Negotiation in one form or the other pervades the whole spectrum of banking services. Every interaction of a manager either with customers or with his own staff involves some kind of negotiation. Given the amount of time managers spend on negotiating, they tend to believe that they are pretty good at it. But it is not always true. Although some managers are quite adept, others often lament at the wrong words, wrong tone, wrong expressions, etc., used after coming away from the negotiation table. And in the world of banking, the results of miscommunication could be adverse. Against this backdrop, this article makes an attempt to map the basic tenets of the art and science of negotiation and the common mistakes that negotiators are prone to make.
Negotiation is a process involving two or more people of either equal or unequal power, meeting to discuss shared and/or opposed interests in relation to a particular area of mutual concern whereby they resolve disputes, agree upon courses of action, bargain for individual or collective advantage, and/or attempt to craft outcomes which serve their mutual interests.
Traditionally, negotiation has been looked at as a `win-lose' game since the negotiators were solely-driven by the `motive' to "get as much as possible for their side. As against this, negotiations in today's business world are moving towards a `win-win' outcome. In the process, negotiators have shifted their stance from `adversarial approach' to a `mutual gains approach' so that a sustainable agreement can be achieved. It is a far-reaching move from `win-lose' to `win-win' situation, as it facilitated mutual gains even in such areas as `labor-management' relations.
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