NEGOTIATION

“All Human Interaction Is Negotiation.” Yet, it also states that “Not Everything Is Negotiable.” Are These Contrary Statements? Do You Agree With Either? Both?

“All Human Interaction Is Negotiation.” Yet, it also states that “Not Everything Is Negotiable.” Are These Contrary Statements? Do You Agree With Either? Both?

Introduction

Negotiation is a process, whereby interested parties resolve disputes, agree courses of action, individuals or groups seek advantages or seek to obtain results that serve their mutual interests. It is generally regarded as a form of alternative dispute resolution. Negotiation has become one of the integral components of human interaction, something that we see or experience almost everyday. While we cannot make someone comply or work totally on our terms, it is the best solution to find a middle-way in human interactions, whereby they resolve or at least, try to resolve their differences and come to a win-win situation. The major motivation or justification behind negotiating in disputes is to resolve certain complex situations without harming the feeling or negating the interests of the other party.

This research paper tends to provide an agreement to either of the following two statements with relevant justifications and supportive examples form work and real-life experiences:

“All Human Interaction Is Negotiation.” or

“Not Everything Is Negotiable.”

The next section of the paper tends to outline our stance on the topic, highlight a succinct thesis statement that will further reinforce, and guide the course of our research on negotiation.

Thesis Statement

While negotiations constitute a major part of human interactions, not everything is entirely negotiable.

Review of the Literature

It is an undeniable fact that human interactions are complex, and involve multiple aspects of reaching a definite outcome. While both parties involved in a conversation aim to achieve their own benefit or “interest” at the end of the interaction, it is not always that they engage in negotiation processes. We will discuss certain situations in this research that will imply that although human interaction are greatly dominated by negotiations, it is not the “only” component of a human interaction, meaning that we do not “always” negotiate in every instance (Shell, 1999).

One can see that negotiation happens in almost all areas of life. In the area of law, for example, a skilled negotiator serves as an advocate for either party and usually tries to get the results most favourable to it. In this process, the negotiator attempts to determine the minimum score that the other party (or parties) wants to accept, then adjust their applications accordingly. A "successful" negotiation in this area is when the negotiator can get all or most of the results that their party wants, but without leading the other party to permanently stop the negotiations (Honeyman, Schneider, 2004).

Negotiations are sometimes referred to as a traditional “win-lose situation”, because of the hard style of the negotiators, who seek to get the maximum output for their party. In the 70s, practitioners and researchers began to develop a “win-win” approach in negotiations so that both parties were satisfied to have ...