Negotiates to Arrive at
a Decision
Developed by Lorraine Bodigheimer
The
importance of this activity is to learn how to work toward an agreement that may
involve exchanging specific resources or resolving divergent interests.
For
this competency, you will want to learn more about negotiating by reading more
on the process at www.inionline.com
You
should also become familiar with Key Negotiating Terms listed in Developing
Interpersonal Skills workbook, page 61, in Mainland High School's media
center.
These
activities will demonstrate your negotiating skills in several areas of your
life. Use the following steps as a
guide through the negotiation process.
a.
Define
the problem.
b.
List
three of your options.
c.
List
three options available to the other side.
d.
List
three of your consequences.
e.
List
three consequences for the other side.
f.
Identify
similar options and consequences of both sides.
g.
Arrive at
a resolution.
h.
Sum up
and analyze what both sides have won and lost.
Choose
six of the following ten situations and explain how they could be resolved
through negotiation.
1.
Research
any one of the following disputes and examine the events that led both parties
to a strike. Compare both sides’
initial requests and demands to the final settlement and explain the negotiating
techniques used during the arbitration process.
Finally, sum up what each side won and lost.
a.
Baseball
strike, 1994-95
b.
Football
strike, 1987
c.
Seattle
garbage strike, 2000
d.
Graduate
students’ strike, Berkley, California 1998
e.
Teacher’s
strike
2.
Interview
a professional person, preferably an officer of a large company, on the topic
“negotiating skills needed in the twenty-first century”. Then write a
summary of the interview.
a.
Prepare a
set of questions to guide the interview.
b.
Schedule
an hour-long interview with the person.
c.
Dress
appropriately.
d.
Take
careful notes
e.
Write
summary of interview and turn in along with a thank-you letter.
3.
Read
the newspaper for several weeks to identify social issues.
Select one, analyze it and take a stand
on the subject for the purpose of proving or
disproving and persuading an audience about
some aspect of the subject.
Examples might be voucher schools, FCAT testing, immigration policy, or the
death penalty.
4.
The
bus was delayed in traffic and you have arrived at school with just five minutes
to spare. A friend on the bus just
invited you to a party tonight and that special someone that you have had your
eye on is going to be there. You
must call home before your parent leaves for work to get permission to go, but
you absolutely cannot be late for first period AGAIN. You run to the only working pay phone on campus only to find
someone already using it, and they don’t care about being late.
Time is running out. What do
you do?
5.
You
are managing the jewelry department of a large department store.
The president of the company has hired his daughter to work there for the
summer. After a few days you
notice that some jewelry is missing, and the daughter is wearing a ring you are
sure is from the display. Inventory
will be taken next week and you or the other salesperson could be blamed for the
missing items. How do you deal with
her behavior and the situation?
6. You are
waiting at the dentist’s office to have a simple
filling done.
Your appointment was for 3:00pm and it is already 4:30. You have a date at 6pm and unless
you get in to
see the dentist soon, the anesthetic won’t
have a chance to wear off before dinner. The
receptionist has already told you
the doctor will be with you soon, but
you are getting impatient. How would you handle the situation?
7.
You
pick up your jacket from the dry cleaners only to discover that
two buttons are missing.
The buttons are quite fancy and it will be impossible
to find other buttons to match. The
clerk is a young girl who
says that she just started working there today and doesn’t know anything
about missing buttons. What do you
do?
8.
At
a meeting, a coworker makes a suggestion about how the company can save money.
The boss is thrilled with the idea.
You are shocked because the idea was yours.
You mentioned it to the coworker to see what he thought about it and now
he is taking all the credit. What
do you do?
9.
You
used a friend’s computer to type up your research project but was not able to
turn it in because you got sick. When
you finally got back to school, the teacher was raving about your friend’s A+
project, and you discover that it was the one that you had worked so hard on.
How would you handle the problem?
10.
Write
a persuasive letter to the editor of a local newspaper about a social issue.
You may use information you gathered in Item 9 above or chose an issue
that you feel strongly about. Your letter must be concise; reduce the
information without losing the message. You must address a specific issue and
offer solutions to the problem. The letter should follow a three paragraph
format and must be checked by your teacher before being submitted to the
newspaper. Your intent should be to
get this letter published, but successful completion of this item is not
dependent upon publication.
Reference
links:
http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v2i3/peer.html
http://www.csmp.org/peermed/peer_home/htm
Http://www.peer.ca/peerdefinitions.html