Negotiating Employment Cases With Impatient Parties and Winner Take All Stakes
By Steve Mehta, Mediation Matters, October 16, 2015
This post has been viewed 3,430 times.
This post has been viewed 3,430 times.
In an employment case one party may be in a much better negotiating position than the other. The weaker party may face a good possibility of failure if a case goes to trial, but often decides to fight on despite long odds. How can such a situation be resolved?
The authors of the study “The Slippery Slope of Concession” conclude the weaker party can use small concessions to appease the other side if there is a combination of common knowledge and a common preference for the amount of time to give an issue.
- Conflict can only be avoided if the parties agree the end of conflict is preferable to its continuation.
- A key factor in the ending or continuing of conflict is how much more impatient the stronger party is compared to the weaker party. If the stronger party is much more impatient, he must receive a large concession immediately to avoid conflict. Such a concession may lead to another demand for a large concession. While the more patient, weaker party may be willing to make small concessions, he will not wish to make a series of large concessions.
- If what’s at issue cannot be divided up or allocated it can also impede a mutually agreeable outcome. In order to find a concession that will be agreed to by both sides, it must be large enough to please the winner, but small enough to satisfy the loser. In an “all or nothing” situation, the weaker party may prefer conflict over capitulation.
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