Integrative Bargaining

It will be the purpose of this essay to clearly demonstrate that integrative bargaining can and should be used as an effective tool for negotiations in situations where unequal bargaining power exist. It has been defined for this essay that integrative bargaining is the process of defining goals that allow both sides to achieve their objectives, and engage in a process that permits both parties to maximize their objectives (Lewicki, 2007). Integrative bargaining can be used as an effective strategy to manoeuvre out from under superior bargaining power being held over you, or as a means to create greater value for all parties involved. Bargaining power, described as the capacity of one party to dominate the other due to its influence, power, size, status or through a combination of different persuasion tactics (Lewicki, 2007) is an important determinant in framing issues, however not essential to determining end agreements (Picard, 2004). Nonetheless, during the course of negotiation, one must be careful not to divulge too much sensitive material without receiving concessions in return. This has the potential to create a far greater distance among bargaining power that potentially may prevent any agreement from being reached. Other key terms necessary for the full understanding of this essay include distributive bargaining; being the process of trying to achieve one’s own objectives at the loss of the other’s (Lewicki, 2007), anchor; being an initial position around which negotiations make adjustments (Lewicki, 2007), BANTA; being the best alternative to an negotiated agreement (Lewicki, 2007), resistance points; those being the least favourable point at which a party would agree to a negotiated agreement (Lewicki, 2007), and bargaining range; the range between either parties’ resistance points (Lewicki, 2007). The essay will then proceed to conclude by summarizing the main points discussed within this essay.

As previously defined, integrative bargaining is a

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