Reflection on Sally Soprano Case

During this positional negotiation, I am not so at ease at first. I think it has to do with my lack of professional experience. I have rarely faced this kind of bargaining in real life practice so I don’t know how to cope with this situation. As an agent for Sally Soprano, I knew that I should act to meet Sally’s Interests. However, I didn’t know to which extent I should be aggressive or pushy.

According to the Thomas-Kilmann conflict mode instrument, I get 0 in competing, 7 in collaborating, 7 in compromising, 7 in avoiding and 9 in accommodating. I don’t like to get into discord with others. It does mean that I have a perfectly good temperament; I still have temper. Nonetheless, I have always tried to avoid the quarrel even though I feel the discontent because I am taught in this way and Taiwanese culture stresses a lot on the maintain of harmony. I am the eldest sister in my family, having a five-year younger brother. My mother had always told me to give in while my brother and I were fighting for the toys. It’s a big sister’s duty to fulfill the siblings’ wishes because the eldest should be more mature. Meanwhile, it’s very important to keep the harmony within the group and the society in East Asia. It’s a general phenomenon that a Japanese or a Chinese avoids to say “No” directly. To say “No” means a disturbance and an impoliteness in East-Asian society. Prior consultation is the technique used everywhere, which enables the negotiators to reach a tacit consensus. However, this kind of education and culture might get a negative effect when I need to deal with people whose standpoint is different from mine.

My partner, however, is not an aggressive person at the first sight. Neither he nor I wanted to touch the sensitive subjects. Hence, I figured out that one of us needs to mention them. I mentioned that the audition is not necessary, saying this would undermine my client’s reputation. He is mild but still insisted to have a chance to evaluate her voice despite my promise. I recognized that my counterpart is mild in appearance but he is tougher than I thought. Since he is stronger than I, I don’t want to confront him. I gave in at the end: we agreed on a charity solo concert, upon which the decision would be made. If I could have insisted more on the inutility of any kind of audition, I would have a better bargaining ground. Because I gave in, I was frustrated. Being mild is one thing; being imposed by others is another. Due to my background, I assess that I might be a little too mild during the negotiations. In the following week, I learned that we should act competitively, accommodatingly, or compromisingly based on strategies instead of our own nature. Therefore, for the next negotiation, I need to learn how to insist in my position. I need to learn how to say “No” without creating any discontent.

Another thing that I felt frustrated is that I did not explore the best option. I think that I was conservative about the gains although the salary was not my priority. I learned that the counterpart was actually able to offer much more than I finally got, which means that I could have done better. More is not necessary better in this case because I know the long term relations need a time to grow and also because getting the job is the most pivotal task that I had during this negotiation. I was not satisfied with the results but they were acceptable in terms of salary and audition; hence, I did not try to push further. However, I think it would be better for me to halt this propensity. I tend to reconcile when one of my objectives are met and I stop seeking for the best solution. Once I am content with what I have, I stop looking for the better outcome. Perhaps, I learned this from the international politics. If the other party is not oppressing me and if the offer does not damage my fundamental interests, I should accept it because getting to the agreement is the most important thing. I think that instead of being offered a price I should be the one who say the price first next time.

When the other party asked me about my client’s future engagement in other operas or occasions, I did not tell him that my client would like to join a TV opera show. I did not know why I hesitated to tell the truth to him and at that time I had a bad time at deciding to tell him or not. Being honest is a very important quality but in this case I was afraid that my honesty would damage my negotiation. I did not want to look vulnerable especially when the other party did not show its intention while asking. If the other party knows everything and the bottom line, I think I will lose the upper hand. Hence, I chose to say only part of the truth. If I had chosen to tell him, maybe we could work for a better result; even so, I did not know how much I should have told him. It comes back to the reason why I am suspicious to the other’s intention. Growing up in a happy family, I have had no trauma or any tragic event in my life. I don’t think human beings are evil or bad. I think it’s mainly because of my education. I was taught in school that the enemy and the rivals are not trustworthy. From the historical lessons, trusting your enemy would sometimes hurt you because they can really stab you to the core. In Chinese culture, we promote the notion that we can look at the bright side in every event but we need to be cautious too. I think being cautious is not a terrible attitude; being over-suspicious is. This could hinder my negotiation if I really doubt this person’s credibility and then I might miss the signal and misjudge his intention.

Finally, I assess that my negotiation is not really successful because nothing is certain in the end. I did not get the final decision from the other party. Following decisions all depend on the temporary agreement that I had. However, this solo concert does not guarantee my client’s job in the opera. I accept the uncertainty because there is surely a need for proving my party’s ability. On the other hand, I think it’s my intrinsic problem that I don’t like to push people to say the last word. Being a classmate or friend, this might be a good quality. However, being a negotiator, I think that this also means that at the end I would probably get nothing at all. For the next round of negotiation, I will try to get a more concrete promise.