My Photo

An Overview of Interest – Based Problem Solving

1. What is Interest-Based Bargaining?

Interest-based bargaining or problem solving is about information sharing, exploration of

issues and options and working toward mutually beneficial solutions.

2. Background

A major problem with conventional enterprise bargaining is that it is often a confrontational

process. Confrontation around firmly entrenched positions is how we think about and have

been trained to negotiate workplace arrangements and relationships – it’s a firmly entrenched

process known as “positional” bargaining.

Union and employer representatives usually arrive at the negotiating table with their positions

and predispositions and play them out in what is often a win-lose, or lose/lose exchange.

Narrowly conceived productivity gains are traded off against wage rises to secure a deal. By

the time later rounds of bargaining are underway the “game” is often ritualised, fractious and

unimaginative – a phenomena known as “EB burnout”.

In recent times this adversarial approach to bargaining has been falling out of favour, with

many now considering, as an alternative, the more co-operative “interest based” approach to

bargaining and workplace relationships.

Overseas research indicates that greater gains in bargaining situations have been made by

those parties undertaking an “interest-based” approach by comparison with those that

undertake a “position-based” approach.

The differences that exist between the traditional “position based” bargaining approach and

“interest-based” methods are significant.

Positional bargaining involves, in essence, each party trying to maximise how much they can

win out of the negotiations. A gain for one side invariably means a loss for the other. In this

framework each party will strategically adopt polarised positions asking for more than it

expects to receive so that it will have something to “give” away when concessions are

demanded. An illustration of this...