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Negotiation

Section 06:
Resolving Differences

Chapter 17:
Managing Negotiation
Impasses

© 2019 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
 The Nature of Impasse

Impasse is a state of conflict with no quick or easy resolution.

• Impasse is not necessarily bad or destructive, although it can be.
• Impasse does not have to be permanent.
• Impasse can be tactical or genuine.
• Impasse can be partial.
• Impasse perceptions can differ from reality.
• Intransigence is a party’s unwillingness to move to any fallback position
through concession or compromise.

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 What Causes Impasses and Intractable Negotiations?

Intractable conflicts vary Atmosphere of anger,

along four dimensions. frustration, and resentment.
• Divisiveness. Channels of communication
• Intensity. is closed or constrained.
• Pervasiveness. Communication is used to
• Complexity. criticize or blame.

Factors that increase the Original issues are blurred.

likelihood of impasse are Negotiators are identified
listed to the right. with positions.
Conflict is personalized.

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 Characteristics of the Issues

Value differences.
• Critical is how differences are dealt with – force or respect.
High-stakes distributive bargaining.
• Impasse may result from distributive bargaining when there is no
apparent overlap in the bargaining range.
Risk to human health and safety.
• Some impasses are due to a clear threat to human welfare but the
issues are rooted in complex science, difficult to believe or trust.

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 Characteristics of the Parties

How to define the self. Conflict management styles.

• Identity or “Who am I?” • Aggressive avoidance.

Comparing the self to others. • Passive avoidance.

• Defines “Who are they?” • Passive aggressive avoidance.

• Parties fall trap to the • Avoidance by hopelessness.

fundamental attribution error. • Avoidance through surrogates.
Perceptions of power. • Avoidance through denial.
• Effectiveness depends on the • Avoidance through premature
other party’s belief in the power. problem solving.

Revenge and anger. • Avoidance by folding.

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 Characteristics of the Negotiation Environment

The risk of impasse increases when negotiators learn they

have very different understandings of the negotiation.
Three renegotiation situations makes impasse more likely.
• During postdeal negotiations as an existing agreement expires.
• During intradeal negotiations that reopen at specific times.
• During extradeal negotiations if there is a violation of a contract.
Extradeal negotiations are the most likely for impasse.
• Generally the result of a large shift unduly affecting one party.
• The negatively affected party wants to renegotiate, while the less
affected party sees no need to renegotiate.

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 Characteristics of the Negotiation Setting

The fourth set of reasons negotiations reach impasse involves

the negotiation setting, including:
• Temporal issues.
• Relational issues.
• Cultural issues.
Experienced negotiators understand that a setting may work
to get negotiations back on track.
• Alternatively, replacing an aggressive member of the negotiating team
signals a willingness to change the substance of the negotiation.
• Finally, timing is critical as early compromises may be rejected outright.

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 Fundamental Mistakes That Cause Impasses

Neglecting the other side’s Too much focus on common

problem. ground.
• Final agreement must satisfy • A key aspect of negotiation is
the needs of both parties. interdependence.

Too much focus on price. Neglecting BATNAs.

• Pay attention to both tangible • You reduce your power if you
and intangible factors. don’t improve your BATNA.

Positions over interests. Adjusting perceptions during

• Negotiations require both the negotiation.
creating and claiming value. • Use new information to adjust
your views.

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 Shadow Negotiation, Social Contract, and Emotions

Successful negotiators manage shadow negotiation.

• Negotiation about the negotiation process occurring within negotiations.
• Without shadow negotiation, a negotiator may find it difficult to get
negotiations started or to get their issues discussed.
Negotiators also need to manage the social contract.
• The underlying contract determines what the negotiation is about.
• The ongoing contract is concerned with decision making, contingency
plans, communication, and resolving disputes.
Negotiators reach impasse when they allow emotions to
determine their reaction to the other party.
• Instead of separating the people from the problem.

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 Preventing Impasses

The best way to resolve an

impasse is not to have one. • Be cautious in interpreting the
behavior of others.
• Monitor the interactive quality of
the process. • Face up to unproductive cycles
of rehashing old arguments.
• Pay attention to the levels of
the negotiation. • Recognize your own trigger
points.
• Be attuned to the other party’s
verbal and nonverbal cues. • Anticipate change by imagining
different scenarios.

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 How to Resolve Impasses

Impasses need resolved on three levels: cognitive,

emotional, and behavioral.
Six strategies for resolving impasses.
• Reaching agreement on rules and procedures.
• Reducing tension and synchronizing the de-escalation of hostility.

• Improving the accuracy of communication.

• Controlling the number and size of issues in the discussion.
• Establishing common ground as a basis for agreement.
• Enhancing the desirability of the options and alternatives presented.
The authors suggest following the strategies in order.

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 Agreement on the Rules and Procedures

Establishing ground rules may include these steps.

• Determining a site for a meeting.
• Setting a formal agenda, agreeing to it, and abiding by it.
• Determining who may attend the meetings.
• Setting time limits for both meetings, and the overall negotiation.
• Setting procedural rules.
• Following specific dos and don’ts for behavior.
Parties may agree to set aside a short period during
negotiations to critique how they are doing.

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 Reducing Tension and Synchronizing De-escalation

Unproductive negotiations can become highly emotional as

parties are frustrated, angry, and upset.
• Separating the parties is the most common approach – take a break.
• Managing tension with a joke or allowing the other to vent frustration.
• Acknowledging the other’s feelings: active listening.
• Manage how the message was received.

• Let the other know you heard and understood, but may not agree

• Synchronized de-escalation is initiated by one party though public

announcement of a small concession, hoping for reciprocity.
• Repeat the process, enticing the other into de-escalation.

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 Improving the Accuracy of Communication

During impasses, listening is so poor the parties are unaware

of what they have in common – “blindness of involvement.”
• Role reversal helps view the issue from the other’s perspective.
• Imaging is another method of insight into the other’s perspective.
• Parties in conflict are asked to separately engage in the following activities.
• Describe how you see yourself.

• Describe how the other party appears to you.

• State how you think the other party would describe you.

• State how you think the other party sees themselves.

• Parties then exchange the information, in order.

• A common result is parties begin to understand what the real conflict is.

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 Controlling Issues

The challenge in impasses is to contain issue proliferation

and reduce the negotiation to manageable proportions.
Fractionating is dividing a large conflict into smaller parts.
• Reduce the number of parties on each side.
• Control the number of substantive issues involved.
• State issues in concrete terms rather than as principles.
• Restrict the precedents involved, both procedural and substantive.
• Search for ways to divide the big issues – salami tactics.
• Depersonalize issues: separate issues from the parties.

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 Establishing Common Ground

Establish superordinate goals – or common goals.

Align against common enemies – negative superordinate goal.
Establish common expectations – a group covenant.
Manage time constraints and deadlines.
Reframe the parties’ view of each other.
Build trust – based on knowledge of the other’s needs.
Search for semantic resolutions – explore language.
Use analogical reasoning.
• Through direct, fantasy, personal, and symbolic analogies.

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Enhancing the Desirability of Options to the Other Party

Give the other party a “yesable” proposal.

• Success requires negotiators focus on what the other wants or would
agree to rather than their own goals and needs.
Ask for a different decision.
• Inventing and refining ways for both parties to succeed greatly
enhances the choice of a desirable option.
Sweeten the offer rather than intensifying the threat.
• Make the carrot more attractive rather than enlarging the stick.
Use legitimacy or objective criteria to evaluate solutions.
• The more the data is open to public verification, the more persuasive
the positions will be in achieving a settlement.

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 End of Chapter 17.

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© 2019 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.