The Bargaining World

Bargaining has been a very primitive phenomena and is extensively used in attaining something which is not possible in a direct deal. A number of factors like the relative importance of the deal, cohesion shown by the parties towards reaching an agreement, negotiation skills and the power exhibited by the parties drive the bargaining scene. If a party is at advantage in the current scenario, then it may not enter into bargaining at all. Similarly, the same holds true for the other side. If the deal is very necessary, then both sides can agree on a common price which more or less is divided between the two sides and paid accordingly.

Moving towards the question whether bargaining power is always shifted in the favour of employer, I feel it is not the case always. It is true that the employer always has an upper hand in such cases but due to various factors like competency of the employee, shortage of talent in the market, economic, societal factors etc., the employee too enjoys some power and can execute them when time permits.

The Darrell Hair case is very different. He was an international umpire who had been enjoying the elite status in ICC. After the ball tampering fiasco, he was reprimanded by the media of most of the cricketing nations excluding England, Australia and New Zealand. Now, since most of the nations including the Asian ones were against him, ICC might have seen the benefit of banning him to save its face in spite of being right according to the cricketing rules. Again, here Hair having served at the top for a long time, offered the bargain in order to evade the forthcoming decision which was imminently awaiting him. He understood that he had some support with him and could leverage that to get a good deal. But ICC was not interested in his bargain and instead banned him. Had he been having a greater support, I don't think there would have been any chance of him getting reprimanded for this. So, a lot of external factors came into play here rather than the competence of Mr. Hair.

Posed with a similar situation, it is natural to go for such non-negotiable offer. But what matters is whether the employer is interested in it. If I get into such situation, then it's possible that I make such offer. During normal times, it depends upon my affinity with my employer and the kind of work that I do. If both are very favourable, I might not make such offer at all.

Faced with such kind of situation as that of Mr. Hair, I would not have any doubts in rejecting the offer if my employee offers this. But in other scenarios, I would like to bargain till I see that the cost of bargain is more than the replacement of such employee.