Third-party facilitators in interest-based negotiation: An Australian Case Study

Abstract

This article proposes a new theoretical framework to explain the role of third-party facilitators in interest-based negotiation, and applies the framework in a qualitative case study of a collective bargaining process at an aluminium smelter in Australia. The theoretical framework describes the activities of third parties in terms of the objectives they seek to meet to support bargaining, and the consulting approach they deploy to do so. The case study demonstrates that third parties undertake a range of distinct activities to facilitate bargaining between management and unions, dominated by, although not limited to, a ‘process’ approach to consulting. Moreover, third parties support the development of three types of relationship: their own with the individual parties, as well as relationships between the parties and within each party. While the framework needs confirmation in future research, the article offers rare insights into how third parties participate in interest-based negotiation.

Mediation and Conciliation in Collective Labor Conflicts in Australia

“…A key part of the joint venture's practice was to support interest-based collective bargaining, and to assist unions and management in the design of more collaborative processes and governance arrangements. CoSolve is another exception: a small firm of principals with the mediation and negotiation expertise to work with unionised firms to settle and prevent disputes, and improve relationships (for cases, see Macneil & Bray, 2013;. There are a few other studies which mention private mediators (see Van Gramberg, 2006;Forbes-Mewett, G. Griffin, J. Griffin, & McKenzie, 2005;Riley, 2009;Forsyth, 2012).…”

Mediation and Conciliation in Collective Labor Conflicts

“…Surprisingly, the scarce studies investigating collective conflicts, are limited to conflicts of interest. The social impact of these conflicts for society makes it necessary to gain a deep comprehension of them (Macneil & Bray, 2013). In this book, we certainly stretch beyond collective bargaining, as many conflicts in organizations occur related to different interpretation of rights.…”

The encouragement of bargaining in good faith – A behavioural approach

“…Further, we are aware that enterprise negotiations occur in the context of the broader management–union and employer–employee relationships at the workplace, the nature of one impacting upon the other (Ben Yoav and Pruitt, 1984; Fells and Prowse, 2016; Fisher et al., 1999), and this opens the way for a more strategic approach to negotiation and to the development (or avoidance) of management–union relations in the organisation (Macneil and Bray, 2013; Walton et al., 1994). One relational outcome of a negotiation is the negotiators’ level of satisfaction (see Halpert et al., 2010, for a review), that is, the more satisfied negotiators are with their negotiation the more likely they would be to work together in future.…”