L5M15 Advanced Negotiation Questions and Answers

“Framing” means shaping how issues and proposals are perceived and interpreted. In negotiation, framing the agenda involves influencing focus and direction early in the discussion, ensuring that key topics are viewed from a preferred perspective. It helps establish a positive or strategic tone for dialogue.

The “marginal gains” philosophy is that making numerous small, continuous improvements across processes results in significant overall performance enhancement. This principle is often applied to supplier development and continuous improvement programmes.

Pressure tacticsare categorised as “hard” negotiation behaviours. They apply coercion or authority to gain compliance. In contrast, tactics such as collaboration, inspirational appeal, and rational persuasion are “soft” and relationship-oriented.

Expert powerderives from specialised knowledge, experience, or skill. The Technical Design Head, as the specification creator, holds expert authority influencing decisions through technical competence rather than hierarchy.

STEEPLE analysis(Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical) helps identify external factors that could create risks or opportunities in procurement. It broadens situational awareness beyond immediate operational issues.

Underexploitative authoritativemanagement (Rensis Likert model), leaders rely onfear and punishmentto control subordinates. Communication is top-down and trust is minimal—contrasting with participative or consultative styles.

“Warm and tough” means balancing firmness on issues with respect and empathy in style. Confidence and assertiveness maintain authority while preserving positive tone—ideal for collaborative negotiation.

Soft skills are interpersonal attributes that enable effective collaboration and impact. In the L5M15 context,influencing skillsare highlighted as critical to negotiation and stakeholder engagement, whereas financial acumen, computer skills, and domain knowledge are typically classified as technical/hard skills.

Meredith Belbin’s research found that high-performing teams have a balanced mix of complementary roles rather than simply highly skilled individuals. The nine Belbin roles (e.g., Plant, Coordinator, Implementer, Completer Finisher) reflect diverse strengths that, when combined, improve overall team performance.

Pain/gain share arrangements distribute both upside (gain) and downside (pain) between buyer and supplier, promoting fairness and shared accountability. This shared-risk structure encourages collaboration and continuous improvement.

Soft skills are interpersonal and behavioural capabilities that enable effective collaboration and impact, such as communication, influencing, and managing change. Technical/market knowledge and numerical skills are valuable but are classed as hard/technical skills rather than soft skills.

Consulting leadershipinvolves engaging team members in decision-making, valuing their input before implementing actions. It encourages ownership, trust, and collaboration—sitting between directive and participative styles.

Aconflict of interestarises when personal relationships or financial interests could influence—or appear to influence—professional judgement. It must be declared and managed to maintain ethical integrity.

TheData Cubeis a multi-dimensional framework for presenting data clearly, whileSTEEPLE analysis(Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical) helps analyse the external environment. These tools aid structured preparation for negotiation.

Two core principles are toseparate people from the problemand tofocus on interests rather than positions. (The other two statements are not defining elements of the approach.)

Pull tactics engage, involve, and motivate others (e.g., inspiring with vision, inviting joint problem-solving, exploring interests). Push tactics rely on directing, arguing, or asserting with facts and logic. Thus “inspiring” and “negotiating” are pull; “rationalising” and “asserting” are push.

“Nuisance” customers in theSupplier Preferencing Matrixare low-value and low-attractiveness accounts. The recommended strategy is to minimise investment of time and resources—maintaining transactional efficiency but avoiding over-engagement.

Acting with honesty and integrity safeguards an organisation’s reputation, ensuring public trust and compliance with professional standards. Ethical misconduct, by contrast, risks serious reputational harm and stakeholder distrust.

Crossed arms are commonly read as closed/defensive, which can hinder rapport. In contrast, natural smiling, appropriate eye contact, and subtle mirroring generally support openness and trust.

Deceptive conduct candamage relationshipsand may expose the agreement torescission for misrepresentation(fraudulent/neglectful untrue statements of fact), potentially rendering the contract voidable. We cannot infer she achieved all objectives or gained respect.

Behavioural negotiationemphasisesconstructive influencing behaviours—active listening, empathy, and fairness—to strengthen relationships and achieve sustainable results, rather than adversarial or manipulative approaches.

Positional bargaining starts with fixed opening stances and trades concessions from those stances. This often reduces flexibility and can make participants defensive or entrenched, inhibiting creativity and joint problem-solving.

Distributive bargaining treats the deal as a fixed pie: what one party gains, the other loses. It typically uses competitive tactics aimed at claiming value rather than creating it and is closely associated with win–lose outcomes.