POWER, CONFLICT, AND BATNA III:Role of Third Party in BATNA, Dealing with Power Imbalance

<< ASSESSING POWER AMONG DISPUTANTS II:Sources of Relationship Power, Context and Power

STEREOTYPES, DIVERSITY, AND CONFLICT I:Stereotyping, Stereotyping in Interpersonal Conflict >>

Conflict Management HRM624

Lesson 26

POWER, CONFLICT, AND BATNA III

Quotations:

Power is where power goes.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908 - 1973) U.S. president.

Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have never yet been invested.

Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) British prime minister and writer.

There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one

of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world. Karl Popper (1902 -

1994) Austrian-born British philosopher.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) Irish-born

British statesman and political philosopher. Speech to the British Parliament

The weak have one weapon: the errors of those who think they are strong. George Bidault (1899 - 1983)

French statesman.

KEY POINTS

Power, Conflict, and BATNA

Power: the force to modify behavior of individuals, groups, societies, or nations

Conflict: Clash of interests among individuals, groups, societies, or nations

BATNA: Best Alternative to the Negotiated Agreement

BATNA

BATNA is a term coined by Roger Fisher and William Ury in1981. It stands for "best alternative to a

negotiated agreement."

It is always useful to increase one's BATNA, as it increases negotiating power. Good negotiators use it for

the better results of negotiation. If a negotiator is well aware of how desperately the other party wants to

come to a settlement, the negotiator may use the opportunity according to his/her terms and conditions.

Therefore making your BATNA as strong as possible before negotiating, and then making that BATNA

known to your opponent; strengthen your negotiating position.

In an interpersonal conflict, does the exercise of power in the other two power domains, personal and

environmental, have any relevance? The answer is yes. Sometimes, a disputant finds that using negotiation

to meet his or her interests and needs is not as useful as getting those goals attained some other way.

The best of all available ATNAs for any given disputant is referred to as the Best

Alternative to Negotiated Agreement, or BATNA.

Knowing, the BATNA protects a disputant, and the team, from irrational action. Trying to resolve a

conflict without knowing the BATNA put the team in the untenable position of not knowing whether to

negotiate or to stop negotiating. Many disputants deal with this pressure to act irrationally by developing a

bottom line. If the negotiation leads to deal that's as good as the bottom line, the negotiators will settle;

otherwise they won't.

Knowing the BATNA also helps a disputant and the team to act with efficiency. The team chooses to

negotiate only if there appear to be potential benefits to negotiating, stays in negotiation only as long as it

appears to be potentially beneficial, and gains a clear idea of what to do in the event that negotiation does

not lead to settlement. There is less wasted time, money, effort and trauma.

Conflict Management HRM624

Role of Third Party in BATNA

Third parties can help disputants accurately assess their BATNAs through reality testing and costing. In

reality testing, the third party helps clarify and ground each disputing party's alternatives to agreement.

Assessing the BATNA

BATNA assessment follows a six-step process.

1. Conduct an Interest Analysis

2. Brainstorm the Alternatives to a Negotiated Agreement

3. Fine-tunes the Alternatives

4. Assess Each Alternative Realistically

5. Choose the best alternative

6. Regularly Reassess the BATNA

Conduct an Interest Analysis

BATNA assessment begins with an interest analysis. Why? Because there is no way to determine which

alternative to negotiation is best without a clear picture of the disputant's interest, needs, and goals.

Brainstorm the Alternatives to a Negotiated Agreement

Can the disputant meets his or her goal by exercising personal power or by spending some money or

consider litigation.

Fine-tunes the Alternatives

Develop a list of alternatives to a negotiated agreement. Personal power and environmental power are

highly relevant to this stage of BATNA analysis.

Personal power and environmental power are highly relevant to this stage of BATNA analysis.

Assess Each Alternative Realistically

In assessing both costs and benefits, it is important to avoid the temptation to limit the analysis to the

monetary aspects of the alternative. Non monetary factors such as the impact of the alternative on

relationships, the potential for conflict escalation, and the grief and wasted time that some alternatives

might produce, are equally important to consider.

Choose the best alternative

The next step is to compare the estimated costs or benefits of each alternative to the disputant's goals to

determine which the `best' alternative is. This is the disputant's BATNA.

When developing a BATNA, a negotiator should:

Brainstorm a list of alternatives that could be considered if the negotiation failed to deliver a favorable

agreement:

Select the most promising alternatives and develop them into practical and attainable alternatives: and

Identify the most beneficial alternative to be kept in reserve as a fall-back during the negotiation.

Regularly Reassess the BATNA

Situations change, new information becomes available, and disputant interests can evolve or change. Some

alternative that were formerly available may disappear, and others may develop.

