So what is the bargaining mix
in a negotiation? Well in summary the
bargaining mix is nothing more than the
interests at stake in the negotiation
that is what you're negotiating over.
Now this seems like a simple concept at
first glance but in reality it's a
little more complex in that
there are various types of interest. Well
obviously
there's a substantive interest the
actual thing that you're negotiating
over whether it's
a price whether it's ownership or
possession of something
whatever that may be there's your
substantive interest.
Now there are also procedural interests
at stake
that things like fairness right, someone
getting what they're owed, someone being
showed the amount of difference that
they deserve or the respect that they
deserve,
uh if that is missing in a negotiation
it makes a huge difference so
in addition to the exact thing that
you're negotiating over
right the dispute the object the value
whatever that may be.
How you go about negotiating is also
an interest and so that's part of the
bargaining mix as well.
Also oftentimes negotiations are
um characterized by a specific
relationship that you have with another
person whether it's
employer employee whether it's a vendor
purchaser of goods whether it's friends
that type of thing. So there are a number
of different types of relationships
that could be at stake in a negotiation
right,
and this is also an interest because it
adds an additional layer of underlying
context
and a form of value that must be
accounted for in the negotiation
so once again you have a procedural
interest and
a relationship based interest in
addition to
the core interest the substantive
interest that you're negotiating over.
And lastly there's something we call ins
um interest
in principle. Now an interest in
principle is basically a
deeply held or strongly held belief.
Okay, so uh interest in principle
is the idea that
in a negotiation i'm going to seek
to forward or um
i'm going to pursue this belief
that I have about something even if it's
not a
substantive interest that will affect me
in some way even if there's nothing
procedural about it
even if there's nothing that we share in
the context of a relationship
if there is a deep held belief that I
for some reason want to
forward in the negotiation then i'm
going to act in accordance with that you
often see this in politics
where individuals may have a belief
about something
that belief may not affect them or they
may
believe that it could affect them but in
a way
they're simply part of an overall belief
system or organizational
uh collection of beliefs. So whether they
have
a personal stake in that interest or no
uh it is something ingrained in them
that it is something they should believe
so uh they'll they'll pursue it
diligently.
So anyway those are the types of
interests that you're going to find
as part of the bargaining mix,
substantive, procedural,
relationship, based and then interesting
principle.
Now one important thing to remember as
you're developing
the bargaining mix it is important to
remember that
uh adding as many interest as possible
to the negotiation can increase the
opportunity
for what we call an integrative
negotiation, the type of negotiation
where
one party where both parties can
be benefited by the negotiation right
it's not distributed or finite in nature,
so with that being said in identifying
interest for the bargaining mix you
should brainstorm
you should uh research possible
interests that could exist that means
researching yourself researching the
other person the context of the
situation
that can be indirect research or direct
research
uh whichever you know whichever or
either that is available.
And then you may even consult with
others such as experts or third parties
who know
the situation the context that type of
thing
to identify the appropriate set of
interests available again in the
negotiation.