Reflective writing on negotiation in the workplace agreement
Section A
In this essay, I will elaborate on the team member’s position to play the role of a management team negotiator for a company that manufactures chocolate and is owned by a private farm. I will explain how they used Mc Graw’s( prepare, persuade, and compromise )and Armstrong’s (prepare, open .Bargain, and close ) negotiation framework to bargain in an enterprise. I will also put forward how they could bargain a flexible agreement on the integrative and distributive enterprise and explain how the entire team formulated SMART objectives for wages, parental leave, redundancy pay, and personal leave. I will reflect on the various communication strategies and the specific power elements between both parties. Lastly, I will give a report on how the team union and the management settled on an agreement bearing in mind that they had two weeks to finalize everything.
The first part of any bargaining is the planning process. Planning involves a fair investigation and evaluation of what all the parties, including the CEO, the board members, and the employees, want. They formulated a structure of negotiation on time and place. Furthermore, planning includes coming up with arguments by incorporating figures and facts to push specific agendas. By reference to the union’s claims, they were able to determine the union’s position in wages, leave, and occupational health and safety. However, their response to each of the union’s claims required to be SMART that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time framed. They used BATNA, WATNA, and ZOPA to get their position on wages, parental leave, and redundancy. The first aspect that came up was for a 6% increase in wages. In preparation for the wage bargaining, the management team agreed that BATNA would have 3%, WATNA by 4%, and ZOPA to be approximately 2.5 % increase annually. The estimation was done based on an analysis of the Australian consumer price index, its profitability, productivity of the workplace, and employee skills evaluation.
However, in real-life bargaining, both the union and the management teams will have to conduct their specific internal issues and analysis through questionnaires and surveys to get the main problems concerning their members’ views. Appropriate analysis and data need the two type of data collection, quantitative and qualitative analysis of data. As much as they were given the appropriate qualitative data, they still did not have the bargaining process’s quantitative data. They required a financial report o the past companies’ activities and the previous cost of wages and parental leave. In having all this information, an informed decision could be made. Their goal was to reduce costs sufficiently. To do it, they had to be in the best position where they could accurately calculate the specific cost for each claim and compare it with the company’s financial position. In the end, the union came to a consensus on occupational health, leave, Christmas bonus, overtime, and shift work. They felt that they worked in the employees’ best interest and the company regarding the claims mentioned. In the end, the possible effects and costs include negative publicity and fines, which might outweigh the cost in conquering issues of occupational health and safety claims. The company should agree with the union’s claims as it will save them money at last.
The next part after planning is the bargaining phase. In this negotiation activity, teams from both sides had an equal number of bargainers, and one member talks on behalf of its team Males were dominant on both sides. In terms of power, the negotiator on the union side had used humor and charisma to convince the other side of the team. They could use industrial action, but that did not occur. However, on the other side, the management team can threaten industrial lockouts if the team from the union chooses to take the industrial way. Another source of bargain power comes money, labor, and union members, which takes the highest percentage of up to 75% workforce. These clearly show that if the union that they have a vast bargain power if they take industrial action. However, if there are no enough memberships, they will have to bring a third party to support like from media and other affiliate unions.
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On the other hand, the management has money and authority and may bring a power imbalance between the management team and union. In the bargaining part, the objective is to build trust between the two parties. The management team had to stay calm since they wanted to agree, and they did not want to give threats or administer punishment. To come to a satisfactory mode, they needed to bargain well; the union would be defensive and not cooperative
In a real sense, good communication skills are crucial and play an important in negotiations to reach an amicable agreement. It involves having a balance on projection and empathy, and in our case, we dwelled more on projection during the distributive negotiations and leave. On the other hand, we were high in empathy when making negotiations concerning occupational health and claim of safety, which made us obtain a balance, and an agreement was unanimously reached.
Compared to the union team, the management teams had the best preparation and planning and bargaining. The report showed that they were on the correct track in cost calculation, but they did not have the confidence to bargain more and achieve better in regards to persuading. As much as they had support from other management teams, I still felt that they could have done better if they had been given all the information like the financial reports and the appropriate data of employees. In reality, getting to a better negotiation using broad assumptions is challenging, but they still somehow made reasonable assumptions.
