Negotiation as defined in the textbook is any attempt by two or more conflicting parties to resolve their divergent goals by redefining the terms or their interdependence. In our latest group exercise, each group was assigned to either the Araks or the Barkans and had to negotiate with another group assigned to the opposite country to solve the Arakian/Barkanian Border Dispute. Each group was given a top-secret information packet, and with the information used to their discretion they were to try and negotiate to come to an agreement to settle the border disputes. Our group was assigned to the Barkans, and using the conflict handling styles as described in the textbook examples will be given on our effort to negotiate with our opposing country.
This exercise illustrated the conflict process very well because it contained all the elements as described in the conflict process. The sources of conflict such as the goals, values, tasks, resources, rules and communication were all known. Both countries had very similar sources of conflict, for example the goals of both countries was to come to an agreement with the opposing country while insuring that their country would survive. On the other hand along the conflict process model, the manifest conflict that consisted of the conflict style, decision, and overt behaviours varied from group to group. One group’s decisions could vary greatly from another group’s. Having different variations of the manifest conflict would eventually lead to different conflict perceptions and conflict emotions, and thus each opposing group would have a different conflict outcome. In some situations for example, one group would have a more positive outcome compared to its opposing group’s negative outcome.
