The standoff between recently re-elected Democrat President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans has focused attention on the negotiation styles employed by the two parties as they seek to secure their interests while also working toward the resolution of the current budgetary battle.
Writing for NPR, Liz Halloran recently interviewed Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School co-founders William Ury and Bruce Patton to discuss the negotiations between the President and Republicans and how the pursuit of a distributive, rather than integrative, negotiation solution destroys value for the American public, the third party to these tense talks.
“These negotiations are looking like classic ‘positional bargaining’ brinksmanship,” says Patton.
Value Creation in Negotiation
Bruce Patton explains that the positional bargaining approach to negotiation “tends to promote very little creativity in reaching resolution, and the expectation of late night, last minute compromises.”
His colleague William Ury adds, “perhaps the most important [thing] in reaching resolution between the two sides… is consideration of the ‘third side’ or those most affected by the outcome.”
In this case the extent to which the President and the GOP have engaged with the ‘third side’ varies wildly in style and method.
Engaging the Third Side
While President Obama has had no problem engaging with the ‘third side’ through social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, Republicans have largely failed to capitalize on this innovative trend in voter outreach.
So far, polling indicates the President’s rigorous social media engagement has had a positive effect for him, with many suggesting that if the negotiations fail, the blame will largely be placed on the Republicans rather than on the Democrats and Barack Obama.
BATNA and Leverage in Negotiations
When thinking about negotiations strategically, each side should be aware of her BATNA or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. Knowledge of one’s BATNA prior to a negotiation allows the skilled negotiator to leverage her position at the bargaining table.
Liz Halloran believes that President Obama’s BATNA is that the Bush tax cuts will expire and he could potentially introduce legislation to roll back taxes on the middle class next year.
Additionally, she writes, the BATNA for Republicans is to hope that President Obama and Democrats shoulder the blame for driving the country over the ‘fiscal cliff.’
William Ury states that, “the advantages of negotiation, and negotiating now, far outweigh the BATNA.” Further, Ury argues that any win now would be a ‘pyrrhic’ victory because of the myriad of problems facing both the Congress and the President in the months to come.
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