What Happened During the Negotiation Process of Coast News - Case Study Example

? Integration/Reflection Paper on Coast News Negotiation Introduction Negotiation is a method of performing group decisions among the parties who areengaged possessing different choices or likings. Basically, negotiation is a procedure of getting the things done from others that is expected from them particularly in the method of executing various vital decisions (Mehnert, 2008). Moreover, negotiation is regarded as a deal in which the engaged parties possess a direct influence upon the final outcome of the negotiation. It requires voluntary approval on behalf of the parties those who are involved in a particular negotiation. It is also considered as a give and take process in which the actual and definite conditions of a transaction are equally agreed. It is the act or technique of bargaining in order to accomplish a commonly satisfactory agreement or objective (Oliver, 2002). The other significant conception of negotiation lies in the peaceful method in which the involved parties find ultimate solutions by themselves and ultimately gain maximum control of their desired result. The negotiation process is also considered as the legal and orderly management procedure by which the governments conduct their relations with other establishments and discuss, adjust as well as manage their disagreements or any differences (Zhang, 2007). In the paper, the negotiable case particularly that of Coast News is taken into concern regarding the experiences during its negotiation procedure and certain theories as well as concepts of negotiation are also applied in the case. Various aspects such as discussing exactly what happened during the negotiation process of Coast News, necessary recommendations and a summative conclusion will be taken into consideration in the discussion of the paper. Essentials of Negotiation In this global financial market, the most significant and crucial matter lies in policy making. It has been identified that the policy formations are related to various deeds among the parties regarding diverse issues towards communal interests and other related factors along with avoiding increase regarding the internal conflicts among the parties (Carrel & Heavrin, 2008). In this connection, it can be observed that negotiation is a central component of policy making procedures which determine the different issues that are addressed by the policy makers, finds solutions and required support from the involved parties to confirm that the planned policy making decisions are sustainable (Carrel & Heavrin, 2008). The conception of negotiation mainly takes place for various reasons. The reasons include such as the initiative taken by the involved parties in order to generate any new aspect and to resolve a problem or a dispute between the involved parties among others. A wide range of perspectives can be used in order to understand different aspects of negotiation such as economic theories and practices, psychology, political science, communication, labor relations and law among others (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). The same negotiation outcome can also be understood from several different perspectives because the people or the engaged parties in the procedure of negotiation can negotiate many different aspects along with considering the necessity of the fundamental process of negotiation for them who work with other people (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). However, the several characteristics that are common to all negotiable situations include the presence of the involved parties which may be individuals, groups or organizations among others and conflict of interest between them that is based on the dissimilarities regarding their different views, opinions and ideas among others along with the methods in order to manage the conflict (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). Moreover, the characteristics of negotiable situations also include acting as a voluntary process. The parties, individuals, groups or organizations negotiate because they have a belief that they can control or manage themselves in order to attain their expected objectives through voluntary procedure. Also the characteristics comprise the give and take policies while executing the negotiation process (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). The other significant characteristic of a successful negotiation process lies in managing various procedures regarding the price or the terms of the agreement relating to negotiation process. This particular factor acts as a motivational factor that may directly or indirectly influence the involved parties, individuals, groups and organizations among others during the negotiation process. It possesses an enormous influence upon overall negotiation process and outcomes and needs to be managed actively during the process of negotiation (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). The essentiality of negotiation eventually lies upon a few of the factors such as framing, strategizing and planning among others. Framing is a definite method by which the involved parties, individuals, groups or the organizations describe the problem while executing negotiation process (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). After framing, the planning process comes into action. In the planning process, the involved parties, individuals, groups and organizations among others anticipate regarding their desire to attain their expected objectives and also prepare in order to tackle various arising issues in advance. The preparation includes adequate attention towards a few of the vital issues including goals, goal priorities as well as practical concerns among