of information which again makes this paper a reliable literature for further studies in the relevant area.

References

Benetti, S., & Ogliastri, E. (2019, July). Distributive/integrative negotiation strategies in international contexts: a comparative study. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2019, No. 1, p. 17660). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Brett, J., & Thompson, L. (2016). Negotiation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136, 68-79.

Dygert, C., & Barrett, H. (2016). Building your licensing and negotiation skills toolkit. The Serials Librarian, 70(1-4), 333-342.

Kelly, E. J., & Kaminskien?, N. (2016). Importance of emotional intelligence in negotiation and mediation. International Comparative Jurisprudence, 2(1), 55-60.

S?vescu, D. (2019, May). Some aspects regarding negotiation in business. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 514, No. 1, p. 012042). IOP Publishing.

Steele, P. T., & Beasor, T. (2017). Business negotiation: A practical workbook. Routledge.

Tofan, C. A. (2018). Importance of Communication in Negotiation Process. Issues in Economics and Business, 4(2), 27-37.

Wilkinson, J. (2013). Negotiations: How to Achieve Win?Win Outcomes (The Financial Times Essential Guide to Negotiations). Industrial and Commercial Training.

Zohar, I. (2015). “The art of negotiation” leadership skills required for negotiation in time of crisis. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 209, 540-548.