Negotiation Procedure Research Articles

Allocation of research funds in competitive environment. A computerized negotiation system

The paper is concerned with the problem of financing of complex research programs. One of tasks to be solved consists in assigning research teams, willing to participate in a given program, to research projects being its elements, under conditions of constrained budget. It is assumed that the strategy of every research team head is to maximize the average time-discounted income per person. In the previous paper of the authors a special negotiation procedure has been proposed to solve this problem. This paper presents some possible extensions and modifications of the procedure. At each stage of this procedure the heads of research teams involved have to make decisions on the assignment of their workers to particular projects. The proposed system of interactions among the research teams heads provides a possibility of reaching the consensus in the matter of this assignment. Simultaneously, it makes possible to solve the problem of research funds allocation. Such a system is considered as a multiperson game of Nash type with the non-zero sum of the players payments.

Towards a Model for Co-working in Family Conciliation

SUMMARY This article surveys the present state of co-working in the practice of those independent family conciliation services affiliated to the National Family Conciliation Council. It proposes that a model of co-working is needed that is specifically tailored to conciliation practice. It sets out progress towards such a model in a particular agency—the Swindon Family Conciliation Service. It develops a theoretical base for this model from the concepts of 'content' and 'process' which it links with the 'underlying' and 'substantive' issues brought up by separating and divorcing couples for resolution. It draws these ideas from writings about divorce experience and negotiation procedures. It then presents a particular case, with an extract from an actual interview in which the model is used, and introduces a diagrammatic format for analysing conciliation processes in terms of the model proposed. The primary aim of independent out-of-court family conciliation services, as stated in the extended Code of Practice of the National Family Conciliation Council is to: 'Help couples involved in separation and divorce reduce the area or intensity of conflict between them and to work towards reaching agreements especially in disputes concerning their children'.

Parents and therapists as allies in behavioral treatment of children's stuttering

The effectiveness of a joint therapist and parent intervention approach to children's stuttering was investigated with 18 children. Intervention entailed an intensive 1-week clinic in which children were trained in the stutter-free speech method developed by Shames and Florance (1980) and in which parents received instruction in reinforcement and negotiation procedures. Clinic training was followed by a home-based therapy program carried out by the parents in conjunction with continued school speech therapy. Multiple baseline analysis of speech dysfluencies in parent-child interactions demonstrated systematic reductions in stuttering concomitant with clinic treatment for 16 of the 18 children, and follow-up checks showed maintenance of treatment gains up to 6 months later. Observational and written measures collected at pretest, posttest, 2-month, and 6-month intervals showed significant postintervention reductions in stuttering during therapist-child interactions, improved performance on a standardized fluency test, and lower participant ratings of suttering severity. Parents displayed gains in knowledge of child management principles following training and improved perceptions of children's behavioral adjustment in follow-up. The findings support the efficacy of a multifaceted behavioral approach including parents with therapists in treatment of children's stuttering.

Directive use in negotiation interaction

This study examined how conversational directives expand strategically in negotiation interaction. The directive expansions were examined in relationship to four contextual parameters that are most influential in structuring communication choices in negotiation: participant goals and interests, the negotiation procedures, relational history of the negotiators, and the topic or issue consuming the interaction. Findings revealed that when participant goals are discrepant and a less cooperative context is apparent, when the procedures for conducting the negotiation are not as rigid, when participants have a substantial relational history, and when the negotiation content is personally involving, then more face‐threatening directives are used. The significance of these results is discussed with respect to the value of focusing on directives as a means of learning how the negotiation of information influences the negotiation over specific outcome proposals.

Iterative Negotiations on Multiple Objectives in Large Scale Systems

An iterative negotiation procedure for multiple decision makers, who have their own multiple objectives and who are depended on each other via common resources or physical connections, is proposed. The scheme includes two repe ated basic steps : the decision makers' independent multicriteria optimizations of their subsystems and a convenient step for trade-off between the decision makers. Assumptions guaranteeing the convergence of the negotiation scheme are addressed, among these, one assumption concerning independence of subsystems, is essential. The negotiation scheme can also be applied by a single decision maker to decompose a problem into simpler decision problems. Ariver planning example is included.

