Distributive & Integrative Negotiation
In
grade school, the teacher would allow us to choose which activity we would like
to engage in during our recess period.
In fair weather, this was an easy decision. The playground and classroom were at our
disposal. Students could break off into
small groups and participate in whatever activity they so desired; basketball,
soccer, football, sandbox, hopscotch, four square, jungle gym, monkey bars,
merry-go-round, swings, trader cards (mainly baseball and garbage-pail-kids),
or simply sit around and gossip.
However, on rainy days our activity was limited strictly to the
classroom. Hence, the entire class
(25-30 students) would have to collectively choose. At that point the options were silent ball, here
comes the judge, tic-tac-toe, hang man, or board games. We had to decide whether or not to select an
activity everyone could participate in or various activities which would not
disrupt one another in an enclosed setting.
Now,
on one particular rainy afternoon, it dawned upon me that opportunity was
knocking. The previous evening I had
been invited to a basketball game and pep rally at N.C. State. However I could not attend the pep rally
because I had to complete my homework beforehand. Therefore my intentions were to meet up with
my friend and his family at the game.
Yet since it was raining and recess was out of the question, if I
completed the majority of my homework during this time (about 45-50 minutes) I
would be able to attend the pep rally as well.
Now my only problem was convincing my classmates to have a study hall
instead of engaging in our normal rainy day activities.
In
order to persuade my fellow classmates to participate in a study hall, I
utilized “a variety of tactics to convince other parties to agree to the
allocation of benefits” (Mayer, 2000, p. 148).
Through distributive negotiation, my peers were swayed to concur with my
desires. This was achieved by posing the
question: “Wouldn’t you rather go home without any homework?” Initially, half the class agreed. Now we had to work on everyone else. Next I promoted the advantages which a study
hall would allow. These included, more
time to watch television, visit with friends, play video games, or sleep. In addition, they could leave their books and
backpacks in their lockers overnight.
The bottom line was our homework had to be done, whether it was
completed now during lunch hour, or later on in the evening and night at
home. Within a couple of minutes, it was
unanimously decided that we would have a study hall; I finished my homework and
was able to attend the pep rally and the game.
References:
Mayer, B. (2000). The dynamics
of conflict resolution: A practitioner’s guide. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
