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SCENARIO:
Ad Sales, Inc., a firm that sells advertising space in business publications, has a new management team that will negotiate its first contract with the union representing its employees. Tension has been building, and both sides have been maneuvering for strategic advantage. Some issues to be addressed are salary, vacation time, pensions, sub-contracting, compensation, and work assignments.
MECHANICS:
The two teams will meet separately for an hour to discuss their strategies and objectives. Then the two teams will meet and negotiate for two hours. The threat of a strike is motivation for progress in the negotiations.
TEACHING MATERIALS:
For all parties:
- General Information
- Supplementary Information and Stated Positions
Role Specific:
Confidential Instructions for:
- Lawyer on Management Team
- Regional Sales Manager
- Vice President for Sales
- Vice President of AFL-CIO Local 1502
- Representative of the International Advertising Workers Federation
- President of Local 1502
- Supplementary Instructions for all of the above roles
Teacher’s Package (24 pages total):
- All of the above
MAJOR LESSONS:
- Interval team conflicts must be ironed out before union-management negotiation can proceed smoothly.
- This case encourages parties to trade across issues and within issues. Players must decide what their BATNA’s are and the differences in values of issues will determine the amount of trading.
- This is a good exercise for people in actual contract negotiations.
- This game allows the players to explore the influence of threats and promises on the behavior of other parties. These must be handled carefully.
- The problems of power imbalance, typical of employee relations, are highlighted. This is probably a good case for a mutual gains approach, but useful objective criteria may be hard to come by.
SIMILAR SIMULATIONS:
- Collective Bargaining at Central Division
- Collective Bargaining at Southern Express
- Happy Valley Consolidated School District/AFTEA Labor-Management Committee Meeting
- MAPO–Administration Negotiation
- Salary Negotiation
PROCESS THEMES:
Agenda Control; Anchoring; BATNA; Bluffing; Caucusing; Coalitions; Communication; Consensus Building; Currently perceived choice analysis; Drafting; Emotions; Fairness; Financial analysis; Interest analysis; Interests, quantifying; Joint gains; meaning of “success”; Offers, first; Partisan perceptions; Precedents; Pressure tactics; Risk perception; Threats
