GE Healthcare

Choosing and Training Negotiators at the General Electric Company

Discuss about the Negotiations Skills of GE Healthcare.

General Electric Healthcare is an American multinational company based in Chicago, Illinois. The company deals in the manufacturing and distribution of the diagnostic imaging agents and also the radiopharmaceuticals that are used for imaging that is usually used in the medical imaging procedures. The organization also manufactures dyes for the magnetic-resonance imaging procedure. Besides, the company also produces diagnostic machines and also provides the healthcare technological solutions. These technological solutions include patient monitoring systems, among many others. The organization has grown over time and spread into various parts of the world serving millions of people (Camp, 2007). 

Negotiations usually entail a discussion among parties with each attempting to bring on board the best idea in their view that should be concluded benefiting all the people. As part of the strategic plans and decisions, the company has to make everyday decisions to establish the good relationship between the suppliers, creditors, customers, promoters, contractors, potential investors and the government among other parties (Gregory, 2009, pp. 41-44). Company negotiators play a critical role in establishing and keeping a good relationship with people. Therefore, it is important for every company to choose certain individuals and equip them with the expert knowledge of negotiations (Forsyth, 2009, pp. 379-409).

GE Healthcare should embrace negotiators in the company for effectiveness. The organization should have procedures to choose qualified people through a set of evaluation and assessment of their experience that is relevant in negotiation, and also their personality and technical abilities. The next step is to train and equip them with the necessary skills of negotiation. Both training and selection should be done carefully to ensure that the company comes up with a competent team. This is because their task is critical to the company since they will be negotiating on behalf of the organization to seek agreement with various individuals or groups of people.

Systematically, there are four steps that GE Healthcare should embrace in selecting the right negotiators for the organization. Firstly, the company should define the role regarding the specific responsibilities and the required deliverables. The second step is to determine the necessary competencies, the talent and experience required for the team (Trotschel and Loschelder, 2011, pp. 771-790). Thirdly, GE Healthcare should select members into the team depending on their key competencies, skills, and experience. Lastly, the organizations should ensure that the team members have a clear understanding of their roles, responsibilities, and expectations; this can be achieved through training. The process should be done in the best way to come up with a strong negotiation team for the company.

Pre-Negotiation Review Process for GE Healthcare

A basic negotiation team should comprise of the chief negotiator, Summarizer, Note-taker, Team Member (Silent observer) and all team members. Regarding the Chief Negotiator, he has the authority to bid the company into a contract. The chief negotiator should be a person with experience and skills in negotiation. The Summarizer has a responsibility of intervening arguments at opportune times and then concluding the arguments. The Summarizer should be a person with logic, discernment and excellent oral skills (Doepke and Zilibotti, 2009). The Note-taker makes quality notes in the negotiation process which will be reviewed later. The Team member (Silent Observer) should be a legal or a technical specialist who will only ensure that the process is smooth and follows the procedures in place. The Chief Negotiators, Summarizer, Note-taker, and the Silent Observer together form team members who should work together to ensure that they make the best decisions for the organization (Hames, 2011).

Successful negotiation requires adequate preparations. The Negotiators of GE Healthcare should take the time to put in place all the required aspects of the actual negotiations. However, it should also be noted that there is no amount of preparations can be too much when going to handle a complex negotiation. Preparations should lie within the negotiation subject, the tone and appropriate communication type to apply. Preparations greatly determine the outcome of the consultation.

As steps to prepare for the negotiations, the negotiators should first clearly set the objectives of the negotiation in mind. They should analyze anticipate all possible outcomes of the negotiation; the minimum acceptable outcome, ideal outcome, and the fair outcome. Also, at this step, it is critical for the negotiators of GE Healthcare to determine what will be done in the case of each outcome. There is need to establish clear options on what shall be done in case the decision meets their expectations or also in a scenario where it is different (Kopelman and Rosette, 2008, pp. 65-77).

The second step in preparation for negotiation process is to determine the specific needs of each party. The negotiators of GE Healthcare should position themselves at a point where they can understand what the organization needs or expects out of the negotiations and the reasons behind those expectations (Seitel, 2007). Besides, the team should also do their research and establish the expectations of the other party and the reasons behind them before the actual negotiations (Gates, 2011, pp. 232). It is important to conduct research which on the other party to understand and analyze their objectives and the information they need in the negotiations. This step is important and helps the team to be able to bargain with an understanding of the scenario and thus increasing the chances of a better outcome for the company from the negotiations (Thompson, 2015).

