“Success in any field, but especially in business is about working with people, not against them.”
Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
Case Study
Robert, a director and union member, has requested an 8 percent raise for his work unit. His request is based on recent finance reports showing that his department has substantially contributed to a 15 percent profit increase for the organisation. He feels that his team should be compensated for the hard work and long hours they have put in over the last few years to achieve this outcome.
Kay knows the value of Robert’s team and readily acknowledges their achievements. However, she knows that the company has plans to expand and diversify. This new project will use up the majority of the profit increase for at least the next five years. She is willing to sit down with Robert and talk about how his team can get involved in the new project. There could be new job opportunities, some overseas assignments, and possible promotions to various leadership positions within the new
project. Kay has flagged this with Robert; however, he is adamant that his team needs to be compensated with a monetary increase. He went as far as threatening to get the union involved if his request is unsuccessful.
Case study analysis
Identify one of the conflict-handling styles
From the case study we can identify that one of the conflict handling style that is present with Robert is Competing. This is evident as Robert has been insistent towards Kay that his team be compensated with a monetary increase, even though Kay has acknowledged Robert and his team’s achievements but her hands are tied due to the company’s plan on expansion and most of the funds will be put towards it. Additionally, Robert threatened to get the union involved if his request is unsuccessful.
Bargaining Approach
The bargaining approach is used whenever two parties attempt to reach a mutually acceptable solution during a conflict. There are two types of bargaining approach which is integrative and distributive. (Staff, 2019)
In the case study, Kay displayed integrative bargaining approach. From the case study, Kay was willing to take the time and sit down and talk to Robert and acknowledges him and his team’s achievements but she is unable to adhere to his request of monetary compensation. Knowing that, Kay tried to achieve a “win-win” situation by explaining to Robert that with this expansion there will be new job opportunities, some various overseas assignments and possible promotions to various leadership positions.
Aspect of interpersonal communication that is contributing to the poor environment
From the case study, we are able to identify that the poor listening skills is one of the factors that contributes to the poor environment. This is evident as Robert was adamant for the increment of pay and was willing to negotiate with Kay when she took the time to talk to him. Robert was too blinded by his own personal desire of being compensated that he became very unwilling to listen.
Thus from this case study, we recognise that listening plays a very important role during negotiations, it allows people to gain more understanding and by listening attentively it reduces any form of miscommunication.
Hall’s context model
With reference to Hall’s context model, Kay displayed High-Context culture, according to the case study, she is willing to take the time and effort to sit down to talk to Robert to solve the problem to try to come to a win-win situation where everyone can be satisfied, by doing so she is focused on relationships.
Reference
Staff, <. (2019). Negotiation in Business: Ethics, Bias, and Bargaining in Good Faith. [online] PON – Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Available at: https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/business-negotiations/are-you-negotiating-in-good-faith/ [Accessed 2 Aug. 2019].
KENG JOO'S BLOG 
Hello Keng Joo,
Totally agree your four inputs towards Robert and Kay. It is pretty obvious on how one is so adamant to win while the other is trying to make peace and to solve the problem using with a realistic solution. Maybe if we look another perspective, Kay maybe partially is at fault as well. Since we do not know how much information did she disclosed to him about the job opportunities and the company’s plans to expand. Definitely, agree with your thoughts towards the case study that listening is a very important aspect while negotiating and one should not be competitive towards his or her own goal.
Cheers,
Larry
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Hey Keng Joo,
You got a good eye on the case. From what we can deduce, Robert initiates the request with an adamant attitude. From Robert’s point of view, he does not have much to lose, due to him knowing about his contributions to his company. Meanwhile, Kay has to deal with the request which she can’t comply, while also have to keep in mind that this situation might turn out bad for the company should they be reliant on the works of Robert and his team. I think a mistake would be to let Robert know that his team would qualify to be involved in the new project. This means Robert knows how much the company will suffer if they lose him, allowing him to leverage on this fact if that was the case.
Melvin
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Hi Keng Joo,
Great post with nice pictures! I agree with your analysis on the case study. Robert was definitely using the competing style of conflict-handling. He was demanding for a monetary increase and was not willing to sit down and solve the issue with Kay. I also agree that Kay was using the integrative bargaining approach. She was willing to sit down with Robert and solve their differences. She was also trying to understand the needs and concerns of Robert and his team. I also agree that Robert’s poor listening skills contributed to the problem. This problem could have been avoided if Robert had better listening skills.
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Hi Keng Joo!
Great post. Although we have yet to interact with one another, I believe this window provides me a clearer view on your analysis of this case study. You have a knack for going into details with regards to Robert. Your clear distinction between both parties is well elaborated and I can see that you have a clear stance that Robert is the demanding one. Once again, marvelous post!
Regards,
Keith
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Hi, Keng Joo
First of all, a good post about Robert and Kay’s case analysis! I enjoyed reading it as the post is very straightforward and easy to understand, all points were well elaborated with detailed explanation. I completely agree with your four views toward Kay and Robert. Robert was too into his own needs without considering Kay’s position and feelings while Kay is trying to promote a “win-win” situation for both parties. She is willing to put in the time and effort to find other possible good outcomes for Robert since the monetary increase request is not able to comply due to the expansion of the company. In this case, we can see the importance of listening skills during the negotiations, if Robert performs better listening skills with Kay, it will turn out more effective communication with each other. Another good highlight is the attached diagrams, it allows readers to have a brief idea about theories applied. It will be much easier for them to understand the case analysis.
Looking forward to your post
Cheers!
Kassy yin
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Hi Keng Joo!
Once again a great post by you. I agree that listening skills is definitely paramount to maintain a good relationships between co-workers. If they actively listen to each other, I think it is unlikely this lose-lose scenario would happen. Its been a great read so far. Keep up the good work!
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Hi Keng Joo,
I fully agree with your choice of Kay’s bargaining approach. He was making no effort to understand the other side of the argument and was only interested in finding a solution that meets his own needs. I disagree that Kay was looking for win-win situation because offering promotions and overseas assignments seems like feeble renumeration considering the vast contributions (15 percent is a lot) that Robert’s team has made to the company. Their effort and hard work exceed their normal job responsibilities. Robert should have practiced his negotiation skills and asked for an 8 percent raise and the possibility of further job opportunities. His reason could be that it would be in the best interests of the company if his team, who has demonstrated to be highly skilled and valuable, we given a small raise of 8 percent to gratify them on top of being given promotions because they are useful employees to the company that can help in its expansion.
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