Sunday, October 28, 2007

Negotiations....

There is no doubt that pre-planning and indepth analysis will definitely lead to making project a success. When we deal with construction Projects, we may encounter 'N' no. of parties with their 'N' different opinions. Its very difficult to come to conclusive terms. So often disputes arises and 'negotiations' become a very deterministic tool to approach the problem / difference of opinions.

Time is the essence of any project but as long as time is utilized effectively in resolving the issues, the project success can still be guaranteed. The main theme behind negotiations lie in understanding the issue at the root level rather than simply blabbering about issues. Most of the times issues arise due to miscommunication, false information, misconceptions, incomplete data, etc. that could be exemplified by our case studies. Conoco and NGOs could have used efficient and fair negotiations with the indegenous people to come at consensus. At times, the absence of regulatory or mediatory agency could help in sorting out the matter. It can be stated from the "Game" that was demonstrated last week.

People should be really aware about their requirements and they should consult the right people in right way by means of right negotiations at the right time.

Some of the organizational behaviour qualities like attitude, leadership, teams, cross functional groups, can highly influence the 'tactics of negotiation', which if utilized in proper direction, could fetch successful results.

The successful married life of couples who understand and adjust with each other and negotiate clearly to resolve their problems, can be a paradigm for the success of negotiations on construction projects.

2 comments:

Mash said...

Akash,
Its easy to say "consult the right people in right way by means of right negotiations at the right time", but how do you operationalize it practically? Thats why we talked about the "science of negotiation" in class.

Aaka$H said...

Distributive Approach:

People imagine that the resources are limited and they will try to 'divide the cake'. Results are wining or loosing with one party getting less and other/s more, which is usually 'competitive'.

After the statement that 'Ashwin Sir' raised in above comment, I would prefer to use the "INTEGRATIVE Approach" where people view the resources as expandable & managable. They could well focuss on expanding the 'cake' before dividing it. They would co-operate to create potential solutions that will meet the needs of all parties, which is a 'win-win' situation by adopting any or all of the following:

1. Avoid, withdraw style.
2. Compete style - high concerns for goals, low concern for relationships.
3. Accomodate Style - high concerns for relationship, low concern for goals.
4. Collobarte - High concerns for both relationships + goals.

For a successful negotiation, we need to try to accomodate as many interests of all parties concerned, use objective criteria to determine external stds to evaluate proposals. We also have to respect the people and focus on issues, interests, concerns, goals, values etc. and then concentrate on BAPNA and build a consensus over it...

So all this put together could justify - 'what is needed by right person at the right way in right time'.