others (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). Subsequent to the planning process, the next factor on the involved negotiated parties lies on strategizing. In this process, the involved negotiating parties select and develop certain particular strategies. They employ their strategies that attempt to influence each other’s perceptions through the transfer of information and persuasion (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). Importance of Negotiation The process of negotiation has immense importance upon the involved parties, groups, individuals and organizations among others. The theories as well as the practices of negotiation have been elaborately discussed on the basis of above mentioned discussions. The importance of negotiation can be realized as top level priority from the involved parties and the organizations among others viewpoint (Harvard Business School Press & Society for Human Resource Management, 2005). The immense importance of negotiation lies in the conflict resolution among the involved parties, groups, individuals and organizations among others. With the advancement in the conflict resolutions, generally morale and efficiency also improve among the involved parties. From the organizations viewpoint, when the organizations develop competence in negotiation, ultimately they can reduce the costs that are associated with the legal contracts and can resolve conflicts to a certain extent (Schellenberg, 1996). Moreover, the importance of negotiation lies in its necessary fundamentals that include people, interests, alternatives, options, commitments and communication among others. Also the significance of negotiation lies in identifying the interests involved in a particular issue, dealing with the positions of the negotiating parties. The positions of the negotiating parties particularly represent the stated roles and objectives of the negotiating parties and at the same time the interests are the valuable reasons that describe the position of the negotiating parties (Alfredson & Cungu, 2008). Apart from the interests, the importance of negotiation also lies upon the relationship of the negotiating parties, individuals, groups and organizations among others. In this connection, negotiation acts as a means of finding a way in order to solve a problem without getting unfocused by personal elements and eventually engages into an agreement in such a way that will safeguard the relationship. The better the relationship, the more cooperation each side will get from the other along with the necessary information can also be shared comfortably while initializing the process of negotiation (Alfredson & Cungu, 2008). The other importance of negotiation lies between the negotiated parties, individuals, groups and organizations among others in order to know their best alternatives before or after entering into a negotiated agreement. By having the knowledge with their best alternatives, it can eventually increase the creative thinking of the involved parties and also allow them quickly to come into a favorable solution or outcome (Brett, 2007). After having the knowledge with their best alternatives and once the negotiating parties have begun to build the relationships among themselves, the involved parties in the negotiation process eventually turns towards the task of generating options. In a negotiation process, the options are the possible solutions to a particular problem which is shared by the involved parties. The process of identifying options or the possible solutions to the problems ultimately encourage innovative thoughts as well as advances the problem solving abilities (Marcus, Dorn, McNulty, 2011). Thus, the importance of negotiation along with its relevant theories and principles lie in generating the options through certain techniques like brainstorming which generally involves inviting all the negotiating parties, individuals, groups or organizations among others in order to perceive and provide an idea which ultimately helps to encourage their creative thinking (Alfredson & Cungu, 2008). It has been recognized that the process of negotiation is only possible through communication. Proper and good communication can change the attitude, prevent or tackle the various complex situations, minimize the misunderstandings and help to improve the relationships among others. Moreover, good communication skills are important in order to convey the message with proper understanding (Hilligsoe, 2009). In addition, the importance of negotiation along with proper and good communication help the involved negotiating parties to share information among themselves as a means of uncovering interests as well as helping the parties in order to tackle various common problems or threats (Hilligsoe, 2009). Finally, the importance of negotiation lies in the commitments that are usually made by the involved negotiating parties. A negotiated settlement is only feasible if all the negotiating parties honor or maintain their commitments that they usually make while executing the process of negotiation. It is also to be kept in mind that during the negotiating process, the involved negotiated parties should think carefully about the kind of commitments that they usually make (Sen & Durfee, n.d.). Therefore, these are in short the various importance of negotiation along with its relevant concepts, theories and principles of a particular agreement or deed. Coast News Negotiation Coast News is an afternoon daily newspaper of Centerville which is a small city on the West Coast. Currently, this particular paper lies in a position of sound financial structure and also possesses a good reputation especially in the media industry among others. These significant achievements were mostly due to the outcome