N2: STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF DISTRIBUTIVE BARGAINING

Distributive bargaining, also called "claiming value," "zero-sum," or "win-lose” bargaining, is a competitive negotiation strategy that is used to decide how to distribute a fixed resource, such as money. The parties assume that there is not enough to go around, and they cannot "expand the pie," so the more one side gets, the less the other side gets.

Distributive bargaining is important because there are some disputes that cannot be solved in any other way. They are inherently zero-sum. If the stakes are high, such conflicts can be very resistant to resolution.

Even in cooperative negotiations, distributive bargaining will come into play. Distributive bargaining and integrative bargaining are not mutually exclusive negotiation strategies. Integrative bargaining is a good way to make the pie (joint value) as large as it can possibly be, but ultimately the parties must distribute the value that was created. If they are able to expand the pie enough, distribution is easy. If there is still not enough to give each side what it wants, however, distributive negotiation will be more difficult.