Positional Bargaining

Definition

Positional bargaining is a negotiation strategy where parties take firm, fixed positions and try to win concessions from the other side. It involves making demands, defending one's position, and trying to force the other party to accept one's terms, rather than focusing on identifying shared interests and finding mutually beneficial solutions.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Positional bargaining often leads to impasse, as parties become entrenched in their positions and unwilling to compromise.
2. This approach can damage relationships and trust between the negotiating parties, making future collaboration more difficult.
3. Positional bargaining is less effective in complex, multi-issue negotiations, where creative, integrative solutions are more likely to produce better outcomes.
4. Effective negotiators often try to shift the discussion from positions to underlying interests, in order to find mutually satisfactory agreements.
5. Positional bargaining is more common in distributive, zero-sum negotiations, such as price haggling, while integrative bargaining is more suitable for creating value in collaborative, win-win situations.

Review Questions

• Explain how positional bargaining can impact the effectiveness of team building efforts.
  • Positional bargaining, with its focus on fixed positions and zero-sum outcomes, can undermine the trust, communication, and collaborative spirit necessary for effective team building. When team members adopt adversarial, win-lose negotiation tactics, it can create tension, resentment, and a lack of commitment to shared goals. This can hinder the team's ability to leverage their collective strengths, identify creative solutions, and work together towards common objectives. Effective team building requires an integrative, interest-based approach that fosters mutual understanding and a problem-solving mindset, rather than a positional, distributive bargaining approach.
• Analyze how the challenges of positional bargaining can be overcome to promote more constructive team dynamics.
  • To overcome the challenges of positional bargaining and promote more constructive team dynamics, teams can adopt a principled negotiation approach that focuses on interests rather than positions. This involves actively listening to understand each team member's underlying needs and concerns, reframing discussions to identify shared interests, and collaboratively brainstorming options that create value for all parties. Team leaders can also encourage a problem-solving mindset, where the team works together to find mutually beneficial solutions, rather than engaging in zero-sum competition. Additionally, establishing clear communication protocols, setting ground rules for constructive conflict resolution, and building trust through transparency and accountability can help shift the team away from positional bargaining and towards more integrative, collaborative decision-making.
• Evaluate how the use of positional bargaining can undermine the long-term effectiveness of a team and suggest strategies to mitigate these negative impacts.
  • The use of positional bargaining can significantly undermine the long-term effectiveness of a team by eroding trust, stifling open communication, and preventing the team from reaching its full potential. When team members are entrenched in their fixed positions and focused on claiming value for themselves, it becomes difficult to identify and address the underlying interests and concerns of all stakeholders. This can lead to suboptimal solutions, damaged relationships, and a lack of commitment to the team's shared goals. To mitigate these negative impacts, teams should proactively shift towards an integrative, interest-based bargaining approach. This may involve training team members in principled negotiation techniques, establishing clear norms and protocols for constructive conflict resolution, and encouraging a collaborative problem-solving mindset. Additionally, team leaders can model and reinforce behaviors that foster trust, empathy, and a focus on mutual gains, rather than zero-sum competition. By adopting these strategies, teams can overcome the challenges of positional bargaining and build a stronger, more effective foundation for long-term success.

Related terms

Distributive Bargaining: A negotiation approach that treats the process as a zero-sum game, where one party's gain is the other party's loss. The goal is to claim as much value as possible for oneself.

Integrative Bargaining: A negotiation strategy that focuses on finding creative solutions that address the underlying interests and needs of both parties, rather than just claiming value.

Principled Negotiation: A negotiation approach that emphasizes focusing on interests, not positions, and finding mutually beneficial outcomes through collaborative problem-solving.