CHAPTER 13. Internal functioning of the bargaining table
In order to approach this process with guarantees, it is necessary to take into account a scheme that the concurrence of the following requirements will determine: the elaboration of a strategic plan, the communication of the negotiators, the tactical management and the closing.
- The strategic plan
The strategic plan is defined as the set of coherent and integrated activities aimed at achieving each of the parties’ objectives in resolving the negotiation/conflict.
The elaboration of this strategic plan will determine the success or failure of the actions of each of the representatives of the negotiating table, and to a large extent, its elaboration by the parties determines the degree of “maturity” of the negotiating table and its members.
When drawing up the strategic plan, each party must be aware of its interest, objective, and, most importantly, consider which of the elements that make up its share of power at the table are desired by its adversary.
In order to achieve a good preparation of the negotiation, in the development of the strategic plan it is necessary to use certain techniques that help to integrate and articulate the activities to be developed by the negotiators: division of tasks, elaboration of a negotiation calendar and establishment of a series of objectives at different levels.
- Communication between negotiators. The duty of good faith in negotiation
Communication is how the parties involved in the negotiation process send and receive messages to each other.
Special mention must be made of the duty of good faith in negotiation within the negotiating tables’ internal functioning, especially when initiating communication between the different parties involved in the process.
- The codification of messages
It is precisely the practical or theoretical situation of conflict that motivates the permanent codification of messages in collective bargaining. It is the figure of the negotiator that has the greatest incidence in this phase of the process. It is due to his or her role as representative and spokesperson of the different groups that may be represented at the negotiation table and his or her undeniable role as a transmitter of information and receiver of the information that his or her adversary issues.
Among the possible sources of information distortion, and following a psychosocial analysis, we find perceptive selection, the negotiator’s state of mind, the credibility of the source and semantic problems.
It is necessary to have some perceptual feedback, which is nothing more than the procedure by which the sender is informed that the message sent has been received.
These elements must be raised in the very development of the negotiation at the table. The negotiator/receiver’s ability will reside in his or her capacity to influence the negotiator’s/sender’s discourse for as long as it lasts.
- Tactical management
The transition from strategic planning, previously defined at the “macro-negotiation” level, to tactical management implies transforming a theoretical study into a real itinerary.
This real itinerary is the real implementation of each. Every one of the variables studied so far and therefore has a direct influence on the rest of the characterisations of the collective bargaining table: strategic plan, communication of the negotiators, final approach and closure.
- Conciliatory tactics and the internal functioning of bargaining councils
The most commonly used conciliatory tactics, whose adjective indicates a softer approach by the parties at the negotiating tables, are as follows:
Making some concessions: depending on the share of power that each party holds in the negotiation in progress if the aim is to bring the agreement closer and give the other party a sense of proximity and understanding of its positions, it is common to make some concessions to those proposed by the employer or the workers’ representatives.
Mentioning possible compromises: More cautious than the previous one but also conciliatory, the mention of certain compromises is often made dependent on concessions from the adversary.
Thus, for example, in collective bargaining in which what is at stake is the need for greater productivity on the part of the workers, in exchange for which the company is willing to establish a certain system of incentives, it is common to make this commitment conditional on, for example, a better distribution of the working day that allows, through irregular working hours, the optimisation of the workers’ work performance.
Revealing one’s objectives: This is the most aggressive of all conciliatory tactics and, therefore, the riskiest. Revealing one’s own negotiating objectives undoubtedly puts one in a total honesty position, which automatically leads to a position of weakness in the negotiation.