Strategic Negotiations: A Theory of Change in Labor-Management Relations

Strategic Negotiations identifies three fundamental negotiating strategies that are being used to effect changes in labor-management relations. The first, called forcing, involves making labor accept unwanted substantive terms while simultaneously reducing the union's influence in the workplace. This strategy carries severe risks, including uncontrolled escalation, defeat, and a legacy of intergroup distrust. In contrast, the second strategy of fostering emphasizes finding solutions to common problems and building trust and consensus between the parties. A major risk with fostering is that difficult problems may not be addressed for fear of straining the new relationship. The third strategy, escape, entails withdrawing from the negotiating relationship altogether by physically transferring operations to another location. Using detailed case studies of individual firms and entire industries to analyze the tactical advantages and risks of each approach, the authors ultimately recommend a mixed strategy of forcing and fostering.
Part I of Strategic Negotiations reviews the contemporary labor-management landscape and presents the authors' theory about how the strategies are being used to reshape relationships between American management and labor. Part II offers case histories of thirteen companies drawn from the pulp and paper, auto supply, and railroad industries to illustrate that theory. Part III examines the case studies in greater depth to assess the influences on the negotiators and their ensuing strategic choices, and Part IV identifies the specific tactics companies use to implement their negotiating strategies.
Throughout the book, the authors note evidence that explains why certain negotiations were successful while others failed, and provide guidelines to help practitioners decide which strategy or combination of strategies is best for their situation. While labor and management must continue to attend to their different and often conflicting interests, each must give equal or greater attention to the parties' common interests to survive in today's competitive business arena. By establishing a clear framework for understanding how the U.S. labor market is evolving, Strategic Negotiations offers the parties a way to address both their differences and their expanding mutual interests.

Richard E. Walton is Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.