Strategic negotiations:

Includes index.

Strategic Negotiations identifies three fundamental negotiating strategies that are being used to effect changes in labor-management relations. The first, called forcing, involves making labor accept unwanted substantive terms while simultaneously reducing the union's influence in the workplace. This strategy carries severe risks, including uncontrolled escalation, defeat, and a legacy of intergroup distrust. In contrast, the second strategy of fostering emphasizes finding solutions to common problems and building trust and consensus between the parties. A major risk with fostering is that difficult problems may not be addressed for fear of straining the new relationship. The third strategy, escape, entails withdrawing from the negotiating relationship altogether by physically transferring operations to another location. Using detailed case studies of individual firms and entire industries to analyze the tactical advantages and risks of each approach, the authors ultimately recommend a mixed strategy of forcing and fostering.