This document provides a reflection on a negotiation role play and simulation exercise. The participant discusses their assigned role, the situation they faced, and the strategies they used to negotiate. They also reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and the lessons they learned from the exercise.
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MGT5ERN: ASSIGNMENT 3 NEGOTIATION ROLE PLAY & REFLECTION 1|P a g e
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Reflection of Member 2: Role-Employee The dispute resolution and negotiation simulation exercise were used to provide a situation for my team members to interact with each other. The role that was assigned to me was that of the bus driver or the employee for Bundoora Bus Company, Casey Connor. According to the role play simulation, I have been working in the bus company for the last 8 years and has been since then working hard as they have been a great employer as well. I have a great track record in the company as I am very hard working, honest and loyal. However, I am also a blue-collar Australian employee and a member of the labour union since the beginning. During the role play, as I was about to return home after work, I was asked to take the monthly drug test by our company's HR manager Sam Smiley. As an employee of Bundoora Bus Company, all members had to sign the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) that included the drug test in its latest provision. As I support that driving while intoxicated is wrong, I agreed to the provision and signed the agreement. As I knew I had nothing to hide, I willingly took the test. However, the test was humiliating as I had to provide a urine sample in a washroom in the presence of a manager. I felt it as a violation of rights to privacy, but as I signed the EBA, I did it nonetheless. Then I was asked to wait with the other selected drivers until the test was conducted. After some time, all the other drivers were asked to leave, and when I asked Sam if anything was wrong, he was dismissive towards me and just asked to wait a little longer. After waiting for about 90 minutes, Sam introduced me with Jamie Joiner and EAP consultant who has just arrived. I was informed that my initial drug test has resulted positive, and it is being sent for a confirmation test. As of now, I have been suspended with pay from the job, and if the confirmation test also turns out positive, I will be terminated from the company. However, Jamie was here to help and support me by negotiating on my behalf about the consequences. It was Jamie who pointed out that making me wait for 90 minutes without briefing about the details was unreasonable and was a violation of my rights. Jamie also came with an alternative solution to dismissal, and I had to seek a residential treatment which Sam said I had to pay on my own. As I had recently purchased a house and a huge mortgage is due for payment, termination from the job was not an option and also paying the $10,000 for residential treatment was also not possible. Moreover, I knew I was innocent, and hence, I defended myself vehemently. However, it was soon clear to me that both Sam and Jaime had made up their mind that I am guilty and would not listen to my defence. This was 2|P a g e
when I chose the power of silence technique of negotiation. It was clear to me that being aggressive in this situation would worsen it even more, and the best policy now is to keep quiet and wait for my union representative, Lee to arrive. The power of silence is such a useful technique in such situations as it does not allow the other people to further put pressure on me and they are busy discussing the situation while providing me time to think for a mitigation strategy (Craver,2012). This simulation exercise for dispute resolution and negotiations has helped me to handle similar conflict situation in real life in the correct way and gave valuable insights on how to find out the reason of the problem through cross-calculation (Moffitt & Bordone, 2012). When Jamie and Sam were talking to each other in private, I realised that the Bundoora company was suffering heavy losses due to industry deregulation and rising costs and they were hiring non-union labours as they can be paid less. Maybe, all this was a ploy of the company management to get rid of me and replace me with cheaper non-union labour. This was when I understood, instead of further arguing with Sam and Jamie, I would directly talk with my union representative Lee, who has a strong influence over the company. The three majorthingsthatIlearnedfrom thissimulationexercisewere thepowerof silence negotiation technique is best in situations where it is not possible to prove innocence to authority figures. I also learned how to make up the correct decision during a crisis and dispute situation by analysing known facts. Moreover, I learned from Jamie about my personal rights as being detained without charges is not reasonable, and I should have protested it. As a participant in the simulation exercise, I was able to self-assess my own strengths and weaknesses as well. My weakness was I am not able to confront any violation of rights through verbal communication. During the violation of privacy rights when providing a urine sample and human rights when detained without charges, I kept quiet. I should have spoken up or at least demanded the reasons for such actions. However, my strength was that I knew how to handle a crisis situation and understood that waiting for union representative is the best to deal with it. Although I was okay with my own performance as the employee, my team member who played the role of the EAP consultant, Jamie Joiner surprised me with his strong presence of mind and ability to negotiate with an authoritative figure like our HR manager, Sam Smiley. 3|P a g e
Reference List Craver, C. B. (2012).Effective legal negotiation and settlement. LexisNexis. Moffitt, M. L., & Bordone, R. C. (Eds.). (2012).The handbook of dispute resolution. John Wiley & Sons. 4|P a g e