Resources > Betwixt & Between Bearings
Betwixt & Between Bearings
Marjorie Corman Aaron
Best Bearings, Ltd., is a large manufacturer of metal ball bearings, based in Great Britain, with manufacturing locations in upstate New York and the Southeastern U.S., as well as overseas, in Great Britain, Thailand, and Australia. Six months ago, the new chief engineer at the Best Bearings New York plant learned that the company was not in compliance with certain environmental regulations and reported this to the General Counsel of Best Bearings, USA. As required, the General Counsel advised the NY Division of Environmental Compliance (DEC), which investigated and issued a formal citation for air pollution issuing from smokestacks and hazardous waste containment practices. The President of Best Bearings and the representative of the DEC are about to meet to negotiate an agreement concerning an appropriate fine and other compliance and redress issues.
This is a multi-issue mix of distributive and integrative negotiation with 2 versions. The difference between Version A and B is that, in Version B, Best Bearings has numbers: estimates of how much the monitoring options and the levels of cleanup will cost. There also is a document folder titled Betwixt & Between – Trade-Offs. This case and that sheet are intended to teach negotiators how to come up with a scoring system in a multi-issue case. It recognizes that some issues (and the various options for each issue) are easily quantified, in dollars, but others aren’t valued in dollars.
Betwixt & Between Bearings Negotiation (A or B): Teaching Note (PDF)
Betwixt & Between Bearings Negotiation (A or B): General Information (PDF)