The instance that
made me get into difficulty, even get burned is that I worked as a coordinator
in the boiler fixing company. Because of the need of working in the project,
this time we had to work together with other companies in order to finish the
project. The company actually was our supplier of the equipment which needed to
be used in the project. As usual, we had informed the company on the details of
how to do the project as asked by our guest. But the question is they had some
advice about the project against ours.
As the supplier of
the equipment of our company, we had been cooperating with each other for many
years. I thought we had established trust in business and they also admitted
our ability in dealing with relating businesses is good. But we can not
understand the reason why they request to use the new product in the project.
The reason given by them is that the product is safer, reliable and high
quality, also it can extend the cycle of use to save money for both sides. Besides,
the new product can also help us attract more customers. So we agreed to use
the new product in the project. As the project continued, we found the new
product was actually not good as they promised, or maybe the new product did
not fit the project. We paid a higher price of making wrong decision, the cost
was we had to disassemble all the new product and fix the right one, which
influenced our working process and more important is that our reputation had
been questioned for that by our guest.
After the case, we
realized that communication knowledge –based trust and identification – based
trust should be used in the future work. We should negotiate with others more
often till we absolutely understand what others want to express to us so that
we can evaluate the situation to make the right choice and reduce the chance of
misunderstanding others and making mistakes. In order to sustain the trusting
relationship with people and companies, we should establish the information
communication mechanism to communicate with each other frequently, which can
help us deepen the trust and understanding with each other.
Resource: Leigh
L.Thompson (2000). The mind and heart of the negotiator .chapter 6
