Alcott Lake, a lakeside community, is having a crisis. For the past four years, the water level on the lake has increased each year and is at a record high level. As a result, about 18% of the 250 homes located on the lake are in danger of flooding, while the rest are on higher ground and not directly affected by the high water. Many of the structures in danger are cottages that were built nearly 80 years ago and have been in the same families for years. These cottages, which once had huge lawns separating them from the lake, now have water a few yards from their doors.

The board of directors for the Alcott Lake Homeowners’ Association has been working for the last year to find a solution to the high water levels. To directly address the problem, they asked the state’s department of natural resources and county officials to allow them to pump water from the lake into a nearby stream. That appeal was rejected because land downstream is also experiencing high water levels and it would further endanger those properties. As the summer season approaches, and the lake promises to get busy with boaters, the board is scrambling to find a resolution to the problem.

To avoid more damage to their properties, the owners of the endangered cottages have created a petition asking the homeowners’ association to institute a no-wake policy on the lake for a year. The wakes created by motorized boats cause large waves that crash up against the shore, causing erosion, and could push the water into the endangered cottages. A no-wake policy would require motorized watercraft to run at low speeds, which would eliminate any wakeboarding, tubing, or water skiing on the lake. The petition also seeks to prohibit personal watercraft (such as jet skis) and high-speed fishing boats from running on the lake. In order to be considered by the association’s board, the petition needed signatures from 25% of the lake’s property owners; it garnered support from 35%.................

Question

1. Describe this conflict using the different elements of the conflict definition—struggle, interdependence, feelings, and differences.

2. What is the content dimension of this conflict? What is the relational dimension?

3. Would Fisher and Ury’s method of principled negotiation be a good approach for the homeowners’

association to use to resolve the conflict? Why or why not?

4. How could the association board use the communication strategies of differentiation and fractionation to deal with this conflict? What about face saving?