Negotiation is a decision-making process by two parties with opposing interests

Negotiation is a decision-making process by two parties with opposing interests. In conflict resolution, we use negotiation mostly to settle differences between management and the unions through collective bargaining machinery. In any negotiation process, we consider two goals—substantive and relationships.
Substantive goals are those which help us to settle some claims, involving either receiving or giving some benefits. A negotiation for wage increase is an example of substantive goal.
Whatever may be the process for negotiation, we follow two approaches, distributive approach and integrative approach. Distributive approach is a win-lose or a zero-sum game approach, whereas, the integrative approach is a collaborative approach, where both the negotiating parties try to expand the outcomes of their decisions by sharing the benefits.
Distributive negotiation approach is taken in those cases where negotiating parties intend to settle their differences with mutually exclusive goals. Hence, both the parties intend to withhold as much information as possible and try to obtain maximum information from the other. Therefore, often in distributive negotiation, it becomes difficult to take an informed decision, as the agreement is reached between the parties without adequate information backup. In contrast, in the integrative approach, negotiation goals of the negotiating parties are not mutually exclusive; hence none of the negotiating parties gains at the expense of the other.
Both the negotiating parties work together to optimize the resources in the best possible manner so as to gain mutual benefit. While doing substantive negotiation, we always try to gain tangible benefit, whereas, in integrative negotiating we try to gain both tangible and intrinsic satisfaction. Hence, in integrative negotiation, negotiating parties adopt supportive attitude, empathy and take informed decisions.
In some negotiation, we also adopt third-party intervention to reach a conclusive settlement. Involvement of arbitrator and mediator is often required in case of organizational conflicts, particularly in wage-related matters.
Thus, negotiation is a process by which two parties seek to reach agreement through bargaining. Win-win negotiation situation is possible when each party is prepared to give up something to achieve something the other party has.