of several years of growing movement along with increased advertisement incomes. As a result, its financial market position eventually became quite strong and threatening for its competitors. Initially, a new publisher acquired the Coast News in order to be successful along with other small newspapers and ultimately to earn more reputation in this very particular industry. The new publisher possesses the reputation and focused more towards demanding the outcomes from each department and also allowed the management team to take important operating decisions. However, the various operating departments availed the detailed essential information that is necessary for executing the operating decisions. In this connection, the new publisher acts in order to determine the new operating strategies or functions other than the strategies and functions that are adopted by the previous publisher. The new publisher made some new and fresh ideas for the paper such as printing two sections daily instead of one that was being performed by the previous publisher. Along with printing two sections, the new publisher also laid emphasis upon having regular color pictures with quicker printing and color banners among others. Moreover, keeping in mind that the newspaper already has attained the reputation for news contents and editorial excellence, it will not make such a difference in these areas, so in lieu of this the press should be used in order to bring additional profits to the paper. It was strongly believed that the newly designed and well functioned press will provide an excellent opportunity in order to attract more advertising revenue which ultimately means more wealth to the press and the staffs as well. The main objective with the coming of a new publisher along with a newly well designed press is to secure new advertisers as well as increase the advertising sales and ultimately maximize more profits in order to cover the additional operational costs. In this connection, the new publisher felt the need of joint plans as well as the design of a comprehensive strategy. In order to design an inclusive plan or strategy, the new publisher went into a negotiation with the various personnel of the press. In the negotiation, several issues were raised and the need of introducing or resolving those issues was felt, as early as possible. It is equally important that the new operating plans or strategies should result in increasing advertising profits along with maintaining reputation of the firm. The significant issues or the strategies that were taken during the negotiation include the introduction or the establishment of ‘Advertorials’ which denotes that the new press will provide certain additional pages in order to attract major additional business from different advertisers and ultimately to earn maximum profits. It has been recognized earlier that the news as well as the advertisements of the old press was comprised in one section. However, the new press made a plan towards substantial increase in the total number of pages along with making possible to print particularly in two sections that would result in bringing and attaining vital revenue for the newspaper. Moreover, the plan also includes making spot colors particularly in the second section, which would allow in providing a single color in an advertisement or in the background behind the advertisement. By offering spot color to the advertisers, it will provide a real enhancement as well as improvement towards the advertising packages of the press. This particular quality feature is an excellent way in order to introduce new aspects and eventually can help to compete with the competitors along with maximizing profits. In addition, the plans or the strategies also include the quality feature of using color photographs in the newspaper. The new press has a separate unit that allows the paper to generate one color photograph for news or advertising in each day’s paper. By offering this quality feature, major advertisers will bring considerable profits. The advertisers are willing to pay the high prices particularly for the color photographs because it will help to attract the reader’s attention. The other significant plan or strategy made by the new press is regarding the deadlines and expansion. The new press will make additional circulation if possible to allow it to reach more distance and to small communities. It was firmly believed that increased circulation of the paper generates higher profits. From this particular negotiation, it is learnt that the new publisher who acquired Coast News wants to attain more reputation as well as generate more advertisement profits than the previous version. In addition, the new publisher also had a desire to add more capacity and make possible number of new options or quality features for the new initiative. In lieu of this particular negotiation, everything went well, allowing the participation of the management team in order to take many of the important operating decisions and the operating departments have availed detailed essential information for smooth executing of the decisions. In addition, the different initiatives that are taken during the negotiation is with an attempt to make full utilization of the press that contain the introduction of ‘Advertorials’ which implies that the new press will provide additional page capacity and allow substantial increase in the total number of pages as well as make it possible to print in two sections. Moreover, the features like introducing spot colors in the sections of the paper, producing color photographs as well as full color advertisements and maintaining the deadlines as well as expansion among others went well in the negotiation process. In this connection, all the quality features of