The Negotiation Toolkit
Book

The Negotiation Toolkit

How to Get Exactly What You Want In Any Business or Personal Situation

Roger J. Volkema
AMACOM, 1999
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Editorial Rating

9

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  • Applicable

Recommendation

As the title implies, this book gives you the tools you need - in the form of information and tactics - to negotiate effectively. No matter what line of work you’re in, you’ll benefit from the negotiation principles, strategies and styles that Roger J. Volkema presents in an easy-to-read format. He includes exercises that you can use to test your comprehension of the material and to start developing your skills. His chapters on ethics and cross-cultural negotiations, while general, provide an intellectual starting point for further investigations. This book will give you a basic foundation for effective negotiation, but if you’re in a business that demands the skill, you’ll want to follow up with some more advanced reading and training. Nevertheless, getAbstract recommends this book to anyone who feels a little overwhelmed whenever they find themselves across the table from a negotiating adversary, whether it’s your boss, an employee a customer or - gulp! - your spouse.

Summary

Understanding Negotiation

Negotiation is not the same thing as bargaining. Bargaining is the process of determining the final price of a purchase or sale. Negotiation is communication between two or more parties to determine the nature of future behavior. Therefore, bargaining may be a facet of negotiation, but negotiation - because it involves multiple issues and outcomes - is much larger than just setting a price.

What is negotiable and what is not negotiable? The answer to this question is, whatever you think is negotiable is negotiable. And whatever you consider non-negotiable isn’t. If you do not believe that you can ask for something, then that thing is not negotiable, because it never comes up. The Abilene Paradox illustrates this dynamic. The Abilene Paradox represents the negative consequence that can occur when groups of people all want the same thing but each person fails to ask for what he or she wants. In the Abilene Paradox, a family (father, mother, children and in-laws) takes a 53-mile trip to Abilene, Texas, during the peak of summer in a car with no air conditioning. When the family arrives in Abilene, they learn that no one in the car wanted to make...

About the Author

Roger J. Volkema is an associate professor of management at American University and a private consultant to business and government. He regularly conducts courses, seminars and workshops on negotiation, mediation and conflict management in North and South America, and has written more than 25 articles on these subjects. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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