Negotiations at an Impasse: Saving Lives

In June 2020, the vice-president of Ginjalrein India Corporation was meeting with three members from the client organization Nierejia Care. The meeting was to discuss the deteriorating relationship between the two companies. The relationship between the two companies had been difficult for most of 2019, something which had threatened the contract between the two partners. These initial issues had been resolved in March 2020 following high-level interventions and collaborations between key members from both organizations. <br><br/>Unfortunately, the subsequent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 threatened to derail the partnership once again. Both organizations faced significant challenges as a result the pandemic; lockdowns and pandemic measures forced escalated costs, increased uncertainties on various fronts, and threatened the survival of both organizations. Ginjalrein India Corporation was required to make manufacturing operations decisions that Nierejia Care viewed as a breach of contract. The upcoming round of negotiations in June 2020, as these companies sought to find middle ground and yet support their own interests, would be critical for both parties.

This case is suitable for an undergraduate- or graduate-level course that covers multiparty negotiation in a management program. It emphasizes the importance of pre-negotiation activities to understand opposing parties and helps students conduct a structured pre-negotiation analysis to more effectively craft an on-table negotiation strategy. Students can also learn to form alliances and guard against coalitions that can form against them, especially when negotiations reach an impasse. This case highlights the complexity of a real-life negotiation decision and shows students how an integrative negotiation can result in a better negotiation outcome to overcome an impasse.<br><br/>This case provides an opportunity for students to participate in a role play to execute negotiations, choosing either distributive or integrative approaches for the negotiations. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to achieve the following objectives:<br><br/><ul><li>Develop a people map of all stakeholders involved in a negotiation.</li><li>Analyze the various factors that influence the stance of an individual participating in a negotiation.</li><li>Assess which stakeholders can form a coalition in a negotiation, to the detriment of other stakeholders.</li><li>Synthesize a plan to create an integrative solution and execute the plan with the help of allies.</li></ul>

• negotiation
• multiparty negotiation
• impasse
• relationships
• collaboration
• conflict resolution
• integrative negotiation
• distributive negotiation
• goals
• demands
• coalition
• contract
• management
• vendor management
• contract
• COVID-19
• defaulted payment