Alpha Beta Negotiation Case

The ALPHA-BETA joint venture partnership recently received a contract for $800,000 USA dollars to build a road in a third country. Given a number of fortunate circumstances, such as good weather, the project was completed for $700,000. It is now the end of the fiscal year and the board of directors has decided that the extra $100,000 can be distributed in bonuses among the people involved in the project the way financial managers at HQ and the line managers in the field office (which oversaw the project) from both partner companies decide. The people involved were evenly distributed among Alphas and Betas.

Person A was the hardest worker and was clearly responsible for supervising a great deal of the actual day-to-day work on the project. At least 40% of the day-to-day work on the project was done by him.

Persons B, C, and D were solid but not spectacular contributors. They were competent workers but not outstanding. Each contributed about 15% of the actual day-to-day work on the project.

Person E is a very high status and wealthy person in the organization and in the community. Although he did not engage in any of dry-to-day work on the road construction project and did not write the proposal for funding, it is known within the organization that he called upon his connections and used his influence so that the original $800,000 contract would go to the company.

Person F is a contributor much like B, C, and D. His contribution was about 15% of the work needed for the project's completion. His father died recently, however, and person F has considerable expenses associated with the funeral, nursing care for his mother, and the education of his much younger brothers (his father left no estate).

Note that the contribution of A, B, C, D, and F total 100% of the project’s workload.

As financial managers from ALPHA and BETA companies you

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