Abstract
Negotiations are inevitable in business and in every facet of life. Often parties to a negotiation come to the negotiating table with wrong assumptions, unrealistic expectations, and what academics label as blinded awareness and focus failure because they fail to realise the import of information which is made available and which can lead to negotiation success. Lack of listening properly and being magnanimous at the negotiation table causes negotiation failure. Negotiators often engage in stereotyping, resort to heightened emotions, and provocation of adversaries through bullying, arm-twisting and logrolling and horse trading tactics. Often negotiators fail to take cognizance of contextual and extenuating circumstances because they seek selfish and parochial interests in a winner-take all, zero-sum scenario where they assume they are dealing with a fixed pie situation, and their axiomatic positions cannot be compromised. This essay on negotiation failure regarding the Daimler-Chrysler merger failure draws parallels from history and geo-politics, citing the Cold War era standoff, Shuttle diplomacy regarding the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT), the Oil-for-food UN-Iraqi deal, and the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio as typical negotiations some of which were successes and others failures. The author of this essay makes the assumption that negotiation is not a one-off process but a continuous work in progress of establishing long term rapport, good will, and building bridges of friendship and investment in long term binding bonds of mutual coexistence. Key Words: negotiations, conflicts, mergers, merger failures, negotiation failures, conflict resolution, ADR, soft diplomacy, blinded awareness, focus failure
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONDaimler Mercedes Benz was created in 1885 by Carl Benz (Daimler.com) and it was among the first cars invented alongside Ford, Renault, Dodge, and Chrysler
Daimler Mercedes Benz was created in 1885 by Carl Benz (Daimler.com) and it was among the first cars invented alongside Ford, Renault, Dodge, and Chrysler. In this assignment on Negotiation Failure, the writer will first examine the background of the corporate merger between Daimler Benz of Germany, and Chrysler Motors of the USA, and examine why the merger failed, using the theoretical literature on conflict, negotiations and some aspects of international negotiation diplomacy as examples to illustrate points made
Conflict is inevitable in life and the corporate world has a lot of conflicts, especially when two companies agree to merge, such mergers often fail or are not as successful as envisaged
Summary
Daimler Mercedes Benz was created in 1885 by Carl Benz (Daimler.com) and it was among the first cars invented alongside Ford, Renault, Dodge, and Chrysler. Kreitner & Kinicki (2008:379) refer to negotiation failure as being put down to negotiators being dialectical or axiomatic or engaging in polemics and being fixated with ideological obsessions such as asking adversaries to imbibe their own beliefs and standards of free markets, participatory democracy, human rights, multi-party democracy, protecting the rights of women, children, ethnic minorities, and animals. Be that as it may, such demands are based on morals and there are no one set of universal morals because of differences in religions, historical antecedents and geographical/geopolitical circumstances. Kreitner et al(2008:391) advise that to avoid negotiation failure, the parties to a negotiation should avoid puffery, deception, weakening opponents, self-centredness, resistance to change, non-disclosure of pertinent information, distraction, information overload, and exploitation of weaker opponents
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