Free Union Negotiation Challenges Essay Sample
According to Jim Brentward one of the worker union negotiators, the employees of community health system are not happy with the firms proposed scheme of offering salaries increments as well benefit package scheduled to take place in the next four years. The employees demand that unless the attested to a new contract with acceptable benefit increases and salaries by 5:00 pm of that Friday, the members belonging to that particular union have no other choice rather than to strike. Although the employees understand that the health system is having a hard time financially fuelled by the current state of the industry, with increased regulations and decreasing reimbursements, they are wont back up and they intend to show their remorse in form of a strike. The employees believe that the health system is not concerned about their needs.
In almost every corner of our globe, employers as well as government spokesmen have found themselves entrapped in the act of reinforcing the attitude of difficult negotiators even though sometimes they feel that they are undermining it. For instance, in the event of a strike, you witness government spokespeople lining up to clear things up with the media by illustrating how devastating the strike is to both the strikers as well as the country. The bottom line of these warnings is meant to appear that the strikers are behaving in a manner and the very possible difficult way. They are meant to the strikers so that they can head to the particular warnings and resume to their normal mode of working.
On the contrary, the warnings only work to counter their initial intended purpose. They have the opposite effect strikers usually interpret the warnings of the damage they are causing as a confirmation that at least their striking behaviour is having an effect. According to the workers, if a mere strike makes important people to notice what they involved in, and then they must do the right things in order for their grievances to be addressed. This action usually initiates the pseudo game involving passing of responsibility and blame for the so called damage of their strike for the other side. For instance, in the case study of health system the employees are demanding for a hike in their pay and stop striking and if the management doesn't heed, then they are to blame for all damages associated with the strike.
However, if the managers or the spokespeople were to remain shutting with respect to the strike and instead concentrate on the disputed issues, then they ensure that they make weak the dedication of the strikers to persisting with their actions. The act of maintaining workers on a strike is a hard task especially for the union as it must continually reinforce the employees, insisting on solidarity as well as the continuous assurances that their actions are bound to have an effect soon, with the aim of avoiding erosion in addition to garnering support for strike action amongst the employees. Strikes are bound to fall down rapidly especially in an instance where the employees actions have no perceived end results.
According to experts, strike situations have the tendency to exhibit more positional, adversarial as well as aggressive stands. In such situations empathy have been considered crucial for any given business negotiations. On the other hand mediation can be used to avoid damaging litigation as well as conflict. The process of dealing with strikes can be viewed as the most extreme instance of the type of negotiations business managers to deal with day in day out. Having the knowledge on how to negotiate is important for the purpose of resolving conflicts evident while dealing with client in addition to propelling the organization forward.
According to Dr Mark de Rond, a prominent and successful negotiation strategy lecturer points out that the ability to empathize is the most important tool in any of the business conflict negotiations. But it is a skill that most top managers do not possess. Additionally, the management especially at higher levels of management are usually busy and empathy to them does not come naturally. It does not occur to individuals that other might be experiencing life differently than they do and they might possess diverse ambitions as well as priorities. De Rond further argues that the same qualities that make individuals to be senior management material such as ambition, the knowledge of what they want as well as possessing a strong will can make it harder for them to comprehend more than other workers do.
There exist various negotiation skills especially when business conflicts such as strikes are involved. First as a negotiator you will have to realize that in order to amicably deal with your own problem then you have to assist other solve their problems first. In addition, an important aspect and central to negotiations is the idea of best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA). In other words, if the dispute is not resolved as it should be then what would be your next best alternative? Creating your thoughts through the BATNA is actually very crucial, but what is even more important is thinking through the subsequent side of the BATNA as well as understanding the walk way alternative.
As pointed out by winder disagreements between people can be conceived as an inherent as well as a normal part of life. The disagreement or conflicts can crop up from differences exhibited from perceptions, values, lifestyle, motivations, procedures or even facts. Differing goals, methods as well as expectations can also turn disagreements into conflict just like the above case of health systems and which can be damaging to both parties. On the other hand conflict can also be perceived positively as well as beneficial in that it might end up forcing clarification of policies and procedures, relieving tensions, ensuring open communications as well as resolving problems. In its negative form, conflict can focus all the energy from real tasks, cause a decline in the level of productivity, reduction in workers morale, preventing and hampering communication channels, causing irresponsible behaviour, in addition to an augmented stress as well as tension, and all these resulting to loss of important and valuable human resources.
A proper understanding of how conflicts arise in the place of work is very helpful for certain anticipating situations and that may end up becoming conflictual. On the contrary, people also have to understand how they handle or cope with these particular conflictual situations. Relying on William Ury, Jeanne Bret, and Stephen Goldberg work as far as leadership is concerned, they identified five conflict-handling modes and which are particularly helpful in approaching conflicts such as the one involving the employees verses the management of health systems. As a mediator in the case above, I found the five conflict handling modes to be very helpful. They include among them competition, compromise, collaboration, accommodation as well as avoidance.
Competition comprises of assertive in addition to uncooperative behaviours and mirrors a win-win approach to conflict. In this particular model, a dominating person moves out to try and win her or his objective and at the end ignores the concerns, needs in addition to the expectations of the other party. On the other hand, collaboration encompasses highly aggressive as well as accommodating behaviours and replicates on a win -win approach top conflict. For a collaborating mediator, he will attempt to come up with the appropriate goals for the conflicting parties, which are both and equally powerful such as management and labour, and who have reached a deadlock in their negotiation. As pointed out by Kenneth (1963), relying heavily on this particular style might be dysfunctional for the reason that the compromising style usually results into several problems especially if used too early to resolve conflict. On the onset, the parties involved might be encouraged to compromise on the issues stated rather than on the real issues. The initial issues raised in a conflict are in most of the cases not the real ones, and therefore any premature compromise may hamper full diagnosis or investigation of the real issues.
Secondly, accepting an initial stand earlier presented becomes easier than looking for alternatives that are more or less agreeable to all of the people involved. Lastly, the cooperation may not be appropriate to all or a part of the situation since at that particular time, it may not be the best result presented. Comparing the compromising and the collaborating style of conflict management, you will; realize that the compromising style does not guarantee optimal results for all of the parties involved and therefore it only helps to achieve partial contentment for all of parties concerned. As pointed out by Knowles (1952), this style is most likely to be suitable when consensus allows each and every person to be better off or more even at least worse off than when no agreement were reached at all, therefore ensuring a win-win agreement between both parties.
The whole number of days mislaid due to strike act in a given business derives from three types of workers. First, days lost by the people who are striking. Secondly are the days lost by employees in the business who is not unswervingly implicated in strike action but who are inevitably made idle. Third, days lost as a result of disruptions as well as stoppages in other branches of the company affected as well as other outside companies owing to trade and doing business connectedness. The active strikes literature has been tremendously apprehensive with the first group of workers affected. Naturally, there is slight indication on the third failure of working time for the reason that of the related intricacy of data requirements. But yet information on those companies within workers who are prepared in case of the strike action of others is complicated to attain.
At the hub of any society's traditions are fundamental agreements about assistance stuck between its members. Several scholars have tried to characterize the core properties of these individual societal systems. Marx disputes that the affiliation of class, of the proletariat to the bourgeoisie, briefs all contemporary social systems. Kenneth Boulding has dispute that social systems are regimented by intimidation, swap over, and incorporation or love. There are several more theories of collective order, but they all create the similar primary claim; at some point, a person will require the help of an additional individual to complete a task. Influencing a person to lend a hand in a task that is not his or her possession can take multiple forms, and the structure that are most frequently is used in an organization will describe that system.