chapter3: Strategy and Tactics of Distributive bargaining

In this chapter, we will learn the basic structure of competitive or distributive bargaining situations and some of the strategies and tactics used in distributive bargaining. Distributive bargaining begins with setting your own opening, target, and resistance points. You learn the other party’s starting points and find out his or her target points directly or through inference. Usually you will not know the resistance point, the points beyond which a party will not go, until late in negotiation because the other party often carefully conceals them. All points are important, but the resistance points are the most critical. The spread between the parties’ resistance points defines the bargaining rang. In positive, if defines the area of negotiation within which a settlement is likely to occur, with each party working to obtain as much of the bargaining range as possible. In negative, successful negotiation may be impossible.The negotiator’s basic goal is to reach a final settlement as close to the other party’s resistance point as possible. Although negotiators work to gather information about the opposition and its positions; to convince members of the other party to change their minds about their ability to achieve their own goals; and to promote their own objectives as desirable, necessary, or even inevitable.Distributive bargaining is a conflict situation, wherein parties seek their own advantage – concealing information, attempting to mislead, or using manipulative actions. All these tactics can easily escalate interaction from calm discussion to bitter hostility. Negotiation is the attempt to resolve a conflict without force, without fighting. Be successful, both parties to the negotiation must feel at the end that the outcome was the best that they could achieve and that it is worth accepting and supporting.