CITY OF TAMARACK REPORT

City of Tamarack report An Assignment Submitted by Name of Student Name of Establishment Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall 2012

CITY OF TAMARACK REPORT

City of Tamarack report Introduction The negotiation which took place between the representative of the Twin Lake Mining Company and the civil servant of Tamarack Town Council aimed to come into bilateral agreement on several important points. First of all, the questions of air pollution, maintenance of the city roads, location for the company and taxation issues were discussed. An intended goal was to come to a final conclusion taking into account needs of both sides, the company and the citizens whose interests were represented by the Town Council clerk. To get ready for the negotiations the Tamarack mayor had a meeting with the other governors to define the strategy how to lead the negotiations with an important company to the town's economy. The utmost important point of the bargaining process was to make company maintain the roads it uses for its purposes and to decrease pollution of the town produced by the Twin Lake Mining Company. The Town Council foresaw several possible ways the company would intent to lead the conversation and prepared the answers for them in order not to lose their allimportant goals. Furthermore, the Town Council covered its' starting, resistance and target points in the bargaining mix. Thus, the majority of the goals were achieved through the professional negotiation.

Functional analysis To begin with, the negotiation evolved through the need and mutual interests of both parties in gaining facilities. For the Town Council the most important point of the bargaining was the restoration of the used mines by the company and allocation of the company's next mines in the least picturesque place, which is not close to the touristic infrastructure. Therefore, the Town Council appeared with the least interesting proposal from the company's point of view. Eagle Falls

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Site was offered to the company, having in mind that the resistance point of the bargaining mix is far beyond this proposal. The real location which Town Council planned to give to the company was the Devil's Path Site. Through the persuasive process giving several arguments to defend the position of the Town Council, two distinct alternatives were developed to offer the Company. One of them obliged the company to restore all the mines partially and the Town Council agrees to gives the Devil's Path Side. The other proposal guaranteed to give the Clearwater Lake Site if the company fully restores the mines near touristic places and partially restore the rest of the mines with the governmental support in the other locations. Both offers are considered to be more or less equivalent. Therefore, the parties agreed on the first offer. During the communication process with the representative of the Twin Lake Mining Company, it was possible to observe social presentation of ideas by the sides. The representative of the Twin Lake Mining Company obviously did not have much experience of negotiations and therefore, the reaction on the offers made by the Twin Lake Mining Company member almost all the time was positive. It was realizable from the facial expression and gestures of the conversant that she is not very confident in the bargaining, and therefore, the Town Council representative leaded the whole negotiating process and gained many positive points for the City of Tamarack. The conflict situations, which appeared during the negotiation, parties always tried to resolve through compromising. Thus, the outcomes of one party were obtained, as well as the final result satisfying the other party was found. This type of conflict solving is the most suitable in the current situation due to the global interests represented in the case. In other words, the problem of pollution has to do not only with all the citizens on Tamarack, but also with the production process and quality of the products which might me changed by the unsatisfied workers of the company. Furthermore, both parties are equally interested in negotiations and realize the importance of compromising without inaction, contending or yielding.

CITY OF TAMARACK REPORT

Peer and Reputation Review on the performance of the student The student was prepared quite enough, having in mind that she understood the task completely and knew what was her main task in the negotiations. However, due to communication problem I had to repeat several times my point and sometimes insist on it, because the student has problems with understanding English. Even though, she tried to apply the concepts from the class. In particular, the student successfully managed the conflict situations which appeared during the negotiations. Moreover, she identified the needs and the interests of the parts correctly and was pursuing the negotiations in the right direction. One of the ideas of successful negotiations is to build long-term relations with the counterpart. Therefore, it is extremely important to show maximum of trust and mutual understanding between the future colleagues. In other words, one-time successful negotiation will not bring further development for the project and in this particular case cooperation between the city and the company. It is possible to conclude that the process of negotiating started very successfully for both of the parts and it will definitely be continued in the future, as a basement for further change was built. I can honestly say that the discussion with this person was not very active, as mostly I was talking. However, it is true that this person knows what she wants to achieve from the negotiations and makes her statements clear. I would like to continue negotiating with her in the future as it might be a very useful experience for the future and for the real life business process. We are coming from the different ethical and cultural backgrounds. This could be a significant problem in negotiating, however I did not notice much difference, perhaps because of our mutual interests in the field of business. Giving the rate from 0 to 10 to the person I have discussed the subject, I would give her 7. The rationale beyond my rating is her few words during the whole conversation. In the real world

CITY OF TAMARACK REPORT she might have problems leading negotiations due to communication problems. However, the overall result of the student's reputation deserves to be rated as good.

This particular case study has contributed to the learning process through live situation of making business. I appreciate such tasks and value them very high among the total studying period.

