Power Play for Howard - Assignment Example

?Negotiation is the process of communicating back and forth, for the purpose of reaching a joint agreement about differing needs or ideas. It is a collection of behaviors that involves communication, sales, marketing, psychology, sociology, assertiveness and conflict resolution. A negotiator may be a buyer or seller, a customer or supplier, a boss or employee, a business partner, a diplomat or a civil servant. It is a process of interaction by which two or more parties who consider that they need to be jointly involved in an outcome, but who initially have different objectives, seek by the use of argument and persuasion to resolve their difference in order to achieve a mutually acceptable solution. Another important consideration is that negotiation implies acceptance by both parties that agreement between them is required before a decision can be implemented. The requirement of negotiation is there need to be minimum two parties involved in the negotiation process. There must exist some common interest, either in the subject matter of the negotiation or in the negotiating context that puts or keeps the parties in contact. Introduction to case: Power play for Howard Juwan Howard is a 23 year old young basket ball player. And this case study dealt with the young players negotiation techniques between the two teams. Howard was introduced in 1994 by the Washington Bullets, a junior from University of Michigan with the 11 year contract for $37 million. He was hard working and, for the most part, conducted himself with class and dignity on and off the court. Juwan Howard became a all time favorite key player in the basket ball team. People of Washington wanted to keep Juwan Howard with them as he is a star player and they wanted a win to Washington after a long span of 9 years. Even the agents and managers of various clubs wanted to keep him with them. Hence there was a huge demand for Juwan Howard in the society and this case study tell us about the negotiation technique that adopted by Juwan Howard to increase his bidding value and also the agents to bring Juwan Howard in their team but not creating any financial risky situation to their respective clubs. Negotiation is not a very simple process. In negotiation each party wants to have their upper hand and want to gain profits. Therefore during negotiation each party will have certain advantages it can be tangible and intangible, costs and risk associated with their contracts. Hence it is the capacity of a person who does the negotiation to ensure that he will get the maximum benefits. Negotiations involved in this case study are bit complicated as all the parties involved in it and they were just observing other peoples move so as to open their trump card. In this case study Juwan Howard’s name and fame is going to give a lot of benefits to him in terms of money. The basket ball game is very famous amongst the people so each game used to get around $136,000 revenue, and hence Juwan Howard thinks that he also should get a very good remuneration for himself. Moreover Howard is emotionally attached to Washington, and leaving will cause him lot of pain which is also can be reason for high quotation. Although he agreed to leave Washington and join Miami Heat, which gave a guaranteed seven year, contract worth $100.8 million. It is the biggest deal in the history of team sports, along with luxury hotel suites and limousine service during his road trips. This is a huge deal for Howard in his young age of 23 years. Howard almost was the highest paid basketball player during the 1996 and 1997 season, but his contract was voided by the NBA. However the confused story of Howard returns to the Bullets in August 1996 signing a contract, but Heat went to court challenging the NBA’s ruling. But using the Heats quotation Howard and his agents could negotiate better with Bullets winning a contract of over 100 million. This explained the extent to which the pro sports have become a mesh of emotion and financial reason with on court talent and the off court financial calculations. Even though Howard was a professional player, but he demanded very high price on his skills, which resulted him being greedy for the profession. Not only the player or team need to be blamed in this because the agents play a huge part in the negotiations. From Juwan Howard’s perspective the negotiation of the contract meant he wanted to earn his full market value for the next seven seasons. He knew these were critical playing years for him and he wanted to get the best value for his efforts. His tangible benefits from the negotiation are the financial gain achieved from negotiation. His costs were the efforts and time he would put in training and games. The intangible benefit is the ego boost, because he is a player with a $205 million contract. The risk involved for Howard was the danger of a lower salary, playing for a losing team, a weak coach, or risk living in an undesirable city. Wes Unseld had to take a rapid action and help persuade Howard that the Bullets were the team for him. Unseld negotiated with FAME executive David Falk about signing Howard with a deal l worth $74 million. Unseld worked between Falk and team owner Abe Pollin to get Howard to sign. It was a matter of reputation for Unseld too because he was a new General Manager. Unseld began the negotiation in an integrative bargaining position and as the negotiations continued, it began to resemble a win-lose bargaining. Unseld also had to match the legendary Pat Riley bidding for Howard’s service. Howard chose the Miami Heat, but the league did not agree with the decision and Howard’s contract was void. Unseld acted quickly and began to re-negotiate with Howard. In the end the NBA did not allow the Heat to acquire the rights to Howard and the Bullets ended up with Howard. In 1996, sports salary offers changed forever. Juwan Howard, an all-star forward for the Washington Bullets, became a free-agent. During the previous season, opposing players and coaches were unofficially recruiting Howard. Howard had been shopping for serious offers through his agent David Falk. As a free-agent Howard was no longer obligated to fulfill his original contract with the Bullets. He maintained an impressive performance each game, achieving all-star status that season. In the community Howard donated time and money for projects and charity. From the old GM’s perspective the negotiation of Juwan Howard’s contract was that the organization wanted to retain Juwan Howard as a player for the Washington Bullets. Juwan Howard wanted his full market value for a caliber player of his stature. Juwan’s state of mind new the psychological and the intangible gain of playing as a big man in the NBA. With all of the acknowledgment the old GM knew about his client Juwan Howard he basically tried to use distributive bargaining of negotiations with Juwan. Juwan and his agent wanted an integrative bargaining agreement where parties collaborate to find a "win-win" solution to their dispute. Conclusion As discovered in the Power play for Howard case study, one can conclude that to have a win-win situation both the parties must define heir objectives, their problems and together they should find the solution without being too greedy for themselves. This can rejoin the spoit relationships. Obtain positive results for all parties involved in negotiations the representatives must define . REFERENCE: 1. Barry, B., Lewicki, R.J., & Saunders, D.M. (2007). Negotiations: Readings, Exercises, and Cases, 5e. Retrieved from www.ecampus.phoenix.edu. 2. Power play for Howard, retrieved from http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Case-Study-Analysis-Part-A/372194? 3. Ken Shah & Prof. Param J. Shah, Negotiating Skills, retrieved from http://www.laynetworks.com/Negotiating-Skills.html Read More