An Attempt of Shaping a Framework of Negotiation

The term negotiation is more and more frequently used nowadays not only in trade or business activities, but also in many other fields of activity. People negotiate in all areas of social life (in the family, at work, in the street, in shops, in a company, in a political party, between states, etc.) whenever they seek to resolve differences of opinion or to get what they want. Any kind of negotiation starts from a series of basic conditions (the interdependence of the parties engaged in negotiations, the existence of some differences of opinion, the parties’ joint work to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement). At the same time, any negotiation takes place in a certain setting, bordered by the object of negotiation, its aims and stakes, the place and time of its deployment. Depending on the areas where the process of negotiation appears, one can speak of three general types: the economic negotiation, the political negotiation and the social one. At this level, other classifications can be identified, according to the participants in the negotiations, the parties' interests, the negotiating environment, the time and duration of negotiations and the manner of completion, all in the limits of two extreme poles, the conflict and the cooperation between the parties involved.