the new press went well because the various important factors such as the proper and adequate decision making regarding the new press, taking initiatives in order to introduce any new aspect and non-occurrence of internal conflicts among others, which are the essentials of a negotiation process went-off well contributing towards the smooth process of entire negotiation for Coast News (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). In order to make the process of negotiation more effective, it is very much essential to manage various procedures regarding the price or the terms of the agreement relating to negotiation process. This particular factor acts as a motivational factor which may directly or indirectly influence the involved parties, individuals, groups and organizations among others during the negotiation process. They possess an enormous influence upon overall negotiation process and outcomes and needs to be managed actively during the process of negotiation (Lewecki, Barry, Saunders, Tasa, 2004). There are several aspects of improving negotiation skills like assessing the goals, developing key strategies towards problem solving and properly implementing the negotiation agreement among others. It is very much necessary to improve these negotiation skills in order to enhance the performance of the manager or the involved negotiating parties by focusing upon the negotiation process and ultimately which will lead to attain their expected results. The involved negotiated parties should follow the essentials of negotiation that includes proper policy making procedures, managing internal conflicts and initializing certain initiatives in order to create any new feature among others. In order to attain their objectives, the involved negotiated parties have to improve their negotiation process by following the above theories and practices of negotiation. The process and outcome of negotiation in the provided scenario can be more visibly explained with the theories and principles. In this context, the negotiation process is mainly based on various ideas, concepts, theories and principles of negotiation that includes framing, planning and strategizing among others. Framing is very much necessary in a negotiation process because it helps the involved negotiating parties to define any issue. After framing, the negotiating parties develop or plan certain strategies in order to properly execute those defined issues. Finally, the strategizing part comes into action in which the involved parties implement their strategies to attain their expected results. In order to make any negotiation successful, it is firmly believed that the above mentioned concepts and values of negotiation should be followed by the involved negotiating parties on the basis of the predictions that are made on the relevant concepts of negotiation. It has also been recognized that the various theories and concepts which are used in the negotiation process were followed from the very beginning and the same procedure needs to be still continued which will ultimately lead towards the improvement as well as the success of any negotiation agreement. Finally, after having a proper and adequate negotiation regarding the full utilization of the press, the introduction of several quality features that are executed or proposed eventually denotes significant quality point scores related to every issue made by the Coast News during the negotiation process. Nevertheless, Coast News got benefited from this very particular negotiation. Conclusion Negotiation is a process that can be approached and analyzed in several ways. By emphasizing upon its importance, essentials and relevant theories as well as principles, the involved negotiating parties possess an opportunity to come into a solution that is beneficial for them. The new publisher of Coast News has maintained or followed certain theories and principles which ultimately went well for the various objectives that they executed. The identification of the various issues regarding the full use of the new press that was initiated by the new publisher along with maintaining and focusing upon the relevant theories and principles of negotiation will ultimately lead towards the enhancement as well as success for the Coast News. Perhaps, these quality features would help the Coast News in order to attain their expected goals and objectives. References Alfredson, T., & Cungu, A. (2008). Negotiation theory and practice. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docs/up/easypol/550/4-5_negotiation_background_paper_179en.pdf Brett, J. M. (2007). Negotiating globally: how to negotiate deals, resolve disputes, and make decisions across cultural boundaries. US: John Willey & Sons. Carrell, M. R., & Heavrin, C. (2008). Negotiating essentials: theory, skills and practices. India: Pearson Education India. Harvard Business School Press, & Society for Human Resource Management. (2005). The essentials of negotiation. US: Harvard Business Press. Hilligsoe, S. (2009). Negotiation. Denmark: Academica. Lewicki, R. J., Tasa, K., Barry, B., & Saunders D. M. (2004). Essentials of negotiation. New York: McGraw Hill. Marcus, L. J., Dorn, B. C., & McNulty, E. J. (2011). Renegotiating health care: resolving conflict to build collaboration. US: John Willey & Sons. Mehnert, M. (2008). Negotiation: definition and types, manager’s issues in negotiation, cultural differences and the negotiation process. Europe: GRIN Verlag. Oliver, D. (2002). How to negotiate effectively. Europe: Kogan Page Publishers. Schellenberg, J. A. (1996). Conflict resolution: theory, research and practice. New York: SUNY Press. Sen, S., & Durfee E. H. (n.d.). The role of commitment in cooperative negotiation. 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