Three instances of negotiation procedures in the Federal Republic of Germany

The report deals with three types of negotiation procedures: the product information system, the voluntary right of rescission in direct selling contracts, and the widespread phenomenon of standard form recommendations. In order to facilitate a comparison each analysis is structured in an identical way: (a) presentation of the contents in their relation to legal rules; (b) motives behind their establishment; (c) description of the procedure; (d) evaluation of the monitoring of the codes and of the sanctions for non-compliance.

Contributors

The effectiveness of a joint therapist and parent intervention approach to children's stuttering was investigated with 18 children. Intervention entailed an intensive 1-week clinic in which children were trained in the stutter-free speech method developed by Shames and Florance (1980) and in which parents received instruction in reinforcement and negotiation procedures. Clinic training was followed by a home-based therapy program carried out by the parents in conjunction with continued school speech therapy. Multiple baseline analysis of speech dysfluencies in parent-child interactions demonstrated systematic reductions in stuttering concomitant with clinic treatment for 16 of the 18 children, and follow-up checks showed maintenance of treatment gains up to 6 months later. Observational and written measures collected at pretest, posttest, 2-month, and 6-month intervals showed significant postintervention reductions in stuttering during therapist-child interactions, improved performance on a standardized fluency test, and lower participant ratings of suttering severity. Parents displayed gains in knowledge of child management principles following training and improved perceptions of children's behavioral adjustment in follow-up. The findings support the efficacy of a multifaceted behavioral approach including parents with therapists in treatment of children's stuttering.

Negotiation and Mediation in Conflicts I: The Role of Mathematical Approaches and Methods

There are many possible approaches to the analysis of conflict situations and ways of developing mediation or negotiation procedures. In general, we can distinguish between socio-political approaches, procedures for mediation and negotiation which have developed historically through political experience, and systems-analytical, mathematical approaches, which rely on various branches of decision and game theory or on computerized simulation or gaming models. While the socio-political approaches must remain the basis of any analysis of conflict situations, they can usefully be supplemented by more-formalized approaches; both approaches, when used separately, have their limitations.This paper, after a short review of existing systems-analytical and mathematical approachés, proposes new concepts and methods for the mathematical analysis of conflict processes. The proposed approach attempts to bridge the gap between simulation gaming models and experiments and more formal game-theoretical analysis by taking certain ideas from interactive decision supported gaming, assuming that the players have multiple objectives that they wish to satisfice (not optimize), and introducing special mediation procedures as an element of decision support during the game. The mathematical concepts used are the selection of satisficing game equilibria, the definition of constructive and destructive behavior (on the part of the players), and a formalization of conflict escalation and de-escalation processes.

THE ROLE OF THE BRITISH ALKALI AND CLEAN AIR INSPECTORATE IN AIR POLLUTION CONTROL

The British Alkali Inspectorate is responsible for air pollution control policy implementation with respect to most of the major industrial emitters. It operates with a statutory framework that provides very considerable administrative discretion. In short, emitters are required to use the “best practicable means” (bpm) to eliminate or, if that is not possible, render safe emissions. What bpm implies for each process is determined by the Inspectorate after a negotiation procedure involving the main interests. This is published but has no statutory force; it is likely that the courts will find for the Inspectorate in the event of any legal action, in which it claims failure to use bpm, but that has been little tested. The relationship between the Inspectorate and individual emitters is a private one in which bpm is used as a standard to be reached by new processes at the outset. When bpm is updated existing processes are given time to meet the new requirements. However, in each case, since bpm consists of an elaborate code to be applied to individual circumstances, many aspects of the determination of the right fit between its requirements and technological realities must often involve negotiation and trial and error.

Negotiating regulations: A cure for the malaise?

Editorial Note: Proponents of the notion that mediation is a promising approach to land-use and environmental conflicts will be interested in models for decision making and institutionalization—building a familiar set of expectations and negotiating procedures into general policy. One important arena for developing and institutionalizing the process of negotiation is administrative rulemaking. Practitioners and students of environmental policy are well aware of how significant rulemaking is in translating often vague legislative directives into implementable regulations. Our feature article on environmental negotiation presents one proposal for formal negotiations as an alternative to the present “hybrid process” of administrative rulemaking. The author includes recommendations for how Congress might foster negotiated rulemaking as a serious experiment in procedural reform. The following is excerpted and adapted from a report prepared in January, 1982 for the Administrative Conference of the United States. In June, the Administrative Conference adopted a resolution which recommended to federal agencies and to Congress that negotiation procedures be applied to rulemaking on an experimental basis. The entire report upon which this article is based appears in Volume 71 (October 1982, page 1) of the Georgetown Law Journal, which holds the copyright. Readers may note some editorial discrepancies between the two versions. The ideas expressed in both articles are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of any other person or group.

