Collective Bargaining - NL

Collective Bargaining Newsletter

No. 3, December 2024

Power in Negotiations: Critical Considerations for Negotiators

Developing power in support of your collective bargaining objectives is often underappreciated and, as a result, underdeveloped. Some consider power development in singular terms – negotiators are told to research…research…research…, and that information is the best source of negotiation power. I don’t disagree that gathering and carefully considering relevant information is an important foundation for power development, but from a broader perspective it represents a mere 20% of potential power sources. Likewise, negotiators are told to have a strong BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement). Again, can’t disagree that managing risk of impasse for both sides can be a strong influencer for collective bargaining outcomes. But, unlike the ubiquitous BATNA example of buying a car and having various model/dealer options as alternatives, for example, those bargaining in the essential services default to a compulsory and somewhat conservative arbitration process. There are no other car-dealer options in union-management negotiations, there are two parties to an enduring relationship.

Even with a fuller consideration of power development, and all its sources, a negotiator’s power is limited without an awareness of, and strategic use of power’s necessary twin – influence – they are two different things. Being aware of power in the absence of an understanding of influence techniques is like having a tank full of gas with no engine to use it. Power and influence are not strategies a negotiator considers only in the months that lead up to the start of collective bargaining but are critical leadership functions that are continuously developed.

Why is Power Important?

For a negotiator the value of power may be self-evident. After all, isn’t power about the ability to alter attitudes and behaviors of others to get what we want? Sure, but power is not a blunt instrument, and we benefit from breaking it down to define its component parts, and how we strategically develop them.

There are five elements in the development of power: (i) information power; (ii) positional power; (iii) personal power; (iv) relationship power; and finally (v) contextual power. We want to develop power for several reasons – to influence/control the process; to influence the environment in which collective bargaining occurs; to influence decision makers (both directly and influencers); to present ourselves as subject matter experts; and to optimize outcomes or protect against vulnerabilities in the process. Research on goal setting in negotiations concludes that the more powerful negotiator sets higher aspirations, and challenges themselves to pursue more substantive outcomes, while making fewer concessions (often applying a multi-stage goal-setting/goal-achieving strategy). Negotiators who have purposefully developed power tend to have higher levels of confidence that can create a positive effect, influencing “within-group” (your own team) and “between-group” (the other side) dynamics. For those who have participated in our advanced negotiation training, you will recall that we frame power development around the objective of presenting yourself as a “subject matter expert.”

The same goal setting research concludes that negotiators with low, or underdeveloped power often make more frequent, and more significant concessions based on an “appeasing” mindset. These negotiators improperly value a sense of mutual dependence between the negotiators, and through concessions hope to preserve a relationship.

Power development also plays an important role in offsetting psychological stress that often accompanies negotiations – particularly for those who are new to the process. And, of course, developing your own power as a negotiator is important to offset or neutralize the power of the other side – empowering you to confidently say no, or otherwise control the conversations.

When is power developed?

The development of power is also critical because a significant part of the collective bargaining process occurs long before you get to the bargaining table. Two-thirds of the phases that support bargaining predate your first face-to-face meeting. Each of the five power elements are continuously built and have considerable overlap – they don’t exist in isolation of the other. Moreover, while we often think of the bargaining process in linear terms (the way we teach it), it is anything but. Therefore, understanding the importance of “loop backs” is important. A loop back is a reflective process where the negotiator decides on a strategy, then assesses it’s effectiveness and makes the necessary adjustments to enhance outcomes. In power development, like negotiations, negotiators must continuously loop back to decide on different strategies.

Considering Positional Power

Let’s start with a fuller discussion of one of the five power elements – positional power. Of the five, positional and personal power are the slowest to develop. Positional power is initially anchored to the title you hold in the organization – president, vice president, chief negotiator and so on. Typically, these titles define the scope of responsibilities that you have, but that’s not where power development resides. Power is influenced by your effectiveness in the role you have. Does your audience (the members, public and employer) view you as a responsible, skilled and capable representative? From a leadership perspective, do you represent the membership’s expectations of a leader – what we call a “prototypical leader” – one that members seek to emulate, respect, and mostly, to follow? Positional power is developed through your daily responsibilities – your control over the organization’s resources, your responsiveness to members, the employer, or within your network. Under your leadership does the organization present itself as having legitimacy? Do members see it as an effective and viable mechanism for representing their interests?

Positional power can take considerable time to develop, particularly in organizations where there exists a lower level of engagement by the membership. That said, all the positive development of positional power can be lost with the abuse or excessive use of power. This again is a function of prototypicality in leadership – do the members confer on you the role of leader?

Positional power is but one of the five elements in the development of overall power. It is one of the more difficult to build, as it is grounded in personal relationships and perceptions. But of the five, it has the greatest return on investment for your roles as negotiators in the collective bargaining process. In future newsletters we will return to explore each of the power elements, as well as the important function of influence.

Previous Newsletters

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For more information about COLE LABOUR, visit our website here.

COLE LABOUR

Bill Cole created COLE LABOUR in early 2023 to focus on collective bargaining, interest arbitration, negotiation training and organizational development for labour unions, with a particular focus on first responders and health care. Bill has extensive experience representing unions in collective bargaining in the police, firefighter, health care, airline pilot, hotel workers, steelworkers, broader public and private sectors. He has wide-ranging experience in mediation and interest arbitration in multiple sectors and jurisdictions across Canada. Bill has developed and delivered introductory, intermediate, and advanced negotiation training to thousands of union representatives across North America. He is the co-author of The Art of Collective Bargaining available at Thomson Reuters.

Bill Cole is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard's Center for Labor and a Just Economy, and a faculty member of Harvard's Trade Union Program where he teaches organizational development.

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