Post-Negotiation Review Process for GE Healthcare

The next step is to list, rank and value the issues of the organization. Different scenarios of negotiations have various types of issues, and it is important to establish all of them and then understand their priorities. The ranking helps to consider various concessions that can be made on the list (Lempereur and Colson, 2010). As the next step in preparation, it is important for the team to research on to negotiation topic. This could be through finding details by asking the colleagues and the partners who are knowledgeable on the subject. This equips the negotiator with sufficient information on the subject thus can make sound arguments during the negotiation process (Echavarria, 2015).

In the last steps of preparation for the negotiation, the team should rehearse the negotiations. This entails practicing to realize any other aspects of negotiation left out in the development process (Boyer, 2009, pp. 23-47). Also, the team should prepare the agenda of the talks a preparation step. It should make the topics to be covered, the participants, location, and schedule. When these steps are well adhered to, the company is likely to benefit out of the negotiation process (Marshall, 2015).

Post negotiation activities are necessary for the successful negotiation process. After the agreement between the involved parties, organizations need to review the activities once again and ensure they are in line as agreed during the negotiation process or if there exist necessary changes, then action should be taken. Failure to conduct post bargaining activities will lead to problems in implementation and thus leads to differences in agreement and what is implemented. Therefore, GE Healthcare needs to adopt the best post negotiation reviews for successful negotiations (Peter, 2012, pp. 232).

The major activities that form the post negotiation in GE Healthcare are implementation and monitoring. Implementation involves putting into action the various activities that were discussed and agreed in the actual negotiation stage. In most cases, people who are involved in the negotiations are different from those who are tasked with the responsibility of putting it into action thus the company needs to have a system in place to review the process. Before the start of the implementation process, the company needs to organize for a smooth transition between the negotiators and the implementers. Monitoring is also another significant activity in post negotiations (Thiemann and Hesse, 2015). This activity is important in the negotiation process since it helps the parties involved to keep the compliance to the agreement. Also, monitoring plays a critical role in the course of evaluating the outcomes of the negotiations (Lewicki, Barry & Saunders, 2015).

Post Negotiation process is important for every organization. The process helps to achieve coherence in the agreed terms and the actual implementations. The GE Healthcare must have strategies in place to have the negotiations implemented and monitored (Lewicki, Barry, and Saunders, 2010). Also, the post-negotiation process gives room for re-negotiation in cases where it deems necessary. Therefore, the post-negotiation process is critical for the success of negotiations with every company, 2011).

Personally, I have had a chance to participate in the bargaining process. My experience was during the job interview where I had to bargain with the company negotiators regarding my salary package. This presented a state where I said my expected salary package yet the negotiators suggested an amount less than that. This scenario led to negotiations to reach an amicable salary package.

As a preparation for negotiation, I undertook activities that could help for a successful negotiation. Firstly, I sought information about the company. I established the average pay amount for the employees at the grade that I was offered. This helped me to define my expected salary package, and also putting in mind other reasons why I needed such a salary package. I had set my mind to receive and handle all possible forms of outcome from the negotiations especially when the negotiations settle for a lower salary package (Marks and Harold, 2011, pp. 371-394.).

I also tried to establish the specific needs of the company and its ability to offer me that salary package. Also as a preparation way, I researched about the company before the actual negotiations to establish their objectives in the endeavor. Besides, I consulted a lot of people and experts regarding the negotiating salary package. This equipped me with a lot of knowledge that I used to defend myself during negotiations. Also, I rehearsed on the planned negotiations by practicing how I could bargain with the negotiators on the actual day to reach an amicable amount of salary.

During the negotiations, I presented my expectations of the salary to the team, and then they suggested a lower amount. As the next step, I had to request them to offer me a larger package by explaining to them all the reasons why I needed that amount to be comfortable. However, in my mind, I was prepared on what to do in case the team insists to settle for a lower amount. In the end, the organizations agreed to add me more money to their initial offering. Therefore, my negotiations with the organizations bore fruits and gave me a chance to get a comfortable salary package.

Conclusion

In conclusion, negotiation skills as part of the management play a critical role in the success of every business organization. Companies need to choose a team of negotiators for the business and then train them appropriately to ensure their competency since they will be bargaining on behalf of the enterprise. Successful negotiations require sufficient pre-preparations before the actual negotiations on the table. Also, there are post consultation activities that the organization should undertake for effectiveness. These are usually implementation and the monitoring activities.  Therefore, effectiveness from negotiations requires careful handling of the steps involved in the process of negotiation.

References

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