Negotiations for hostages: Implications from the police experience

The research examines the hostage situation precipitated by a group of Hanafi Muslims in March, 1977, in Washington, D.C. This episode is used to discuss a set of highly successful hostage negotiation procedures and their implications for bargaining with political terrorists. Some hostage situations are, as was the Hanafi episode, attempts by politically weak groups to gain access to the public agenda through political theater staged before the communications media. In such cases, the granting of symbolic rewards and face‐saving mechanisms to the terrorists through the ritual of negotiation can lead to their capitulation. These procedures, however, work neither in situations where the terrorists escalate demands nor with suicide missions. The frequency of suicide missions, however, has been largely overrated. The implications from the police experience and the ritualistic and symbolic aspects of hostage taking are discussed in terms of the U.S. Department of State's policy of nonnegotiation. The research suggests that State Department policy be reevaluated in terms of the symbolic and ritualistic motivations behind much hostage taking.

Greece-Turkey: Agreement on Procedures for Negotiation of Aegean Continental Shelf Issue

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Contractual Models for Negotiation Training in Marital Dyads

The increasing popularity of contracting and negotiation training with couples suggests a need for systematic analysis of the models available for such training. Based primarily upon behavior theory these procedures rely heavily on notions of exchange and reciprocity. The similarities and differences in contracting and negotiation procedure were noted between the settings of the outside world and the marital dyad. Working within a behavioral framework two major categories of contracting were developed, and their logicalform was considered. Although models within the quid pro quo category provide greatest contingency control there are numerous difficulties associated with their use. Models of the implicit exchange or good faith contractual format seem to fit more easily into the overall goal of therapy. Each category of contractual model was illustrated and the strengths and weaknesses were noted.

THE RATIONALE FOR INCENTIVE CONTRACTING*

ABSTRACTThe incentive‐type fee function (which has supplanted the Cost‐Plus‐Fixed‐Fee arrangements of a decade ago) provides an excellent medium for achieving “fee flexibility” or, more exactly, for increasing the fee outcome on government contracts. The originators of incentive contracting stumbled unwittingly on a method for negotiating acceptable fee arrangements under conditions of uncertainty, and the primary purpose of this paper is to establish apodictically that incentive contracts (whether single or multiple) can and do provide the contractor with a method for securing a fee arrangement preferable to that obtainable through a CPFF or a FP (Fixed‐Price) contract. Furthermore, this characteristic of incentive contracts can be demonstrated through the use of elementary decision theory.The incentive fee structure provides the contractor with a long‐needed procedure for optimizing the expected utility of the fee outcome, and an appreciation of this property should be of value to both contractors and procurement officials with the authority for designing new contract fee arrangements. The paper does not investigate procedures for the optimal negotiation of contracts; rather, it identifies a feature of the incentive contract which appears to be the primary basis for its use and popularity.Our thesis is applicable to both single and multiple incentive contracts. For reasons of simplicity, however, the analysis has been largely confined to the former type of fee arrangement.

Managers, Men and Morale

PERHAPS the most outstanding event in the industrial story of Britain in the 1940‘s is the advancement in the technique of co-operation between master and man-or, between managers and employees, to put it into its modern wording. Admittedly that story has not everywhere been characterized by undisturbed harmony ; but as to the extent of the progress achieved, and its soundness in fact, there can be little room for doubt. In the main, the achievement has been in the realm of formal relations between organised parties, that is, procedures for negotiation and continual consultation between representatives : employers' federations and trade unions on an industry basis, or managers and shop stewards at the individual factory level. Yet there has been an advance, too, in the more informal pattern of consultation that is inherent in the everyday contact of manager and supervisor with the men and women under their jurisdiction—an advance measured chiefly in widespread recognition of this factor as an element in executive responsibility. This fact of employee relationships is, many authorities are coming to agree, of greater significance in the conduct of industry than the formalized pattern characterized by a meeting of ‘sides' across a table, more often glaring than smiling, and more often interested in their own respective good rather than in the pursuit of a common task. Managers, Men and Morale Wilfred B. D. Brown Winifred Raphael. Pp. vii+163. (London: Macdonald and Evans, 1948.) 10s. 6d. net.