The Importance of Reconciliation in Stakeholder Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Organizations are prone to encountering disagreements among stakeholders regarding their daily operations. Conflict resolution is an essential element in negotiation for all parties to participate fully and reach a consensus. Environmental organizations deal with numerous stakeholders such as government, local communities, employees, and other interested parties who might express conflicting interests. However, for the organization to operate smoothly and engage all parties in a collective goal, it must resolve any existing disputes.
Reconciliation is a critical aspect of a negotiation that enhances satisfaction among parties in question. For instance, an organization pursuing a conservation project on resources shared by two conflicting communities may need to restore order and harmony before proceeding with negotiations on sharing its proceeds. Lewicki, Barry& Saunders (2015) present three ways to resolve disputes, which include reconciling the interests, determining who is right, and determining who is dominant. In such instances, the organization might determine who is right through addressing geographical boundaries. However, the most effective method should the lower probability of dispute recurrence, incur minimum transaction cost, and guarantee satisfaction for all parties involved. Therefore, in the above scenario, reconciling the interests of disputing communities guarantees their satisfaction besides, minimizing chances of conflict eruption.
The nature of past, current, and desired future relationships is also a paramount factor in conflict negotiation that negotiating parties should consider. Environmental organizations seek to implement sustainable projects and solutions through their cohesion with the community. For instance, the Global Environment Facility organization encounters situations where it has to maintain good relationships with the subject communities at war, which emanates from fishing boundaries between different countries. In such instances, the organization has to actively protect its current and future relationships with the communities to ensure sustainability. Moreover, the importance of the negotiation outcome plays a vital role in choosing conflict resolution strategy. Instances where the outcome outweighs the desired relationships, the organization might employ avoidance strategy and implement the projects without resolving the conflict. Alternatively, an organization can accommodate the differences of the parties in conflict if its relationship to both communities is more important than the outcome. Collaboration is another approach to conflict resolution that equally pursues both the link and the negotiation outcome. In situations where an environmental organization is seeking both sustainability and its relationship with the concerned parties, a collaborative approach is essential. For example, projects that require community participation for sustainability have both relationships and outcomes as an essential aspect of the negotiation results. Biodiversity projects require engagement; thus, the need to restore peace among stakeholders through addressing their different needs.
Conflict resolution is essential is an essential element in the negotiation process that seeks to harmonize stakeholders’ interests to. The level of interest in either relationship or outcome determines the strategy and effort in the reconciliation of parties. Conflict resolution restores order in the negotiation process through harmonizing different interests.