WHISTLE BLOWING, NEGOTIATING, AND HR LAW
Negotiating
The art of negotiating is important for all employees and especially for HR managers and professionals. HR personnel are involved in many negotiations such as allocating salaries and bonuses, implementing policies, and determining procedures. There are two main methods of negotiating: (1) Distributive and (2) Integrative. Distributive bargaining is the approach to bargaining or negotiation that is used when the parties are trying to divide something up-distribute something. It contrasts with integrative bargaining in which the parties are trying to make more of something. A practical example of distributing bargaining is when purchasing a vehicle from a dealership that is trying to profit as much as possible. In distributive bargaining, it's best to keep information to yourself while trying to get information out of the other party. An integrative bargaining situation occurs when it's possible to produce a greater outcome together than either party could reach on his or her own. During integrative bargaining, it is important to determine the priorities of all parties involved. As a practical example, when dealing with Labor Unions, it is recommended for managers to use an integrative bargaining approach, but unfortunately many managers use a distributive bargaining approach, which results in impasse, employee strikes, and wasting an organization's time and resources.
Negotiating Approaches
Discuss a negotiation that you have been involved with. Discuss the details of the negotiation and whether you used a distributive or integrative approach. Depending on the approach you used for the negotiation, what if you used the other approach? Do you think that would have helped the situation? As an HR manager, should you use a distributive or integrative approach when dealing with employees?