Negotiation is usually the process in which people with conflicting intrests are able to reach a conclusion on how they are going to allocate resources or work together in future. The study is mostly around the various forms of negotiation, and developing the skills needed to carry out successful negotions.before undertaking the course I was very poor at reaching a conclusion with a person that was on an opposing side.mostly I would throw in the talent and had very little patient with the other party. Some of the key areas that are developed in a person are the communication skils .negotiators are interdependent and what one person wants might affect what the other person may get and vice versa.
The are key lessons learnt in the course are the various types of deals like; the distributive deals,interagative dealsconflict management and dispute resolution,multiparty negotiations and team negotiaons. The distributive negotiaons were particularly very interesting as they applied the game theory which is a win-lose or lose-lose situations.the resources in the distributive negotiaons are limited .the interagative deals invovled transforming a fixed resource into something that was valued differently.the goals of negotiaons were also a very important area inorder to understand what the whole course meant and they include creating values, claiming values, building trust and the net value outcomes.
As a negotiator one is able to learn that there are bad deals and that winning is the ultimate goal but it should not surpress s value creation.value creation is more important than winning this was potrayed throughout the various assingments that were given to us by the lecturers.most of them were intresting to work on as they included using slides and cartoons which made the material of study very interesting. However ,the aspect of value creation is limited by the effect of framing, overconfidence ,search for confirming evidence and escalation of confidence.negotiators are usually motivated by the way information is presented to them.for example if there is an Ebola outbreak in Ghana and the total number of people are infected is 50,000 but the vaccine provided by the worls health organisation can save 20,000.the options are available.one:to save 20,000 people
Two:if the vaccine is diluted there is a one-third probability that the whole population can be saved and a two-third probability that the whole population can perish.
Three: 30,000 people will die
Four:there is a one-third probability that 50,000 and a two-third probability that the whole population wiill be saved
Which program will you choose ? therefore in such a case presented above one has to use the prospect theory of assessing the risk of each option.Most people will prefer the risk-averse situation (option 1 and 3) to the more risky situation (option 2 and 4). Therefore, this shows that most negotiations are based on the information received.
The skills that are learnt through the whole course are very basic in the everyday life for example when bargaining in the shop for something. As the customer, you have to reach a win-win situation with the shopkeeper where both of you are at per. The other situation is when needed to make a crucial decision like dating. One has to look at various aspects like the benefits and if it is the right time to do so. Therefore the skills are very relevant in life.
There are however some areas that need polishing up inorder to become a good negotiator and that is the patience required in making deals.not pre-judging people on their decisions before hearing their side of the story and knowing the best point to strike a deal before it is too late.