Section B
The team members would have improved more by ensuring that they have gathered useful information.like the financial reports. Preparedness is vital. It’s good to find out what the best deal is at hand that the other party may not know or have. Finding out what they expect, and in this case, the union needed to agree for the betterment of their business reputation and the making of profits. Ask questions and investigate more on the leaders, the team members, and get insight nonwhite they ought to do better. We could have rehearsed better and avoided making broad assumptions.
Secondly, it is essential to put down conflicts of interest that help clarify goals and unleash personal interests to create a unity like maybe the manager on the union team would like to earn more profits rather than the welfare of employers. Simultaneously, the director might be interested in the price increase, which will eradicate the market price. By figuring out each element, it will be beneficial and necessary. Teams will recognize the existing internal trade before choosing what to go with before making the highest proposal. It is also important to simulate the negotiation like prior negotiation, like when what question is asked, who will answer it, and how it will help the team speak with one voice. Rehearsals help people to determine when to contribute and what time to be silent.
Assign duties to capitalize on members’ strengths and interests. Individuals can be given different roles to play when the negotiations are ongoing. It helps the team to be more comfortable and confident. Team members with unique expertise should be prepared to give much input and information on what they know suits them best without giving out data excessively.
Negotiating teams need to have a leader who guides them because a team that asks hierarchy can contradict themselves more. It is key to managing preparation and logistics; they make sure that everything is in place and ensuring that the strategy used by the team is appropriate in meeting the goals of the negotiation. Everyone with the assigned role will perfect in their areas. Leaders utilize more on teams other than doing it by themselves as much as the leaders might seem to be on the know-how; they will be specialists ion every aspect of their lives.
Establish a strategy for intrateam communication. Managers always have a way of avoiding to signal the change of plans in a strategy. Instead, they choose to make the adjustments by themselves and their fellow managers.iThey should create ways to communicate with one another and something like arranging chairs such that they can pass notes discreetly when a question arises and the one supposed has no full details of what exactly to answer.
Everything relates in a way that a team can solve conflicts more as a team than singlehandedly. How a team resolves issues are related closely to how it will do at a negotiating table. Lack of alignment internally increases the chance of the probability that the team’s strategy will be broken down. Indiscipline can create a deficiency that will be difficult to reverse. A team needs to resolve issues internally just before it goes to the table.
Section C
I can confidently agree that the negotiation was successful, bearing in mind that both parties were satisfied, and there was a side that seemed favored. One way which makes bargaining successful is economic success. Every decision that we made was advantageous financially. The expenses calculated and used were incomplete total agreement, which the companies projection and the union was satisfied. There was no individual gain as it focused more on the mutual gain, which helped to bring a more precise measure of agreement and its effectiveness, exceptionally long terms.
There are s strength and reputation in the relationships established. One of the team members called Jack, who I barely knew, ended up being one of my favorites financial advisors. I am confident that we will have smooth negotiations in the future. The teams built an excellent reputation among individuals. Negotiators ensured that mutual respect exists and in as much as there was disagreement. A negotiator who has a bad reputation may find it almost impossible to close a deal in a negotiation process because of the lousy picture portrayed before. Many relationships were built, and the majority of the management team members were confident of meeting again and agree.
Also, I believe we closed a deal that can be maintained for a longer time. Durability existed more because the agreement was and honored s much as the negotiations went on smoothly. We paid attention to the parties’ chances to keep and deliver to their deal .An agreement might be reached. Still, if the other party does not perform according to the expectations, the durability will be weakened. We did not leave with resentment, which compromises the current deals and potential future agreement.
There was also efficiency in that both parties received the best gains possible. Both sides were satisfied, and none of them was discontented. It was adopting a global look beyond getting benefits that negotiators can be in a position with their clients for long-lasting mutual gains. The environment that we were in played a significant role due to its serenity. The time we spent there was exclusive, and the air was clean enough as there was no much pollution. One disadvantage that might have compromised was the ling hours we took since no one recorded the time we used and was not calculated. In the end, we had used up more then enough time is essential for negotiators to give appropriate time to all the phases of negotiation. It is always about compromise, and all parties reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial and satisfactory to all the parties. It involves the power to shape all the processes, and it is more apparent that the union team needed d support and back up to achieve their dreams.
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