Mgt 445 - Miami School District Negotiation Paper

Miami School District Negotiation Paper

Jeff R. Slocum Jr.

MGT/445

February 1, 2016

Kerri Buie

Miami School District Negotiation Paper

Miami School District has announced that they plan on changing the school boundaries due to an increase in enrollment that was unexpected. The plan is expected to rezone some of the school district boundaries as well as even out the size of the classrooms. Parents are concerned about the rezoning of the districts because it may mean that their child may have to attend another school in the district. After the parents took their concerns to the school board, the board told them that they will come up with a plan and decide on a negotiation strategy to address everyone’s concerns. The following will discuss the negotiation strategy, the stakeholder’s concerns, and explain how ethics and culture affect my decision on this matter.

Stakeholders

        In order to form an effective negotiation strategy we must first identify all of the stakeholders involved. The stakeholders that are involved in this matter are the school board members, the parents, and the students. The school board members are affected by the decision because it is up to them to even out the classrooms and ensure that none of the schools are overcrowded. The parents are concerned about the changes because it may mean that their child ends up attending another school in the district, their property value may go up meaning an increase in property tax, and the changes may have a disturbing effect on the social lives of their children. The students are affected by the decision they may have to go to a different school and their friends may not end up at the new school, and they may also not get to do the same after school activities at the new school.

Negotiation Strategy

        In order to improve the problem, the Miami School District plans on using a win-win strategy. It is the plan of the school board to show the parents the benefits that are associated with rezoning the district, as well as how their child may receive more help in the classroom because the classes are no longer overcrowded. The goals of the stakeholders are not equally limited and because of this everyone can bring more benefits to the table, which is why the integrative strategy is the best solution (Lewicki, Saunders, & Barry, 2010). The school district has to create issues packages which create an equal benefit for the parents, students, and the school district. The school board must analyze the concerns of the parents and decide how to appropriately address all of these concerns.

        One of the goals of the negotiation strategy will be to reassure the parents that it is the goal of the school district to do what is best for the students and that the rezoning of school district boundaries is needed to reduce the class size. The school board must also show the parent that if the class size is not evened out the students will be the ones that suffer because of the overcrowding and lack of time to give each student the one on one time that they may need to completely understand the material. It is the goal of the Miami School District to provide every student a quality education and to develop long standing relationships with the parents of students in the district. In order to accomplish this the school district will have to take a bilateral approach to the negotiation, meaning that the parents will have to be involved in the negotiation process(). The school district must make it obvious to the parents that the rezoning of the school district is vital to maintaining the delivery of a quality education to each and every student in the district, through the elimination of overcrowded classrooms.

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