Negotiation

This is the breakdown of our team assignment for week 5. Resource: Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases. Please note that this assignment is an exercise in this text book on page 561. Review the excersises, case studies in your text to prepare a 1,400- to 1,750-word paper in which you analyze the possible intervention strategies. Apply what you believe to be the best strategy and explain how it must resolve the conflict. If your best strategy does not work, or is rejected, develop and describe at least one contingency plan. Please note that each portion builds on the next so plan to have yours in early to make it easier on the rest of the team. Please note that each section also has something added to it; one is the intro, one is the conclusion, one is the opening question, and the other is compilation and submission. Exercise 27 Third-Party Conflict Resolution JAMES Introduction In addition to being involved in their own conflicts, managers are often called upon to intervene and to settle conflicts between other people. The two activities in this section are designed to explore how third parties may enter conflicts for the purpose of resolving them, and to practice one very effective approach to intervention. In the first activity, you will read about a manager who has a problem deciding how to intervene in a dispute, and you will discuss this case in class. Part 2 of this exercise contains a mediation guide. Part 1: The Seatcor Manufacturing Company You are senior vice president of operations and chief operating officer of Seatcor, a major producer of office furniture. Joe Gibbons, your subordinate, is vice president and general manager of your largest desk assembly plant. Joe has been with Seatcor for 38 years and is two years away from retirement. He worked his way up through the ranks to his present position and has successfully operated his division for five years with a marginally competent staff. You are a long-standing personal friend of Joe’s and respect him a great deal. However, you have always had an uneasy feeling that Joe has surrounded himself with minimally competent people by his own choice. In some ways, you think he feels threatened by talented assistants. Last week you were having lunch with Charles Stewart, assistant vice president and Joe’s second in command. Upon your questioning, it became clear that he and Joe were engaged in a debilitating feud. Charles was hired last year, largely at your insistence. You had been concerned for some time about who was going to replace Joe when he retired, especially given the lack of really capable managerial talent on Joe’s staff. Thus you prodded Joe to hire your preferred candidate—Charles Stewart. Charles is relatively young, 39, extremely tenacious and bright, and a well-trained business school graduate. From all reports he is doing a good job in his new position. Your concern centers on a topic that arose at the end of your lunch. Charles indicated that Joe Gibbons is in the process of completing a five-year plan for his plant. This plan is to serve as the basis for several major plant reinvestment and reorganization decisions that would be proposed to senior management. According to Charles, Joe Gibbons has not included Charles in the planning process at all. You had to leave lunch quickly and were unable to get much more information from Charles. However, he did admit that he was extremely disturbed by this exclusion and that his distress was influencing his work and probably his relationship with Joe. You consider this a very serious problem. Charles will probably have to live with the results of any major decisions about the plant. More important, Joe’s support is essential if Charles is to properly grow into his present and/or future job. Joe, on the other hand, runs a good ship and you do not want to upset him or undermine his authority. Moreover, you know Joe has good judgment; thus he may have a good reason for what he is doing. How would you proceed to handle this issue' (THIS QUESTION IS TO BE INCLUDED WITH STEP 1’S PORTION) Part 2: The Mediation Guide This section presents a series of steps for effectively conducting a mediation. You may use this checklist and the flowchart depicted in Exhibit 1. ELICIA - Step 1: Stabilize the Setting Parties often bring some strong feelings of anger and frustration into mediation. These feelings can prevent them from talking productively about their dispute. You, as mediator, will try to gain their trust for you and for the mediation process. Stabilize the setting by being polite; show that you are in control and that you are neutral. This step helps the parties feel comfortable, so they can speak freely about their complaints, and safe, so they can air their feelings. 1. _______ Greet the parties. 2. _______ Indicate where each of them is to sit. 3. _______ Identify yourself and each party, by name. 4. _______ Offer water, paper and pencil, and patience. 5. _______ State the purpose of mediation. 6. _______ Confirm your neutrality. 7. _______ Get their commitment to proceed. 8. _______ Get their commitment that only one party at a time will speak. 9. _______ Get their commitment to speak directly to you. 10. _______ Use calming techniques as needed. THIS STEP ALSO INCLUDES PART 1 Jocelyn - Step 2: Help the Parties Communicate Once the setting is stable and the parties seem to trust you and the mediation process, you can begin to carefully build trust between them. Both must make stateme