Negotiating Conflicts Project

ALEJANDROM GARCIA SANCHEZ

0132379

INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS

RESEARCH PROJECT ON NEGOTIATION CONFLICTS

Please elaborate on the following issues:

Briefly explain what is a conflict?

A conflict we can say is a disagreement between two parties, mainly because each one has their own principle, which has an opposition against the other one.

State the common conflicts confronted by a negotiator in a business negotiation.

The most popular conflict can be the price of a product you want to sell to another company, they would probably like the product, the service and everything that surrounds it, but if the price doesn’t matches what de company wants, there will be no contract.

Another type of conflict I had while working in a freight forwarder was delivering cargo late, as you may know, there are a lot of factors that we can’t control, for example, Miami’s latest hurricane, I had a lot of customers importing from USA that had to cross Miami, so what we did, first, see if we could fix the problem without telling our customer of this matter, probably by changing the route and if we could do that we only informed at the end that there was a hurricane coming and that the freight would have another route, this was another way of solving the conflict, it is very risky sometimes, but at last, this was how we managed to deal with a possible conflict.

A final conflict you may encounter on a business negotiation could be an unsatisfied customer, and the possibility of them not working with you anymore,

What alternatives are available to solve these conflicts?  

The best alternative to solve conflicts is ot have an agreements with the priorities each party has, meaning that in some parts you have to give in, in order for the biggest part or the main interest has an effect on the other part.

Another alternative to solve conflicts is not to ignore the fact that there is a conflict, communicate it to the other party, because time is key and if you do not act quick the conflict may rise ten times worst.

Explain if these types of conflicts confronted during a business negotiation are they the same for men and women.

No, they are not the same, while us men would probably only focus on the main issue of the conflict, women will think of every aspect, meaning it would be harder to solve a conflict with a women in a business negotiation, I am not saying that this is bad, but the two ways of thinking are different.

Explain if solving and managing conflicts is the same thing,

Of what I researched, they are not the same thing, but, they relate on with the other, first of all, managing conflicts means that you need to learn how to react when a conflict appears, this is with what most of managers deal, learning how to act in the best way, without having a panic attack, because there will always be conflicts, some of them inevitable to appear, in other words, managing conflicts means, being prepared for any future situation that may appear.

Finally, solving conflicts comes after, it is the action of how you are going to manage the conflict, what tools are you going to use, when and how you are going to do it, awaiting for the best situation at the end.

According to your research, state if there is a new theory or ideas that help to identify or solve conflicts during a negotiation.

Yes, there are many ways of solving conflicts:

• Collaborating: I would agree with this one a lot, it means that you will gather certain people that are affected by this conflict, brainstorm the ways of solving the conflict and agreeing in which one is the best, I find this very important, because you have a lot of point of views that you may not think of at the time there is a conflict.

• Compromising: Giving up elements in order to agree with the other party to make matters acceptable, as a solution to the conflict, this is a decision that a lot of CEOs make, since they know the boundaries of the company, and how much they can give and expect from the other party.

• Accommodating: Is another way of negotiating, in a sense of peace with another, you give them what they want in order to keep a healthy relation, this may happen with a big customer that gives you a lot of business or buys a lot of products.

Conclusions

In conclusion I would say that everyone is aware that conflicts are going to exist, but the important thing is to learn how to manage and solve the conflicts, do not panic at the beginning when you know there are going to be conflicts, if you want to grow and develop your professional skills you will need to know how to solve them and making people trust you that you can fix anything that you encounter.