Research Assignment Essay on Distributive Bargaining and Mediation

Research Assignment on Distributive Bargaining and Mediation - Essay Example In case of distributive bargaining both the parties try to maximize their gains and minimize the losses. Negotiators in this case try to promote their own-interests so that they do not look weak in the eyes of the other party. The concept of negotiation and bargaining has been found to be important in the works of Chamberlein (1955 cited in Marquis and Huston, 2009) and Stevens (1963 cited in cited in Marquis and Huston, 2009) to name a few. The purpose of this paper is to discuss about distributive bargaining and mediation as aspects of negotiation. It will also discuss the importance of mediation in the decision-making process. The first segment of the paper establishes the concepts of distributive bargaining and mediation and then the integration of both the topics in conflict-resolution. The existing literature points out that there are two main types of negotiation strategies namely distributive bargaining and integrative bargaining. The concept of distributive bargaining is embedded in the zero-sum game of economic theory and has been viewed by researcher in the light of a situation related to division of a pie. The implication a zero-sum game is that that there are mutually exhaustive ways of dividing the outcome (BÃ ¼hring-Uhle, Kirchhoff and Scherer, 2006). The most important aspect of distributive bargaining is that the interests of the agents are correlated in a negative manner where positive outcome of one individual is related to the negative outcome of another. The idea of distributive negotiation had undergone a paradigm shift with the research work conducted by Fisher, Patton and Ury (1991) who had pointed out that distributive bargaining is inferior compared to integrative bargaining and this had led researchers to focus on the later. One of the most c ommon form of distributive bargaining can be found in the labour union where the union members wants to secure