Knowing the other Disputant's BATNA

It is useful to know the other disputant's BATNA as well as your own. The better the other disputant's

BATNA, the lower your team's chances of an excellent outcome in negotiation (unless the other disputant's

team is unaware of their BATNA).

Conflict Management HRM624

Litigation and the BATNA: Performing Case Valuation

In most legal disputes, the choices will be either to settle with this disputant or to go to court. If you are

assessing the BATNA of a potential claimant, the options often are to negotiate a settlement, walk away

without compensation, or to file a lawsuit.

Where do attorneys get their figures? Case valuation is a very inexact science. Attorneys use the following

information to help them value a case:

1. Their experiences with similar cases

2. Their knowledge of, or research into, the applicable law

3. Their knowledge of the presiding judge

4. Their assessment of the believability and likeability of the witness

5. Their assessment of the evidence

6. Their assessment of opposing counsel

7. Their institution

Drawbacks of BATNA Analysis

Understanding and appreciating the BATNA has many advantages. Having a well-conceived BATNA in

mind can lead to better decisions about whether to accept a (1) settlement, (2) "hang in" with a negotiation

or (3) end a negotiation. Moreover, the other disputant's BATNA can help you gain needed leverage and

make more realistic assessments of the prospects of negotiation.

BATNA analysis has three drawbacks. The first is that it's often difficult to perform BATNA analysis

accurately. And, when you misconstrue a BATNA, the effects can be unwanted.

1. A common mistake in BATNA analysis is to omit the non-monetary implications of ATNAs (for

example bad relations).

2. The second drawback to BATNA analysis is that it often takes a great deal of time, money, and resources.

This is particularly true when litigation is involved.

3. The third drawback to the BATNA is that, in some circumstances, it is not relevant.

These circumstances usually relate to conflict involving long-term, close, intimate, family relationships.

Power Imbalance

In a technical sense, no two disputants have the same degree of power. Each interpersonal conflict brings

together two or more persons or entities with complex patterns of power.

It is frequently true that disputants have obviously un-equal powers (for example gender power).

Power affects the choices that individual disputants are able to make and the degree of influence that one

disputant can have on another.

Group Power Imbalance

A high-power group is highly likely to wield or threaten coercive, brutal, and sadistic power. Group power

imbalance sets in motion a series of processes that reinforce and increase the existing power imbalance.

Once group power imbalance is in place, it can be very difficult to dislodge. These considerations can set

the stage for explosive and violent clashes if the lower-power group does not accept its status.

The identity of the lower-power group members is transformed from "helpless victim" to "rights struggle"

and the higher-power group correctly views this new attitude as a direct threat to its entrenched privileges.

The identities of the struggling groups tend to perpetuate a protracted, competitive, and destructive conflict

cycle.

Becoming Empowered

Power means choice. The more power you have, the better your range of choices and the better the

potential outcomes you have.

We usually think of people wielding power in the relationship domain to get the outcome they want, as in

when they threaten one another or take a legal dispute to court to coerce a favorable outcome. But another

Conflict Management HRM624

important use of relationship power is to influence the other disputant to engage in the most desirable

conflict resolution process.

Power exercised in the personal and environmental domains can produce better alternatives to a negotiated

agreement and, hence, better BATNAs.

Changes wrought by uses of power in the personal and environmental domains can also improve a

disputant's ability to wield power in relationship.

Empowerment can be produced two ways: either the amount of power can be increased or the person's

ability to use what powers he/she has can be strengthened.

Overall, it is often the case that the expert power is more alterable than any other type of power. Expert

power is the least likely form of power to create alienation, conflict participants who seek to empower

themselves are smart to begin by increasing this form of power.

Dealing with Power Imbalance

Legal scholars differ on whether power imbalance is best dealt with through zealous and adversarial

advocacy or whether less competitive processes can be used effectively to handle power imbalance.

Some legal experts argue that the only effective means for dealing with power imbalance is to resort to the

legal system or to resort to extra-legal processes, such as violent or revolutionary struggle.

Implications for conflict diagnosis

The concept of power, applied to interpersonal conflict, goes far beyond the commonly held idea of

physical force. A conflict diagnostician must be able to understand how power operates in each of three

major domains (relationship, environmental, and personal) and to identify the types of power available to

the conflict participants in each domain.

Power is a context-specific attribute. A characteristics of an individual disputant, his or her resources and

environment, or his or her team may spell out considerable power in one circumstance but helpless in

another.

There are no "Magic Bullets" that can fix power imbalances. A conflict diagnostician needs to examine each

situation and carefully consider the interests of the disputants.

Table of Contents: