The Shift in The Balance of Brgaining Power

Before starting on with the actual issues I would like to quote the definition of Bargaining Power. “Bargaining Power is defined as the capacity of one party to dominate the other due to its influence, power, size, or through a combination of different persuasion tactics, when they enter into any kind of negotiation”

Darrel Hair exercised his bargaining powers in sending the Non-Negotiable Offer to his employers ICC. In a very similar way both employees and employers since long have been exercising their bargaining powers to bring themselves in a more profitable and much better position as compared to their current state of affairs.

Now taking on each question on individual basis:

Is “Bargaining Power” always shifted in the favor of the employer and is individual always at the receiving end?

I don’t agree with the statement that bargaining power is always shifted in the favor of the employer and the individual is always at the receiving end. Rather, the bargaining power keeps shifting between the employee and the employer based upon various economic and legal factors surrounding the employee relation system. The advent and implementation of new technologies also impacts the shift in the bargaining power and many a times puts the individual on the beneficiary side. The main force that defines the shift in Bargaining Power is “Who amongst the employee or the employer is in the demanding position”. Usually the shift in bargaining power is towards the individual when he knows that there is a lot of dependency on him (due to his skills, his repo in the team and with the client) or he has some better offers in hand.

Based on the email, what are your observations on "bargaining power" in the context of individual - organizational relationship?

Darrel Hair is well known in his field and comes amongst the Elite panels of umpires. He considered himself to be in a strong and demanding enough position to send the e-mail entitled "The Way Forward" asking for US$500,000 from his employer ICC. This was an ironical situation as the position of Hair was relatively weaker than his employer ICC as neither did he possess any such skills that could not be easily replaced and neither did he have any other option in hand on the basis of which he could bargain with ICC. The results of this offer were clearly visible when ICC banned Hair from officiating in international matches. What we observe from this case is that one party should exercise its bargaining powers over the other only when the other party is in the real need for the first one. Relating to the organizations, neither the employees nor the employers should practice their bargaining powers unless they are in a position strong enough to do so.

Would you be able to make similar non-negotiable offer to your employer in any point of time in your career?

I might also make such a Non-Negotiable offer in future to my employer depending upon the position I would hold in the organization. If I feel that the skills I possess are very crucial for the organization and losing me as an employee can prove to be harmful for them, and I am being underpaid according to the industrial standards for the same, I may exercise my “Bargaining Powers” and initiate the non- negotiable offer. Also, if I would ever have a better job opportunity in my hand, I would certainly negotiate with my current employer.

If you were to receive a similar one time non-negotiable offer from your employee, how would you handle this issue?

If I were to receive a similar one time non-negotiable offer from my employee, I would analyze the complete situation and determine the rationality behind the offer being put forward by the employee. I would ask my lawyer to examine properly both the contract we made with the employee while hiring him and the non- negotiable offer given by him. I would also evaluate the level of dependency the organization has on that employee and the level of impact this would have on my business. In addition to this I would try to find out ways in which the work can be carried on even if the employee leaves. Would determine the amount of cost I would have to incur in case the employee leaves and in case I accept his offer and ask him to stay back. Based on these criteria, I would take my decision of whether to accept the offer or not. And if possible, I would also try to further negotiate more on the offer with the employee.