Summation and Conclusion The negotiations conducted by the students is a challenge for the future profession. By which I mean, the art of convincing people and coming into one conclusion with the partner is an important characteristic of a modern businessman. I have decided to myself to perform in this game as it was a real action towards the interests of the citizens of Tamarack. All the convincing arguments were thought and combined into a strategy in order to obtain the most suitable conditions for the residents in the industrial area of the town. I achieved the intended goals, and therefore, I evaluate my negotiations as successful. The experience I gained made me feel as a competent negotiator and added some strength and self-confidence to my personality. I can certainly state that it took some preparation and knowledge to reach an agreement between two parties easily for the following reasons. First of all, the prepared strategy to ask for more than is required in reality made an agreement easily to accomplish almost without losses for the Town Council. Nevertheless, similar strategy of the representative of the Twin Lake Mining Company compensated easiness of the bargaining and made the process to look very realistic. Last but not least, analysis of the emotional expressions and psychological behavior, described during the classes, helped to ease in reaching the agreement. The solution achieved is not far from the objectives set by the Town Council, therefore an environmental protection issue was always superior in the negotiating process. All the point with its accomplishments should be discussed separately. The first point of the agreement was the mining site of the company. It would be ideal to negotiate and give the Eagle Falls Site to the company, thus saving all the revenue from tourism to

CITY OF TAMARACK REPORT the Tamarack city, even though Devil's Path Site is also very favorable condition for the Town Council.

The second condition that was agreed aimed the company to restore the consumed mines completely. However, due to the reasons base on the calculations and given by the Twin Lake Mining Company representative, the lasts will partially restore all the mines. Both of the decisions were connected and formed a compromise to the company to choose. The third point included roads maintenance in order to decrease air pollution. City suggested to the company to maintain the roads only they work on and the city would take care of the other roads within its frontiers. In the beginning the company rejected such offer arguing that it will be too expensive for them. The company offered to maintain only the land which belongs to their ownership. In final negotiation about this topic, parties decided that company maintains the roads it uses and the city maintains the rest of the roads. In the fourth point parties decided who has to pave the roads. Similarly to the previous round of negotiations, there were several suggestions from both parties. Due to the argument that loss of the tourism stream to the city will cost a lot, the company suggested to construct the road and maintain it, not using the city roads. This seemed a nice choice for both parts and they agreed on it without long discussion. Meanwhile the road is not built the company would use the other highways of the city and pave them. Thus, this suggestion was accepted by the Town Council. The fifth and the last round of negotiations foresaw establishment of tax rate on company land. This time Town Council has lost to the Twin Lake Mining Company and reduced the taxes to 4% with the condition that the company will maintain the lands near the mines they work in. To conclude, the Town Council has done everything possible to gain from the negotiations with the Twin Lake Mining Company and in four out of five positions of the negotiations achieved very high results. This proves their stick to the objectives and following the strategies chosen before the negotiation.

CITY OF TAMARACK REPORT

Based on all the points discussed above, it is possible to state that this case study gives real prove of the necessity to know and study the correct methods of leading business conversations, creating suitable strategies for the commercial enterprise partners and choose the right words to convince the partner that your point of view is correct and important to follow. In other words, managers should always take into consideration that negotiations is a process of bilateral communication and its success directly depends on the skillfulness of the negotiator. There are several lessons which were learned during the class activities and they will be very useful in the future, thus, should be outlined here. First of all, it is important to state you opinion clearly and understandable to the partner. In case he/she does not realize it completely, it is very important to explain and to ask if everything is clear. This will help to avoid ambiguity and misunderstandings in the contracts. Furthermore, time management in the negotiating process play a crucial role. One could lead a discussion on the beginning of the contract for the time allowed for the discussion of the whole project, therefore, leaving other points for the end. And last to be mentioned as useful lesson for the future is preparation before starting the negotiations. Only well prepared partners can reach an agreement without controversy.

Bibliography

1. Bos, Nathan D.; Judy S. Olson; Darren Gergle; Gary M. Olson; ZachWright. 2002. "Effects of four computer-mediated channels on trust development." Proceedings of CHI 2002. New York: ACM Press. Available at

http://www.crew.umich.edu/Technical%20reports/Bos_OlsonJ_Gergle_OlsonG_Wright_Effects_of _four_computer_mediated_communications_channels_on_trust_development_12_10_01.pdf 2. Kilduff, Martin. 1992. "The friendship network as a decision-making resource: Dispositional moderators of social influences on organizational choice." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 62: 168-180.

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3. Reid, Elizabeth M. 1998. "The Self and the Internet: Variations on the 'Illusion' of One Self." Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implications (Jayne Gackenbach, ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 4. Shneiderman, Benjamin. 1987. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. 5. Vigas, Fernanda. 1997. "Collections: Adapting the Display of Personal Objects for Different Audiences." Cambridge, MA: MIT Media Lab Master's Thesis. Availabel at HYPERLINK "http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Viegas/Collections/collections.pdf"http://smg.media.mit.edu/pape