Module 1 – Case
THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN NEGOTIATION
Case Assignment
BUYING AND SELLING
Fundamentally, your key reading assignment suggests that
being prepared to interact empathically and congenially and to apply the
concept of mutuality with those at the negotiating table are important
attributes in the negotiation process.
Based on your readings, answer the following question:
To what extent do you agree with this notion and why? Give some examples and/or theoretical support
from your readings.
You might want to integrate some of the COW-SOAP model
described in the O’Brien (2013) into your discussion.
Assignment Expectations
Answer questions with clarity.
Show depth and breadth to enhance the quality of your paper.
Search in our library to find some papers/articles to
support your argument and show them in the reference list.
Submit your answers to the questions by the module due date.
To do a concise, but thorough job in answering the questions, your assignment
will probably need to be 3 to 4 pages in length.
Module 1 – SLP
THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN NEGOTIATION
Imagine you are the owner of a small electrical
company. You have been penalized $14,000
by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for what you
consider to be petty violations. You do not think you should have been cited
for two of the three violations which were identified as “Serious” violations.
There was an open elevator shaft 30 feet from where your
electrician was working.
Someone cut the grounding prong off of one of your extension
cords.
Your electrician did not cover an open circuit breaker box
that was energized, which exposed other workers to potential electrical shock
hazards.
In addition, you consider your company’s safety program to
be one of the best in the industry, having won several awards from the local
Safety Council. You also have not had a
recordable injury for over 5 years.
You do not think you should have been cited for the elevator
shaft, since it was not very close to where your electrician was working (so
the employee wasn’t really exposed to the hazard). He didn’t even have a reason to go near the
shaft, and it wasn’t your company’s responsibility to put up a guard rail (the
carpenters are supposed to do that).
You do not think you should be cited for the electrical cord
because you have repeatedly instructed your workers not to do this, and you
have a program to check for ground prongs daily (though your foreman sometimes
forgets to do this).
You decide to set up an informal settlement conference to
try to settle the case with the Area Director. You heard conflicting stories
related to her willingness to negotiate in good faith, however.
A framing contractor (who is admittedly a bit of a
‘hot-head’) stated that the Area Director is ‘a jerk’ and that she ‘has it in’
for construction contractors. He stated,
“I showed her how her inspector was clearly wrong and all she would do was give
me a 20% penalty reduction. She wants to
put us all out of business”. A roofing
contractor stated, however, that you just need to get on her good side. He stated that the Area Director was very
accommodating and that she withdrew two out of four serious citations tied to
an inspection conducted at one of the roofer’s sites. He ended up with a 65% penalty reduction
overall.
In this scenario, you are the business owner and are
obviously entering into a negotiation with a federal manager to reduce the
penalties issued against your company.
You really do not know what to expect.
For this assignment, please:
Outline the key tenets of emotional intelligence and discuss
how an awareness of emotional intelligence and the human element can be useful
going into such a negotiation.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer questions with
clarity.
Show depth and breadth to enhance the quality of your paper.
Search in our library to find some papers/articles to
support your argument and show them in the reference list.
Turn in your 2- to 3-page paper by the module due date.
Module 2 – Case
NEGOTIATION STYLE, INFLUENCE, AND CONFLICT
Case Assignment
In this case study you are asked to integrate some key
concepts presented in the reading into an essay. Please answer the following questions:
How does the personality/negotiation style of key players in
a negotiation influence the process and impact the likelihood of conflict? Also, where does your negotiating style fit
into this spectrum?
This will require some critical thinking on your part.
Assignment Expectations
Answer questions with clarity.
Show depth and breadth to enhance the quality of your paper.
Search in our library to find some papers/articles to
support your argument and show them in the reference list.
Turn in your 3- to 4-page paper by the module due date.
Module 2 – SLP
NEGOTIATION STYLE, INFLUENCE, AND CONFLICT
As the owner of a small electrical company, you are hopeful
you will be able to get OSHA’s area director to be willing to substantially
decrease the $14,000 penalty you received.
That is a lot of money and goes directly against your bottom line. You
are confident that you have a good argument for the area director to throw out
two of the citations.
In preparation for the informal settlement conference with
OSHA’s Area Director, you decide to have a talk with the foreman of the site
and you learn that the General Contractor’s superintendent at the site was
rather rude to the OSHA Compliance Officer during the inspection. He then confesses that he, himself was not
all that nice either.
