Question

1. What is communicated during negotiation?

2. How do people communicate in negotiation? Provide examples.

3. How can you improve communication in negotiation?

4. What are special communication considerations at the close of negotiation? Provide examples.

Answer 1

1. What is communicated during negotiation?

There are five different types of communication that take place during negotiation and it includes offers and counter offers, information about alternatives, information about outcomes, social accounts, and communication about process. Conveying offers and counter offers is the most important communication in a negotiation process. Sharing of information about alternatives is another important part as it influences the communication process. The information on outcomes helps the parties to evaluate their success in the negotiation and social accounts helps the negotiator to explain the other party. The last category includes the communication about process which explains about the procedures to be adopted to improve communication.

2. How do people communicate in negotiation? Provide examples.

How do people communicate in negotiation depends upon the characteristics of the language that communicators use, the use of nonverbal communication in negotiation and selection of communication channel for sending and receiving the messages. The language plays an important role because it should help to convey what we intent to say in all means. Sometimes it is communicated through offers or proposals and the style of using the language makes it effective. Consider a negotiation between two people for the sale of a used car. The seller may include certain offers to accept the price and the communication style should include politeness to make the negotiation a success. Another part is the nonverbal communication which includes facial expressions, body language, eye contact, tone of voice etc. for example while communicating during negotiation, if the party is not making eye contact the other party may consider it as a sign of dishonesty. Communication channel may include through telephone, in writing, email, instant messaging or teleconferencing systems. The communication channel need not be face to face communication. For example, if I need to negotiate for selling my old furniture I can choose the communication channel of instant messaging and negotiate.

3. How can you improve communication in negotiation?

The communication in negotiation can be improved through use of questions, listening and role reversal. The use of questions helps to gather information on other party’s position, arguments and needs. The negotiators should have the patience to listen to the parties and understand what they mean. Listening can be passive listening, acknowledgement or active listening. Active listening involves paraphrasing the sender’s message in own language and hence it is most effective listening while trying to improve communication. Role reversal would produce cognitive and attitude changes and leads to acceptable results by understanding other party’s position and highlighting possible areas of similarity.

4. What are special communication considerations at the close of negotiation? Provide examples.

The special communication considerations at the close of negotiation include the avoidance of fatal mistakes and the achievement of satisfactory closure in constructive manner. For example, while closing the negotiation, we should analyze whether all the issues of interest to all the parties have been addressed. Satisfactory closure can be ensured if the interests of all the parties are addressed. We should also check whether the proposals are workable or not because there are chances of mistakes if we the proposal is not analyzed properly and we can avoid the fatal mistakes.