Negotiating by e-mail

Who has not typed out an angry reply to an e-mail message, hit the send button - and then regretted it? Surely no technology has led to so many conflicts and lost friendships as electronic mail. But nowhere is e-mail more dangerous than in

negotiations.

Experiments by Michael Morris, an academic at Stanford Business School, and a group of colleagues have now demonstrated what many people have always thought: negotiations are more likely to go well if they are conducted, at least in part, face-to-face, rather than between strangers with keyboards and screens. E-mail is not necessarily a bad way to negotiate, but the research suggests that it needs to be used carefully.

Together with Leigh Thompson, of the Kellogg Graduate Business School at Northwestern University, 25 and several other academics, Mr Morris studied mock negotiations that used only e-mail and compared them with ones where there was a brief getting-to-know-you telephone call before the negotiations. The second type went more smoothly. Other experiments found that electronic negotiations were easier when the negotiators began by swapping photographs and personal details, or when they already knew each other.

From The Economist

1. Imagine that each paragraph in the article has a heading. Choose the best heading for each paragraph from the list below and number them in the correct order. Two of the headings are not used.

a) Examples of real-life negotiations

b) Face-to-face negotiations work better than ones by e-mail

c) Negotiations in the construction industry

d) E-mail can easily lead to conflict

e) Studies of negotiation

2. Choose the correct alternative.

a) If you regret something you did , you are

i) happy about what you did.

ii) unhappy about what you did.

b) If you demonstrate something, you

i) show that it is true,

ii) just say that it is true.

c) If you conduct negotiations, you

i) take part in them.

ii) observe them from the outside.

d) Academics are

i) full-time businesspeople.

ii) university teachers.

e) Mock negotiations are

i) real.

ii) experiments.

f) If you swap photographs, you

i) exchange your photographs for others,

ii) keep your photographs.

Over to you

Are face-to-face meetings necessary when you do business with someone? Or can everything be done by phone and e-mail?

Unit 17 Conflict.

Solving conflict through meditation

Level of difficulty ***

Before you read

In your country, do people always use the court system when they are in serious conflict? Or are there other ways of solving conflicts?

Reading

Read this article from the Financial Times and answer the questions

The future is mediation rather than litigation

What lessons can the English legal system learn from our litigation*-loving American cousins? Quite a lot, according to Lord Woolf, the architect of important changes in the law in the UK. The willingness of people in the US to suet is famous. Attempts by the US authorities to reduce the amount of litigation by using alternatives such as mediation** have been less publicised.

Speaking at a recent London conference, Lord Woolf said that changes in the law to encourage the use of mediation in Britain were beginning to work. However, he also said that the US had gone much further than Britain in encouraging alternatives to litigation.

One fast-food, chain has two cases against it of the type that in theory could be settled*** through mediation. In Britain lawyers have begun a “hot coffee” compensation action on behalf of 26 victims who allege the chain was negligent in selling drinks at 90 degrees C. They are claiming damages of between £3,000 and £30,000 each. In the US, two customers are claiming $100 million because they allege they were attacked and beaten up by a restaurant manager after complaining that a milk shake was too watery.

Jean Eaglesham and John Mason

From the Financial Times

* Litigation is when two sides use the legal system of courts, judges, etc. to solve a conflict.

**If you sue someone, you make a legal claim against them because you feel you have been harmed by them.

*** If you settle a dispute through mediation, you solve a conflict by using outside experts and not the legal system.

l. Match the words i-6 to their meanings a)-f), as they are used in the article.

1. willingness

2. alternative 3. compensation 4. action

5. allege

6. negligent

a) another way of doing something

b) when people want to do something

c) to say that something is true

d) a legal claim, for example when you ask for money from someone who has harmed you

e) money, etc. that you get from someone who has harmed you in some way

f) doing something that you should not have done, or not doing something that you should have

2. What do these numbers in paragraph 3 refer to?

a) 26

b) 90 degrees C

c) £3,000

d) £30,000

e) $100 million

Over to you

If the allegations against the fast-food restaurant chain were true, what would a reasonable level of compensation be? Do you think that mediation would help in these cases? Why or why not?

Unit 18 New Business.

Launching new products

Level of difficulty **

Before you read

Making luxury goods available to consumers at affordable prices is a very powerful marketing idea. Can you think of examples when retailers or manufacturers have done this?

Reading

Read this article from the Financial Times and answer the questions