Negotiation: the good and the bad

This month's opinion piece is by Ray Banister 

When I work with new Human Resource managers, I warn them that industrial relations negotiations are one of the most difficult activities they will ever have to do. But the outcomes of successful negotiations can be ground breaking. 

There are so many competing interests, personalities and agendas that it's sometimes tempting to just throw your hands up and walk away from it all. In business, however, perseverance and patience are two very important managerial qualities especially where the profitability and security of the organisation are at stake. 

Let's look at a positive negotiating experience. Some years ago the ICI Plant at Botany was faced with all the same challenges of a growing and changing workplace. Management, staff and unions sat down and drew up lists of interests, needs and demands, and then set about trying to satisfy all lists. The outcome was a groundbreaking workplace agreement that set up new salary structures, did away with demarcations in job descriptions, concentrated on training, and instituted such flexibility regarding working hours and work practices, that everyone involved genuinely agreed that they had all 'won'. 

The Patricks' waterfront dispute might be different sort of example. We read in the papers and saw on our television scenes of picketing workers with their children, armed security guards with attack dogs and an eventual outcome that did not see all parties happy. 

I like to remind new HR managers of these two examples. Which way do you want to take your IR strategies?