Let's face it, we negotiate every day and everyone is a negotiator. Life is an endless series of interactions requiring some sort of negotiation along the way. We are confronted on a daily basis with countless situations. We are called on to negotiate, reach an agreement, or to settle a difference of opinion whether that be with our co-workers, people outside of the organization or even family members. There are many factors that have an effect on the success of our negotiations. Each negotiation situation is inherently different and there is no one particular style that will work for every employee negotiation circumstance. Therefore it is incumbent on leaders to have a general understanding of the types of negotiation styles and the myriad of conflict resolution techniques that are available to ensure a harmonious work center. .
Leaders must be in sync with their organizations and their customer base to know what kind of negotiating style will work best within their organization. Once leaders know the behavioral traits of those they work with and for, they can then begin to develop a negotiating strategy that will benefit their organization the best. When dealing globally it is vital that leaders have the cross cultural competence to engage other leaders of businesses from around the world and be proficient at it. At the same time leaders must have the knowledge of the negotiating pitfalls that exist within the business world today. .
For every ten authors writing about negotiation there will be ten vastly different opinions on how those negotiation techniques should be classified and used within an organization. This can be best illustrated by comparing two recent articles on negotiation styles. According to Jeanie Demshar, Esq. (Demshar, 2011) there are four principled negotiation steps that are grounded in a common sense approach to achieve a better process for dealing with differences in the organization.