Midwestern Contemporary Art

The case of Midwestern Contemporary Art (MCA) is a turbulent one to say the least. The issue at hand is between the Board Chairman Peter Smith and MCA's Executive Director Keith Schmidt. Smith wants to keep the same strategy that the museum has used for the past ten plus years. This is a conservative approach to keep the books at steady pace without the need to be aggressive. Schmidt on the other hand, feels that this approach is to conservative and wants to expand the business by building a new building on the Seaside to help generate more revenue. This overall heated debate has begun to boil over as other members of the board can see the tensions between the two parties. There are two approaches that can help ease this tension for this negation process. The first technique is the dual concern approach which has four different outcomes depending on how the situation unfolds. The second technique that could be used is the interests, rights and power technique which focuses on those three concepts and who controls those areas to help reach an agreement.

When it comes to Peter Smith I feel that the dual concern model should be the strategy of choice in this situation. This issue is a tricky one as it deals with two people of significant power in an organization. Both are concerned with the overall prosperity and efficiency of the museum moving forward. This creates an issue by Smith viewing the situation as something he needs to win. I feel like there may be more emphasis on the outcome of this situation and significantly less on the relationship at hand. This creates the very dangerous situation of "win or lose at all cost". This ensures that someone will not be happy at the end of the process. This is shown in this case because Smith was so frustrated with the situation and not being able to get his way that he left the museum and was replaced on the board. If Smith would have spent more time focusing on the relationship and the outcome, both parties could have achieved the important "win-win" situation which could have helped avoid this less than satisfying outcome.

Schmidt, like Smith, should have also approached the dual concern model. I feel that this is the golden standard that everyone should try to achieve in all negotiation. It seems that Schmidt was trying to follow the interests, rights and power model which is especially difficult to find favorable results when someone has seniority and higher position. By Schmidt thinking that he had the higher power, and that he had the overall interests of MCA on his side he was very headstrong on his idea of expanding the business. He later found out that he did have the interests of the board as they voted in favor of his proposal leaving Smith frustrated, which led to his departure from the organization all together. Even though this could be considered a "win" for Schmidt it was a loss for the organization as a whole. They lost an experienced and hard working chairman of the board because Schmidt, like Smith, approached the situation as "win or lost at all costs". If both parties would have been collaborative with the situation, this could have had a much more successful outcome for both parties.

1.5 and 1.6 Tactics

After reading the vast options that are at ones disposal when negotiation the two that struck me the most were silence and incremental.  
Silence in negotiation is when one party does not speak often during the negotiation process, and forces the other party to speak more often. I know from personal experience that I have not been very successful with this tactic. I am the type of person who likes to be in control, so if someone is not talking I will feel that I need to say something in order to keep the process moving. This can fall right into a trap that the other party has laid. I may give critical information to the other party that can help create some type of leverage in the negotiation. For example, if I am trying to buy a car and I let the seller know how badly I need the car the seller may raise the price with my desperation in the open. On the other hand, this could also work in my favor as a buyer, because the seller may think I am not that interested in the car and may try to sell the car for a cheaper price in order to make a sale. This may also cause a problem for both parties if both implement the same strategy. This could lead to a stale mate that could cause the negotiation to  not be completed.
The other tactic that I would to try in a negotiation is incremental. This tactic is used to settle one issue at a time. I think that this is important in a negotiation, because this will help insure that all key issues are being addressed. I feel like in the heat of a negotiation a lot of things will try to be negotiated at once, leading to key issues being missed. I feel like this would be helpful in a negotiation with major key issues. For example if I was buying a house with structural issues. I feel like if I tried to negotiate the terms for a basement leak at the same time I am trying to settle on an over price for the house one or other could impact my decision making. This idea seems to be the best way to keep focused on the issues at hand, and will help with a better all negotiation. I feel like this tactic would benefit both parties due to the fact that all issues can be addressed by both parties during the negotiation. The best way to accomplish this, in my opinion, is to write down all aspects that you feel that need to be part of the negotiation so that strategy is effective.

Introduction for negotiation

My name Jacob Shatzer, and I am a second semester senior scheduled to graduate at the end of this semester. I am Human Resource Management major and I am taking negotiation as a major elective. I am 25 years old and live in Chambersburg PA. I am a non traditional student in the fact that I did not go to college directly out of high school and took some time to figure out what I actually wanted to do with my life. I am very thankful that i made this choice, because I am confident that I am in the area of study that truly interests me. I am currently an intern at Volvo Construction Equipment in Shippensburg PA. I work in the Core Values Department, which has helped me learn the daily operations of a large scale company. I have been interested in taking this course since my first semester at Shippensburg. The whole concept is very interesting to me. Negotiation is something that I have never excelled in. I feel like this class will be very beneficial to many aspects in life. As i approach the "real world" there will be many aspects of life that will need to be negotiated from starting salaries all the way to negotiating a price for my first house. I feel that this class will help aid this process. I look forward to learning all these skills and having a great semester!