Overview Kersman Medical Applicance (KMA) has been providing prosthetics and oth
ID: 346427 • Letter: O
Question
Overview
Kersman Medical Applicance (KMA) has been providing prosthetics and other assorted medical products since 1959. Abdi Oldschool has been with KMA for thirty years and has an associate’s degree in office administration. He worked his way up the ladder from secretary and is currently the human resource manager.
Ed. U. Kaitme is an HR associate at KMA. Ed has a bachelor’s degree in HR with a minor in education. While he doesn’t officially hold the title of trainer, he does virtually all of the training for KMA and is quite good at it. Lately Ed has been talking about pursuing a graduate degree but the program he is interested in offers classes only during normal business hours.
Confidential Role Sheet: HR Manager Abdi Oldschool
You are the Human Resource manager at Kersman Medical Appliances (KMA). Your two-year degree in office administration taught you everything you needed to know to get your first job. Everything else you have learned on the job as you worked your way up the ladder. Lately one of your employees, Ed, has been talking about going back to school to get a masters degree and you suspect he is going to ask you to alter his work schedule. You are very reluctant to do this. You just don’t see the value in a graduate degree. In your mind, hard work and common sense are more valuable than any piece of paper that hangs on the wall.
a. Negotiation Plan
a. What are the issues to be negotiated?
b. What are the priorities among the issues in the bargaining mix?
c. What are the primary underlying interests?
d. What are my limits on each issue – walkaway points and BATNAs?
e. What are my target points and opening requests on these issues?
f. Who are the important constituencies to whom I accountable?
g. What do I know about the other negotiator’s interests, negotiating style and personal reputation?
h. What overall strategy do I want to pursue?
i. What do I need to assemble – research, documents, charts, and graphs to make the most effective presentation I want to achieve? What tactics will I use to present my arguments or defend against the other negotiator’s arguments?
Explanation / Answer
The prospective Negotiation plan for the HR Manager
a. The main issue is that the junior HR officer cannot take leave during normal business hours and the secondary issue is that the HR manager do not believe in a Master’s degree in HR management.
b. There are three points in every negotiators mind i.e. starting point, target point, and point of resistance. The starting point for the Abdi may be to dissuade Ed from joining master’s degree in HR and encourage him to be present for the job during business hours. The target point could be to encourage Ed to be attending the job in normal hours but free to do the master’s course in the evening or weekend classes. The point of resistance could be rescheduling the work for Ed i.e. insisting on being present for the job during normal business hours.
c. The primary underlying interest is to insist Ed to attend the job during working hours and secondary to discourage him to join for master’s course. Abdi do not want an overqualified individual working under him.
d. Since Abdi has the powers to grant permission to the HR assistant, the HR manager can insist on Ed’s presence at the job during working hours and thus prevent the enrollment to the master’s course. If Ed is keen to join the course, he may have to leave the job and this situation will protect the interests of Abdi. If Ed decides to attend the job in normal hours, he will not be able to attend the higher education; this situation is also beneficial to Abdi’s interests. The BATNA, (the best alternative to negotiated agreement) is preventing Ed’s enrollment to course ca be achieved by insisting Ed to be present at the job.
e. Opening request is to focus on the job and discourage earning degrees as they are not useful in real life.
f. Whether Ed receives a degree or not do not affect the position of Abdi, but Ed’s absence during the normal working hours can upset the plans of Abdi, the HR manager.
g. Ed’s aspiration for a better career is apparent from the initiatives taken by him. Other additional information are not sufficient to know the negotiating style of Ed.
h. Overall strategy is to insist Ed to be present for job during the normal working hours.
i. Gather information about the experiential aspect of career success than academic qualifications. Highlight the importance of on the job training than the offsite academic courses.
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