8.3 Coalition Building in Multi-Party Negotiations
Learning Objective
3. Assess the role of coalition building in multi-party negotiations.
Coalitions can be defined as two or more parties who agree to cooperate to achieve some mutually desirable goal. In negotiations, forming a coalition may be a way for an individually weaker party to gain more power or influence. Coalitions are complex, relying on both cooperative and competitive behaviours depending on the relationships. They tend to cooperate with fellow coalition members and compete with other coalitions. However, these behaviours can also be reversed, adding to the complexity of coalitions. For instance, we may compete within our own coalition to allocate resources and/or cooperate with other coalitions as a means of gaining more power. This is why coalitions are often seen as unstable groups that adjust their behaviours based on their end goal or objective.
The key characteristics of coalitions include:
- Often form one member at a time
- Tend to be formed independently of formal organizational structure
- Often, they are dependent on persuasion and trust
Coalitions are a unique concept in negotiations in that it is often debated whether they help or hurt the achievement of mutually beneficial solutions, mainly due to their high levels of complexity, which we will discuss in more detail below.
There are three key sources or factors of complexity when it comes to coalitions: informational, procedural and social.
Informational complexity refers to the idea that we now have much more information to keep track of (more interests, positions, perceptions, strategies, etc.). This can become very challenging, especially when we are trying to figure out a mutually beneficial solution that fits all the requested or important parameters for the coalition.
We also may encounter complexities from a procedural standpoint. Like our discussion of multi-party negotiations, we now need to figure out what kind of process will allow everyone to have an opportunity to voice their opinions and be a part of the discussion.
Finally, coalitions have social complexity. We need to be cognizant of the fact that individuals not only behave differently as more groups are added, but they also behave differently in groups. This adds to the complexity of the negotiation because there are various group effects on both individual perceptions and behaviours. So, we need to be aware of how the group dynamic is potentially influencing us and keep a check on our perceptions and behaviours, potentially by engaging with individuals outside of the group as well.
Remember, coalitions are like a dance troupe. We need to manage our internal dynamics and ensure that all our dancers are in sync and motivated. However, we also need to navigate the relationships across dance troupes so that we can have a seamless performance with all parties.
Coalitions from “Multi-Party Negotiation and Power” from BUS403: Negotiations and Conflict Management (2016.A.01) by MIT Open CourseWare is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical ShareAlike license.
