In life, we are constantly faced with issues where conflicting interests exist. To resolve these contentious issues constructively, negotiations have to be made. Negotiation is defined as “communication for persuasion” and it entails the parties involved making proposals or demands and arguing them out until an acceptable solution is arrived at or a deadlock declared. In my life, I am faced with many situations that demand negotiations. In the coming week, I intend to negotiate over my salary with a prospective employer. In this paper, I shall explain how I plan to carry out the negotiation process for the same.
The first step in my preparation will be to determine which negotiating method I shall make use of in the negotiation process. There exist two major negotiating approaches: competition or collaboration. Competition is based on opposing interests and ends up in a win-lose scenario while collaborative is based on common interests therefore yielding a win-win outcome. The major consideration in collaborative negotiations is the safeguarding of future relationship with the other person/group. As such, I shall adopt the collaborative style since my future relationship with my prospective employer is important and I do not want to risk hurting the same by adopting an adversarial approach in negotiation.
Negotiation revolves around the resolution of conflicts around particular resources. In my case, the negotiation is about my salary. The next step in my planning efforts will therefore involve articulating what it is that I wish to gain from the negotiation. Lack of an identifiable area of conflict invariably renders negotiations unnecessary. While I am listing down the pay and benefits that I want, it will make sense to research my employer to discover the current salary and benefits offered to a person with the same job description that I have applied for. This will enable me to make demands that will not be deemed as absurdly high or too low.
The next step in my planning will be aimed at influencing my future employer to reach a concession that is beneficial to me. This is in line with the basic principle of negotiating which is to produce results that are more favorable than those that can be achieved without negotiations. While persuasion is achieved in the competitive approach by resorting to threats, in my collaborative approach, I shall appeal to the principles or common interests of my future employment. The planning stage will therefore involve coming up with justifications for my salary demands and I shall research factors that will make my employer sympathetic to my perspective on the issue.
I do concur that not all my demands will be met in the negotiation. As such, it shall make sense to come up with the least of demands that are mandatory before a concession is reached. These “primary goals” will be as a result of the reduction of my overall demands and aspirations to accommodate the other party. At this level at the negotiation process, my employee and I will be able to reach an agreement by compromising on the original goals and objectives. As such, each of us will make some gains and possibly some losses. I hope that my planning will result in a negotiation process that will be of greater benefit to me.