The Art of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution

Layali Faraj[pic 1]

Master of Business Administration

Student ID 18020239

The Art of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution

Pre-Assignment

Write a report on an important negotiation situation of the past and answer the following:

• What was the initial situation?

The property management and real estate development company I was working for owned and operated an indoor theme park which they were planning on fully renovating and wanted to basically let go of all of the division’s current employees.  Executive management called me in requesting I prepare a proposal for how the company should handle the mass-termination from an HR perspective along with its cost implication.

• What or who was the problem?

On the surface, the matter was straight-forward and simple.  The theme park was old and required renovating.  Sales were down especially with the opening of another newer theme park in the latest shopping mall in Bahrain which was competing aggressively with our company and the company’s executive management agreed it was time to refurbish the theme park and start generating some real revenue from it to be able to effectively compete with the one in the new competing mall.  

Under that surface however, executive management simply capitalized on the opportunity of the refurbishment to get rid of all of the park’s employees (predominantly Bahrainis whom the management felt were over paid and had too long of tenures with the company) and replace them with cheaper expatriate employees.  Another issue was that most of these employees were Shias and the new management was more “Pro-Sunnis”  especially after the political upheaval in Bahrain in 2011 that is still ongoing to this day.

• What was your objective in the negotiation?

I was expected to “sell” my proposal to the executive management and get it approved, communicate and negotiate; if necessary, the terms of the final settlements with the concerned employees being dismissed and resolve any disputes that may arise in the process to avoid and keep the matter from being escalated to lawsuits against the company.  

From the company’s perspective, the objective was to basically get rid of the entire current workforce of the theme park division at the lowest possible cost and with the least possible lawsuits against the company.  

My objective therefore, was to create a win-win situation for all parties involved. Employees would be compensated fairly and treated with dignity and empathy, the company would have the opportunity to close down the park for renovation, have the freedom to recruit the taskforce it chooses and deems suitable for employment, avoid being sued by any disgruntled employees and should that opportunity arise; have a solid case that guarantees the highest likelihood of winning the lawsuit (although you can never always be too sure of the outcome of such cases as they solely depend on the judge appointed and are generally pro-employee) and basically maintain the company’s current crisp clean image in the eyes of its shareholders and the public.