Scenario #1

Utopia Town passed a law requiring its school districts to replace their old janitors’ performance review systems with more stringent systems. Local school districts and their unions were charged with specifying certain aspects of their new systems by a certain deadline. Utopia Town stood to gain about $50 million in aid and $100 million in grants if it reached agreement on a new system. But as the deadline date drew to a close, talks between Utopia Town’s janitors’ association and Utopia’s town councilman were deadlocked. On the deadline date, the two sides separately announced that a final, late-night negotiating session had collapsed. Utopia Town’s First Selectman ultimately imposed an evaluation system on Utopia Town. Unfortunately, both the town councilman and the janitors’ association had much to gain from a performance review system, including better janitors and town funding, but the deadlocked negotiations hindered the agreement.

a. When a negotiation reaches an impasse (or, preferably, sooner), is it important for a negotiator to consider that he/she may be at the wrong table?

b. What other individuals or groups might be able to break the deadlock? Perhaps you should be talking to them instead. What could this look like?

c. Briefly discuss at least one “distributive” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

d. Briefly discuss at least one “integrative” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

e. Discuss one of the four approaches to ethical reasoning applicable to this scenario

Scenario #2

The existence of a three-year negotiation and dispute between Paper Company and Ed’s Corporate Products over distribution of Paper Company’s reams of paper in office supply stores was finally resolved. In December 1980, an arbitrator determined that Paper Company had breached its agreement with Ed’s Corporate Products and ordered the Paper Company to pay it a large sum of money. By way of background, after negotiating an agreement in 1970, Ed’s Corporate Products began selling Paper Company’s reams of paper through office supply stores. In 1978, with sales of its reams of paper reaching about $10 million annually, Paper Company offered to buy Ed’s Corporate Products out of the contract for $20 million. Paper Company wanted greater flexibility to sell the reams of paper. The company’s agreement with Ed’s Corporate Products limited Paper Company to selling reams of paper that worked only in Ed’s Corporate Products’ copy machines.

Ed’s Corporate Products objected to the deal termination, but Paper Company broke off the business relationship nonetheless. Since then, Paper Company’s share of the paper market and office supply store products has grown significantly. The parties’ dispute over Paper Company’s termination of their partnership moved to arbitration when the two sides were unable to settle it on their own.

a. What do you think this scenario illustrates and what were possible solutions?

b. Briefly discuss at least one “distributive” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

c. Briefly discuss at least one “integrative” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

d. Discuss one of the four approaches to ethical reasoning applicable to this scenario

Scenario #3

In February 1975, management for synchronized swimmers and the synchronized swimmers announced they had reached agreement to end a long strike. The swimmers returned to the pool for a shortened season in May. Back in July 1974, management opened negotiations for a new collective-bargaining agreement with an aggressive proposal to reduce swimmers’ percentage of swimmer-related revenue from 64% to 50%, among other demands. After waiting a month, the synchronized swimmers put forth an offer that separated swimmers’ salaries from management revenue, slowing the growth of swimmer salaries, and dividing revenues saved among financially struggling swim teams. The strike came after the October 1974 expiration date of the parties’ existing contract came and went. Weeks of cancelled swim meets turned into months. However, major progress came when a mediator got involved in the discussions. When face-to-face negotiations got heated, the mediator separated the two sides and engaged in shuttle diplomacy, visiting each side in turn to identify issues where they were willing to be flexible. The final deal hinged on the issue of swimmers’ retirement accounts. The agreement allowed the synchronized swimmers, whose careers can be quite brief, to concede on the short-term issue of salary in return for peace of mind regarding their long-term financial future.

a. What tactics or strategies do you think the mediator used?

b. Briefly discuss at least one “distributive” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

c. Briefly discuss at least one “integrative” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

d. Discuss one of the four approaches to ethical reasoning applicable to this scenario

Scenario #4

When Fast Trains Podunk was on the verge of financial collapse, the town council negotiated a swift solution to save it from extinction. Fast Trains Podunk would go into bankruptcy, and then its ownership would be divided up, with the majority going to a Fast Trains Podunk union workers’ health-care trust, 20% to a smaller train company, 10% to the town council, and 2% to the state government. Fast Trains Podunk also gave a $3 million note to the health-care trust to eliminate the company’s future health benefit obligations to retirees. And the smaller train company negotiated a plan to eventually acquire all Fast Trains Podunk by gradually buying the health-care trust and the town council’s stake in Fast Trains Podunk. At the time, the deal was a bargain for the town council, which spent $20 billion in taxpayer dollars on the bankruptcy. A few years later however, the deal does not look great at all. Fast Trains Podunk has turned itself around financially and is preparing for an initial public offering. Meanwhile, the smaller train company is struggling in the face of an economic downturn. Acquiring Fast Trains Podunk now has become the smaller train company’s best hope of staying solvent. The smaller train company acquired the town council and state governments’ stakes in Fast Trains Podunk for $50 million recently. But when the smaller train company attempted to begin buying the health-care trust’s stake in Fast Trains Podunk, the voluntary employee beneficiary association, and the smaller train company reached drastically different calculations of Fast Trains Podunk’s value. The difference in opinion is being hashed out in the courts. According to experts watching this scenario, the dispute can be attributed to a financial drafting error. When hastily drawing up their contract to save Fast Trains Podunk, town council’s attorneys failed to specify whether the $3 million note issued to the health-care trust should be calculated when determining the value of Fast Trains Podunk.

a. What does the error, which was committed in this scenario, point to?

b. What could the negotiators have done differently?

c. Briefly discuss at least one “distributive” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

d. Briefly discuss at least one “integrative” bargaining strategy/tactic you could use in this scenario

e. Discuss one of the four approaches to ethical reasoning applicable to this scenario

Scenario #5

In a negotiation involving product pricing, both sides/parties engaged in collusion with one another through a third party. This is called price-fixing. All three parties engaged in this activity which resulted in consumers paying more for the product.

a. Please discuss why this is not good practice for negotiations.

b. What important point(s) did negotiators fail to remember?

c. Discuss one of the four approaches to ethical reasoning applicable to this scenario

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Scenario 1 a Yes It is possible that a negotiator is at the wrong table in the sense that he she is negotiating with the wrong party For example if a negotiator is negotiating with a boss who is not g... View the full answer