Negotiation gone bad

Negotiation is a process whereby individuals discuss their conflicting interests to settle on a mutual agreement (Alavoine, Kaplanseren & Teulon, 2013). Below is an example of a negotiation gone bad.

An employee receives feedback on his performance evaluation. The performance is poor, and he feels that the assessment should be positive as he has been working hard and giving suggestions to improve the company’s performance. He goes to the employer and shouts, “Mr Riggs, Why did you do this to me? I have been working hard, and this evaluation does not consider my hard work”. As Riggs hears this, gets up and shouts back at the employee,” Who do you think you are to question my work? I make all the decisions and what I say must stand”. The conversation turned to a heated quarrel which led to the employer asking him to leave the office. According to Mr Riggs, the employee thinks that he is not performing his evaluations fairly, and it annoys him. After a week, the employee receives a job dismissal letter.

Analysis

The employee started the conversation in a poorly, by throwing allegations at his employer. He begins by shouting at Mr Riggs instead of politely asking for explanations and reasons for the poor feedback. The procedure would require a plan for a meeting to address the issue. After the meeting time is approved, the employee asks for clarification, and the employer justifies his actions through by explaining the reasons behind the negative feedback. Next, a proper bargain takes place by giving a concession and ways to solve the issue at hand. The employer explains the activities he has been doing, along with the results achieved and the impact it had on the company. On the other hand, Mr Riggs explains the factors he considered in developing the evaluation statement. With these two evaluations, they can analyze them and come up with a final analysis that is true and agreed on by both parties.

Through this process, the outcome of dismissing the employee from work could not have occurred. Instead, evidence of the factors that Riggs considered in coming up with the evaluation would be revealed. The employer would also get an explanation of why the human resource manager did not assess because Mr Riggs, the employer may usually be out of the office attending meetings hence has no adequate information on employee performance.

Reference

Alavoine, C., Kaplanseren, F., & Teulon, F. (2013). Teaching (And Learning) Negotiation: Is There Still Room For Innovation?. International Journal Of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS), 18(1), 35. doi: 10.19030/ijmis.v18i1.8337