Manager's preparation for negotiation & distributive bargaining

Now that the process of negotiation has been examined, let's move forward to studying how we best prepare for negotiations, and how distributive bargaining works. Preparations, as in all aspects of life, are necessary for success. The same goes for negotiations. The better prepared you are to enter into and participate in the process, the more likely you can achieve a favorable outcome. Preparing for a negotiation or bargaining session will also reduce your anxiety and uncertainty, and allow time for you to define what is most important to you in the session's potential outcome. It also allows you to gather as much relevant information as possible, listing the information and valuing it in a logical way to then make use of it during the bargaining. Once you define your specific goal, you can keep your focus on that goal in a rational and positive manner.

The process of distributive bargaining allows discussions to try to narrow the distance between the two sides. How is the pie best cut up to try to please both sides (or to be least offensive)? The "pie," in the business world, could refer to items such as tangible products, services, capital, skills, information, or other resources. Each side will want to achieve its original goal; however, compromise is often needed to close the distance.

Preparations for the actual bargaining are critical. To a large extent, your power in bargaining is dependent upon how clear you are in your stated goals/desired outcome, your knowledge of acceptable alternatives, your walk-away values, and also how much you know about your opponents. Although we cannot promise a successful outcome of the negotiation and bargaining, we can prepare ourselves well by understanding the processes and best practices as fundamental steps that will ensure a more productive encounter.

1. Using background resources, as well as peer-reviewed sources of your own, create a PowerPoint presentation of that clearly summarize the best practices that a healthcare manager should employ to best prepare for both negotiations and distributive bargaining. Include speaker's notes to further expand upon and explain your points for each slide.