In talking to a number of contractors who have had dealings
with OSHA, you also discover that the Area Director is not the ‘jerk’ the
framing contractor made her out to be (as described in Module 1), but is far
from a ‘push-over’ in negotiations. What
you have learned is that she tends to focus on the facts of the case, but tends
to be less accommodating when she or her compliance officers are not treated
with the respect they deserve as federal officers. You have also learned that
she can be impressed by companies who are committed to safety.
After reviewing your readings (and the scenario-related
materials from Module 1, discuss your negotiation style and how you plan to
present your case to the area director.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer questions with clarity.
Show depth and breadth to enhance the quality of your paper.
Search in our library to find some papers/articles to
support your argument and show them in the reference list.
Turn in your 2-page paper by the module due date.
Module 3 – Case
PREPARING FOR THE NEGOTIATION
Case Assignment
Turn in a 3 – 4 page paper (page count does not include
cover or reference list) addressing the following:
Discuss the difficulty with making assumptions in a
negotiation and why information is important to a successful negotiation
process for both sides. Also, how can
creative thinking, building of trust, and making appropriate concessions help
those on both sides of the negotiating table?
Assignment Expectations
Answer questions with clarity.
Show depth and breadth to enhance the quality of your paper.
Search in our library to find some papers/articles to
support your argument and show them in the reference list.
Turn in your assignment by the Module due date.
Module 3 – SLP
PREPARING FOR THE NEGOTIATION
Your informal conference with OSHA is scheduled for
tomorrow. Again, $14,000 is a lot of
money for your small electrical company.
You have heard stories about the OSHA Area Director, indicating she is a
hard-lined negotiator, and stories that she is very easy to work with if you stick
to the facts and demonstrate your commitment to safety. You have also heard that she does not take
kindly to disrespect (and that your foreman may have been rude with OSHA’s
Compliance Officer), and that generally speaking, the average respectful contractor
gets a 40- to 45% penalty reduction as a result of attending an informal
conference; and $7,700 is a lot better price to pay than $14,000.
Ideally, you would like to see the first two citations
withdrawn (open elevator shaft and grounding prong that was removed from the
extension cord). That would decrease
your penalty by almost 2/3. Of course,
the argument that your company leadership could not have known about the bad
cord is weak, because the foreman has not been filling out his extension cord
checklist consistently (and did not on the day of the inspection… or the two
weeks preceding the inspection).
Sometimes the Area Director is willing to just reduce the
penalty on citations, even if they are not withdrawn, especially if the
employer can demonstrate good faith with respect to his or her regard for
providing a safe workplace. Settling the
case is in her interest because the employer (you in this case) could legally
contest the citations. The case would then become a legal matter to be heard by
an administrative law judge; many of whom have been known to vacate any
citations that are not “Iron-clad,” so to speak. The hearing would also tie up her Compliance
Officer, and the time and resources of OSHA’s attorneys for what they would
deem to be a very trivial case.
So contesting the citations is another option for you. But then, of course, you will end up having
to pay a considerable amount of money to your attorneys. The judge’s decision
combined with the attorney fees could end up costing much more than $14,000,
even if you end up with a favorable decision. But you do have that card and the
Area Director knows it.
Based on your readings and the materials presented for your
SLP in the first 3 modules, discuss the importance of creating range and
alternatives in preparing for such a negotiation.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer questions with clarity.
Show depth and breadth to enhance the quality of your paper.
Search in our library to find some papers/articles to
support your argument and show them in the reference list.
Turn in your 2- to 3-page paper by the module due date.
Week 1 discussion
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Sometimes the negotiation process doesn’t work well for
whatever reason, and companies will engage in what is known as ‘Alternative
Dispute Resolution’ (ADR) such as mediation and arbitration. Do some research on the concept of ADR and
discuss some examples of where and why such alternatives are used.
Week 2 discussion
Ethical Influence in Negotiation
Discuss a negotiation you were involved in that included at
least two or three of the six principles of ethical influence described in
Chapter 5 of your text and whether you believe the use of such an approach was
ethically appropriate.
Week 3 discussion
The Element of Trust in Negotiations
Describe negotiations you have been involved with where you
have been able to build trust or where it was very difficult to trust the
person on the other side of the table.
What was it about the other side that helped you to trust or distrust
the ‘opposition?’
Week 4 discussion
Negotiation Tactics
What negotiation tactic or strategies from the readings did
you find to be the most useful? Which
ones do you think you will be most likely to use in the future?
Week 4 reflective discussion
Reflective Discussion
Please take some time to discuss with the class any issues
covered in this class that you believe you will likely apply to future personal
or business related negotiations.
