N07: Finding and Using Negotiation Power

N07: Finding and Using Negotiation Power

One of tools negotiators can use to give themselves an advantage or increase the probability of achieving their objectives is a ‘power’.  Many negotiators believe that power is very important in negotiation and who have this power usually understand how to put pressure on the other party, how to persuade the other party to change their mind.

Where could negotiators get the power or the capabilities to give themselves an advantage?

-       Negotiators can get the power from information sources of power; negotiators can assemble and organize facts and data to support their position, argument and desired outcomes.

-       Negotiators can get the power from personal sources of power; they can acquire power from their psychological orientation, cognitive orientation, Motivational orientation, Dispositions and Skills and Moral orientation.

-       Negotiators can get power from their position in an organization. They can gain the power from their responsibility, duties or position of the job. Also, power can come from creating a resource stockpile in an environment where resources appear to be scarce.

-       Power can come from the relationship. Negotiators goal interdependence, Referent power, Networks can also have an impact on how negotiators constructively use their power.

-       The power can come from the contextual sources of power. Power can be based in the context, situation, or environment in which negotiators take place.

Negotiators should treat power as the potential to alter the attitudes and behaviors of others that an individual brings to a given situation. Power is implicated in the use of many negotiation tactics, such as hinting to the other party that you have good alternatives (a strong BATNA) in order to increase your leverage. In general, people have power when they have “the ability to bring about outcomes they desire” or “the ability to get things done the way them to be done.”

Question   

1. Where could negotiators get the power or the capabilities to give themselves an advantage?

-       Negotiators can get the power from information sources of power; negotiators can assemble and organize facts and data to support their position, argument and desired outcomes.

-       Negotiators can get the power from personal sources of power; they can acquire power from their psychological orientation, cognitive orientation, Motivational orientation, Dispositions and Skills and Moral orientation.

-       Negotiators can get power from their position in an organization. They can gain the power from their responsibility, duties or position of the job. Also, power can come from creating a resource stockpile in an environment where resources appear to be scarce.

-       Power can come from the relationship. Negotiators goal interdependence, Referent power, Networks can also have an impact on how negotiators constructively use their power.

-       The power can come from the contextual sources of power. Power can be based in the context, situation, or environment in which negotiators take place.

2. What are the Sources of Power and how People acquire Power?

Informational sources of power: Information is the most common source of power. Derived from the negotiator’s ability to assemble and organize data to support his or her position, arguments, or desired outcomes.

Its tool to challenge the other party’s position or desired outcomes or to undermine the effectiveness of the other’s negotiating arguments

Personal sources of power:

·         Personal orientation

·         Cognitive orientation

·         Ideologies about power

·         Motivational orientation

·         Specific motives to use power

·         Disposition and skills

·         Orientation to cooperation/competition

·         Moral orientation

·         Philosophical orientation to power use

Power based on position in an organization:

Two major sources of power in an organization:

·         Legitimate power, which is grounded in the title, duties, and responsibilities of a job description, and “level” within an organization hierarchy. Power based on the control of resources associated with that position

·       Relationship-based sources of power: People who control resources have the capacity to give them to someone who will do what they want, and withhold them (or take them away) from someone who doesn’t do what they want.

Some of the most important resources: money, supplies, human capital, time, equipment, Critical services and interpersonal support.

Contextual sources of power:  Goal interdependence

·         How parties view their goals

Referent power

·         Based on an appeal to common experiences, common past, common fate, or membership in the same groups.

Networks

·         Power is derived from whatever flows through that particular location in the structure (usually information and resources)

3. Why is Power Important to Negotiators?

Seeking power in negotiation arises from one of two perceptions:

The negotiator believes he or she currently has less power than the other party.

The negotiator believes he or she needs more power than the other party.

Define Power?

It’s an actor which has power in a given situation (situational power) to the degree that he can satisfy the purposes (goals, desires, or wants) that he is attempting to fulfill in that situation”

Two perspectives on power:

·         Power used to dominate and control the other– “power over”

·         Power used to work together with the other–“power with”