CONFLICT & NEGOTIATION

Negotiation Scenarios

Part One: Role Play

Use one of the scenarios described below to complete part one of the assignment.

Instructions: These scenarios do not provide you with given goals for your negotiation nor do they assign you roles. Put yourself in the place of one of the participants and determine what you would want to negotiate about. For example, if you are Sophia in the “Boss-Subordinate” scenario you might have a goal of asking your new boss Jeff for a raise, a voice on projects, etc. Or, in the “” scenario, if you want to take the position of Nancy you have to think about what you want out of the negotiation and what is realistic too, is $40,000 a reasonable thing to ask for from your contractor?
To help orient your instructor, state the role you took and the goals you set out with.

Boss-Subordinate

Recently, at XYZ Public Relations firm, a department has been through reorganization and the employees are left feeling that they do not know each other any longer. They are not sure who they can trust. During the reorganization, some employees were promoted over others who had been at XYZ longer. Some employees were assigned different duties. Some feel they have been completely left out of the loop and no longer feel like they are a part of the department. This is starting to affect productivity and even has caused several people to leave.
Jeff was promoted to manager of all teams. He was initially excited about the promotion. Even though this meant longer hours and more responsibility, Jeff was excited; he had worked really hard and made multiple sacrifices. Jeff has always had positive relationships with his co-workers and considers many of them his friends.
Sophia has been with XYZ Company since she was an intern in college. When Sophia initially learned there would only be one manager of all the teams she assumed it would be her. She has been there seven years longer than Jeff. Furthermore, Sophia and her team have worked on many of the largest campaigns for the company. Sophia is well liked and was the manager of her own team prior to the reorganization. Now Sophia and her team report to Jeff.
Jeff and Sophia used to work well together. Before the reorganization, Jeff considered Sophia a friend and he thought she would be happy for him when he received the promotion. However, recently, Sophia has become uncollaborative. She often undermines Jeff’s authority, criticizes ideas, and tells co-workers he does not know what he is doing. Recently Sophia has stopped responding to Jeff’s emails claiming she never received them.
Jeff told one of the other managers he would like to fire Sophia, but knows she is an important asset to the firm. Instead, Jeff started leaving Sophia and her former team members out of key projects. Unfortunately, this has caused a decline in creativity and productivity.

Conrad owns an antique restoration business. After two years of hard work, Conrad is starting to build a name for himself in his town.
Nancy owns a small antique store in town. Most of her inventory comes from garage sales and discoveries in musty attics. In order to maximize profit, a careful restoration is usually required before a piece can be sold. She started bringing items to Conrad a year ago and has been happy with his work thus far.
On March 16, Nancy brought a very special job to Conrad; a pair of French, 18th century, corner cabinets with marble tops that needed some loving attention. Nancy was confident that, properly restored, the cabinets could fetch over $40,000, and agreed to pay Conrad $5,000 for his work, which they agreed would be completed prior to her scheduled June 15 auction.
A few weeks after Nancy brought Conrad the cabinets, they were smashed to pieces by one of his new assistants. As of June 10th, when Nancy called to arrange for delivery of the completed cabinets, Conrad had still been unable to bring himself to tell her the bad news.
On June 14th, Conrad returned the latest of Nancy’s series of angry messages. Despite the cordial relationship the two had enjoyed in the past, Conrad had to endure a stream of insults, followed by a threat to sue unless he paid her the $40,000 she expected the cabinets would have sold for at auction. Conrad, of course, has nowhere close to $40,000 in cash.

Custody

Tim and Lauren have been separated for six months. Lauren left with their two children and was now living with another man (Justin) in his home. Tim had remained in their family home. The children come to stay with him regularly.
As the months passed, Tim became increasingly concerned about the arrangement. While staying with Tim, the children say things that concern him about his wife’s new partner and the attention that the children are receiving in their new home. Tim now feels that the children would be better off living with him in their former family home.
Lauren is convinced that she can provide their children with a better home and that the children would be happier with them. She believes the children have not adjusted to her boyfriend Justin or his home, but she is confident they will with more time. Lauren believes she spends the same amount of time with the children.
Tim has tried to talk to Lauren about this issue twice; however, it always ends in an argument.

Parents feuding

Jenny and Ashley both attend Madison Simis Elementary School. Both girls are in the third grade and have been friends since before they started kindergarten. One day while at recess, Jenny hits Ashley with the jump rope. Jenny says it was an accident, but Ashley thinks it was on purpose. Ashley tells the teacher about what happened and the teacher calls Ashley’s parents.
When Ashley’s parents ask her about the situation, Ashley tells them Jenny did it on purpose. Ashley’s parents (Mr. and Mrs. Jones) promptly call Jenny’s parents (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) accusing them of being bad parents and raising a bully.
The Smiths are shocked and ask Jenny about the incident. She tells her parents it was an accident. The Smiths are shocked because the girls have played together for several years and they have started to become friends with the Jones.
The following afternoon, at a PTA meeting, Mrs. Jones begins yelling at Mrs. Smith again, accusing her of not knowing how to raise her children and says girls like Jenny are just mean girls. Mrs. Smith feels embarrassed and confused, but does not appreciate the way Mrs. Jones is talking about Jenny.

Roommates

Madison and Ava have been fighting a lot lately about inappropriate behavior with their significant others, their lack of respect for each other, and the overall lack of cleanliness in the common areas.
It is a Monday evening around 11:00 p.m. Madison is coming back to her shared apartment after a long day of classes, work, and meetings. She is looking forward to an hour of relaxation before starting some English homework. However, she enters her apartment to find her roommate Ava has created a huge mess in their kitchen.
Ava is a double major, captain of the volleyball team, and active member of student life. She often runs from one task to the next. Ava’s family stressed the importance of being involved and put less importance on cleanliness. Ava often feels Madison is overreacting.
Madison tries to confront Ava about the mess in the kitchen, but Ava’s boyfriend Mike is there again. Madison likes Mike, but doesn’t like that Mike is always at their apartment. With Mike always around it makes it difficult to talk to Ava about issues surrounding the apartment. Madison has started to feel like she has two roommates because Mike spends so much time at their apartment.
Ava does not understand why Madison does not like Mike and she feels like Madison is rude to him, this bothers her because she tries to make Daniel (Madison’s Boyfriend) feel welcome in their apartment. Ava feels like Madison should be more accepting of Mike.