Negotiation is an important way of addressing different situations that we face in our daily lives. It is a skill that almost everybody uses in life. Negotiations range from negotiating on deals for products being purchased, family negotiations on different issues that arise and controversial matters that require consensus (Kopf, 2011). As a result, negotiation is important for everyone disregarding what they do in life since every aspect of life requires it.
There are some situations that require us to make our own decisions while others involve several parties who deliberate to reach a common ground. However, negotiation processes are not always easy since they may be faced with difficult decisions that deter progress (Davis, 2007). This essay will describe a real-life situation where a deadlock may be reached and how a third party intervener can help to resolve the problem.
Most real-life situations that lead to difficult negotiations are family matters. This is because any decision that is made in a family and especially between married couples must be agreed upon. Fathers or mothers cannot make major decisions touching on family matters without consulting each other to get their views and perspectives on the issues.
One of the real-life situations where a deadlock could be hit is the decision to transfer children from day schools to boarding schools. Both parents have a responsibility to take care of their children hence taking them to either boarding or a day school is a decision that should be agreed upon by both parents. Consequently, negotiation plays an important role in such a scenario to reach an agreement.
The negotiation process starts by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of boarding and day schools and how they affect the children. There are certain benefits that children who go to boarding schools reap as opposed to their colleagues who attend day schools. For instance, the father may argue that children get exposed at a young age and learn how to be independent and do things for themselves. On the other hand, the mother might argue that this denies children an opportunity to interact closely with their parents.
Their view is that parental love and guidance is very important for children during their formative years since it instills the right values in them. In addition, fathers may raise another concern that, when children are taken to boarding schools, they allow parents to get involved in many other things that would not have been possible if the children were in day schools. On the contrary, mothers look at this argument as absconding parental duties because children are supposed to remain close to their parents during their formative years (Hall, 2003).
This is a difficult negotiation process because both parents may have conflicting perspectives on boarding vs. day schools for their children. After discussing for a reasonable duration of time, it will emerge that they cannot agree on the best option to take hence, their negotiation process hits a deadlock.
Deadlocks make the progress of negotiations impossible, and this may require the services of a third party intervener (Carter, 2003). In this situation, he/she will assume a neutral position and show both parents the negative and positive side of each available option. One of the factors that may lead to a deadlock as the parents negotiate is that they may be interested in the positive side of the option each of them supports without looking at the negatives. A third party intervener will help the negotiators to look at the negotiation process holistically.
References
Carter, J. (2003). Negotiation: The Alternative to Hostility. New York: Mercer University Press.
Davis, J. (2007). Five Steps to Better Family Negotiations. Web.
Hall, L. (2003). Negotiation: strategies for mutual gain. New York: Sage.
Kopf, E. (2011). Keeping Cool: The Art of Family Negotiations. Web.