Negotiating Through INSPIRE
This is a handout that
you may find useful when using INSPIRE. All the main steps and actions
you will need are explained here. A more comprehensive explanation is
given on the individual INSPIRE pages. The example explains how INSPIRE
works and shows you what it can do. If you need any help send us an
email; you can do so directly from every INSPIRE page. |
| Have fun
negotiating! |
Content
Participants in the negotiation are paired randomly and
anonymously. Your partner may be from your city, country or from far away:
a different country, a different continent. Please log in at least once in
two days to check whether there has been any activity. If you have provided
an e-mail address, INSPIRE will send you a note when your counterpart makes
an offer, but it is better not to rely on these e-mails; do log in
frequently.
In brief, the negotiation involves a preparation step during which you
read the case description and clarify your preferences in terms of the
issues and options. You then proceed to an offer exchange step during which
you try to reach an agreement by exchanging offers and, if you like,
messages. If you reach and agreement, you can use the post-agreement step
to improve upon the agreement you reached. More information is available
from the system itself. A more detailed instruction sheet is also
provided.
Some negotiations have a deadline. Remember to complete your negotiation
by the deadline. After that you cannot continue to negotiate and are only
able to fill in the second questionnaire.
Click on the Netscape icon. If required, type:
www.business.carleton.ca/inspire
A few comments about the World Wide Web and Netscape:
Information appears in pages of text or pictures
Every word or phrase that is in blue and
underlined is a link to another page; click on the word or
phrase and you will move to the associated page.
You can return to a previous page by clicking the Back
button or using the Go menu.
Menu item Go contains the names of the pages you
visited recently. You can return to any page by selecting its name from
this menu.
There is an example of a negotiation in which all the main features of
the INSPIRE system are mentioned. You can read this example by choosing the
first option on INSPIRE's home page.
- Identify yourself. Enter the name of your
negotiation and your user-name on the INSPIRE home page. Do not type
anything in the password box unless you have specifically requested a
password. Remember that the information you enter is case
sensitive. Enter your negotiation-name and your user-name in
exactly the same way as in the INSPIRE confirmation email that you
have received.
- Read the main steps that you will follow during your
negotiation. INSPIRE is full of information and will guide
you through your negotiation. All the steps mentioned below will be
explained in detail as you move through INSPIRE.
- Read the case ("Click here to read the
description"). After you are done reading, click on the button
"Done reading".
- Rate the issues. Distribute 100 points among the
four issues. The issue which, for you, is the most important gets the
most points; the least important issue gets the smallest number of
points. The points for the four issues must total 100.
Remember if you make a mistake or change your
mind press the button "Clear all entries" and start from
the beginning.
- Rate the options for each issue. Distribute the
assigned number of points among all the options of each issue. Give
the maximum number of points to the option that you think is best and
zero to the one which is the worst for you.
- Rate the packages. A number of packages are
displayed for you. Each package has a rating. Check if you agree with
the ratings. If you disagree with the ratings of any of the packages
change them in the box on the right-hand side of the table. Please do
not try to manipulate these rankings as they are used for their own
benefit.
From now on every offer (a package) which you want to
consider and present to your partner will show a rating based on your
preferences. Any offers sent to you by your partner will also show a
rating. Remember, this rating reflects your and only your
opinion. Your partner does not know your opinion nor can he or she
see your ratings.
- Fill out the pre-negotiation questionnaire.
- Make an offer to your partner using the menus in the
offer-box. You can also send messages to your partner using the
message-box.
- You will then have to wait for your partner to respond to your
offer. If you don`t have an email account and did not give it to us,
then you need to come back later (say the next day) and login to
INSPIRE using the same negotiation name, user-name and
password. INSPIRE will show you whether your partner has sent you a
response.
Keep checking till you get a response. If you like, you can
continue to send messages or new offers to your partner.
- At any point you may review the history of your
negotiations. The history page contains all the offers and
messages that you and your partner have exchanged as well as a graph
indicating the ratings of the exchanged offers. Note, that this graph
presents both yours and the your partner's offers
but in terms of your ratings only.
- When both you and your partner accept an offer, it is called an
"agreement". INSPIRE will tell you whether your agreement
is "optimal", or whether it is possible to improve it and
move towards a better agreement.
- If INSPIRE says you have reached the end of negotiation, fill out the
post-negotiation questionnaire. Otherwise you have the choice of
making more offers till you reach a better agreement, or stopping at
this point. In any case, fill out the questionnaire
when you reach the end of the negotiation.
- Please remember that you are negotiating with someone who may be far
away and in a different time zone. He or she may wait for your
response or a message; please do not make your partner wait too
long.
Thank you!
© Copyright1996-2000 The InterNeg Group.
