Negotiation Is Essential

Short-term disputes and long-term conflicts have always existing between organizations. People’s ability is not always strong enough to solve problems. So they need to develop negotiating skills. Negotiation, in general, can be defined as an attempt to manage interdependence and conflict between parties. Furthermore, negotiations can be seen as a process to establish, define, or redefine the relationship between negotiating parties (Koeszegi, 2004, p1). Negotiation has a great influence on solving problems. Therefore it is evident that negotiation is an essential element in solving problems between organizations. The purpose of this essay is to show that negotiation can break a deadlock, achieve win-win outcome and is an important way to find solutions to the problems.

Negotiation is an important way to find solutions to the problems. When two parties negotiate, they have something in common and some differences. What they have in common is that each side has something the other side wants. Their differences lie in the fact that both want the best deal for themselves (Thompson, 1998, p135). Participants know that they need something from others, which they do not have before negotiation. Through negotiation, they exchange information to get a clear mind that what they could do to solve the problems. One reason for the claim is that parties have great interest in the resources that belong to other parties. Participants in an effective negotiation understand that one another’s interests are more likely to find value creating trades than parties who either do not share information or share information asymmetrically (Wolfe & Mcginn, 2005, p15). For example, in 1961, the Soviet Union and the United States builded missile installations in Cuba and in Turkey respectively. And the world seemed headed for nuclear disaster. At that moment the two sides exchanged letter and communicated to show their willingness to save the world from nuclear catastrophe. Thus, they negotiated and reach agreement (Collins, 2005, p6). Collins’s findings show that due to the letters exchanged by the Soviet Union and the United States and their communication, both parties knew the other parties’ attitude to the Cuban crisis. They knew that both sides were not willing to risk their people’s lift to start a nuclear war, because they had a clear understanding of the result if the war happened. This is important for both sides to change their policy and action to the Cuban crisis. Therefore, they reached agreement that the Soviet Union must dismantle the missile installations in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, and the United States must dismantle the missile installations in Turkey and assure not to invade Cuba. However, if the two sides did not exchange letters to communicate and negotiate later, both parties did not knew what the other sides would do to the crisis in the future and the attitude to the crisis. This maybe cause the Third World War occur. Therefore, exchanging information is important for participants to get key information to create solutions to the problems.

Negotiation usually may result in a breakthrough in deadlock. Deadlock is likely to occur in those cases where both sides are not willing to make a concession in the dispute. And finally there is no solution found. Through negotiation, participants can brainstorm on their own side and also the other side in order to find as much more solutions to the deadlock as possible. One reason for the claim is that participants