Sharks, Saints, and Samurai
The article Sharks, Saints, and Samurai: The Power of Ethics in Negotiations was written by Mark Young, for the April 2008 edition of the Negotiation Journal. The article discusses the power of ethics in negotiations. Mr. Young discusses three observations concerning the balance of power and ethics in politics and business. The first observation discusses Nelson Mandela and the South African government in 1986. The second and third observations are about two business contract negotiations made in the 1990’s in the United States and Germany. Young explains the three approaches to negotiations: tactical, prudential, and principled. He then anecdotally illustrates these three approaches by categorizing the negotiators who use them as saints, sharks, and samurai. This paper will discuss the negotiation approaches employed by the negotiators and how their worldview, comprehension, desire for power, and ethics is what determines whether they are a saint, shark, or a samurai. Based upon the observations of the Samurai, Nelson Mandela, Hunt Wesson (HW), and The Trust agency of Germany, as a Christian I believe that it is best to adhere to principled negotiations because ethics can be a major source of power.
Mark Young uses three comparisons to describe the negotiating styles of people; sharks, saints, and samurai. A shark is a negotiator whose concerns are purely tactical and practices “gamesmanship.” A shark uses ethics to play on their opponent’s fears and values and subdue them. Saints are defined as someone who will forgo real negotiation gains to remain trustworthy. They believe that their conduct is the ultimate basis for any judgment about the value of negotiations. Lastly, Samurai are people who prac...
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...mples the article provided as role models when I negotiate with other people in my professional and personal life. By analyzing the approaches employed by the various negotiators I was able to observe their ethical worldviews, their comprehension of the balance of power and ethics in negotiations, and the respect that these Samurai negotiators displayed for their counterparts during the negotiation process. Virtue in the negotiation process can become a powerful tool by those who choose to employ it. “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord” (Pr. 16:2).
Works Cited
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Purnell, M. (1994) Long walk to freedom. Boston: Little and Brown Co.
Young, M. (1998). Sharks, saints, and samurai. Cambridge: Harvard Press.
Lewicki, J. R., Barry, B., & Saunders, M. D. (2011). Essentials of negotiation (5th ed.). New
Many situations present the important synchronization of internal versus external negotiations. Many individuals have studied how each side in the negotiation is able to manage the internal opposition to agreements being negotiated. This can also be known as “on the table”, or what exactly is on the line in a heated argument. Each individual involve in an argument has a particular position to be managed, and often times own personal interests are widely expressed. This paper will expand upon the case of Fischer collecting needed funds from Smith with proposals and ideas for a manageable negotiation.
Fisher, Roger, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. Getting to yes: negotiating agreement without giving in. 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1991. Print.
This point was very far from my expectations as I was thinking that we were going to negotiate in an ethic way, in respect of ethical behaviors. By asking me this question, I experienced a great fear about my counterpart honesty and then don't really feel comfortable to negotiate with him as his objective was very different from mine. We finally reached an agreement but I may have leave this negotiation.
Michael R. Carrell, C. H. (2008). Negotiating Essentials: Theory, Skills, and Practices. New Jersey: Pearson.
Negotiations styles are scholastically recognized as being broken down into two general categories and those are distributive bargaining styles and integrative negotiation styles. Distributive bargaining styles of negotiation are understood to be a competitive type of negotiation. “Distributive bargaining, also known as positional bargaining, negotiating zero-sum, competitive negotiation, or win-lose negotiation, is a type or style of negotiation in which the parties compete for the distribution of a fixed amount of value” (Business Blog Reviews, 2011). This type of negotiation skill or style approach might be best represented in professional areas such as the stock market where there is a fixed goal in mind or even in a garage sale negotiation where the owner would have a specific value of which he/she would not go below. In contrast, an integrative negotiation approach/style is that of cooperative bargaining, or win-win types ...
My negotiation style questionnaire indicated that my negotiation style was collaborating and accommodating. In addition, I will not avoid negotiation. I felt the result was reasonable because I like negotiation and have never avoided negotiation when I have a chance. I always try to enlarge the size of the pie to be negotiated. However, the class taught me I sometimes accommodated too much and missed a chance to create value in the end. One of the reasons is that I am afraid of getting nothing and overly cautious. This leads me to compromise before maximizing the pie. I believe I can take more risks to create value.
Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M., & Barry, B. (2006). Negotiation Readings, Exercises, and Cases Fifth Ed. Bill Brubaker, Mark Asher, A Power Play for Howard Negotiation (pp. 616-626). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill Irwin.
Principled negotiation allows disputants to obtain what they are entitled to, while enabling them to be fair, at the same time protecting against those who would take advantage of their fairness . Although the points made are logical and indeed a great approach to certain types of conflict, I found that in some cases the method did not completely come together. More than anything, I found the method altogether was simplistic and for an ideal situation. While going through the four elements, I shall illustrate these points.
Lewicki, J. R., Barry, B., & Saunders, M. D. (2006). Negotiation: Readings, Exercises and Cases (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Negotiating styles are grouped into five types; Competing, Collaborating, Comprising, Avoidance, and Accommodating (Colburn, 2010). Even though it is possible to exhibit different parts of the five types of negation styles in different situations, can see that my tendencies seem to default to, Compromise and Accommodating. In reviewing the course work and reviewing my answers for Questionnaire 1 and 5, I find that the data reflects the same assumption. The accommodating profile is one where relationship perseveration is everything and giving what the other side wants is the route to winning people over. Accommodators are well liked by their colleagues and opposite party negotiators (Colburn, 2010). When analyzing my accommodating tenancy in negations, I find often it is easier to give into the demands when they are within a reasonable range. I often consider it the part of providing a high level of customer service. It has been my experience that continued delaying and not coming to an agreement in a topic will only shorten the window in which you will have to meet the request since. The cons to this style are by accommodating highly competitive styles the accommodator can give up to much ground in the process. “Giving away value too easily too early can signal to your negotiation counterpart that you've very deep pockets, and your gift is just a taster of bigger and better gifts to come”. The other negations type I default to is compromising. Compromising “often involves splitting the difference; usually resulting in an end position of about half way between both parties’ opening positions” (Colburn, 2010). In the absence of a good rationale or balanced exchanged concessions, half way betwee...
Lewicki, R., Saunders, D.M., Barry B., (2010) Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases. 6th Ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin. New York, NY
McCarthy, A. (n.d.). 10 rules of negotiation. Negotiation Skills. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.negotiation-skills.org
Negotiation has been used as a vital communication tool not only in business but also in social intercourse. It helps people make common agreement and avoid conflict. So we need to use the tactics which we learned from this course and books to do more practice, only in this way we can gain advantages in negotiation.
Lewicki, R. J., Barry, B., & Saunders, D. M. (2007). Essentials of Negotiation. New York: McGraw-Hill/ Irwin.