2000 divided by 4

We have already established that Danny has power, now the second thing is how he can use his powers to influence others. He need to know how to frame what he says, for instance, he can say “if you do not comply with my conditions, I will kill one of the hostages.” In negotiations, the parties pretend that they do not have emotions. The best alternative to a negotiated agreement or “BATNA” is to trying to be completely unemotional and rational as possible which is a fiction in negotiation as exerted by Danny (Singh, 2008). Human beings are not capable of being rational so rather than pretending that emotions don’t exist in negotiations, negotiators in a hostage situation usually designs a strategy that takes emotions fully into account and use it to influence the situation.

Secondly, Danny requires a channel in which he message will be delivered through to the other side, which in this case is Sabian. Danny and Sabian have only met once and know each other through reputation, but Danny wants to deal with Sabian because he is from another police department and therefore not connected to the disability fund issue making him the most likely person to be trusted. The negotiator, Sabian upholds the considerations while handling the hostage situation by prioritizing the safety pf the hostages. In the movie, Sabian do whatever it takes in order to ensure that the hostages are not hurt. Sabian tries to grant Danny’s requests no matter what it takes, even though there was a scene in the in which the hostages were not released at the same time.

Sabian later finds himself in a game of cat and mouse duel with Danny. One thing that we are certain is that Sabian does not care whether Danny killed Nate or not; what he really care is for the safety of the hostages. The game of power begins as the two top police negotiator meet. First of all, Sabian cuts off the electricity and heating which forces Danny to release one person for electricity. Danny asks Sabian to talk to Nate’s wife to find out the name of the informant and if he complies with the request, Danny will release another person. However, sabian use the tactic of bluffing where he asks a random person to pretend to the informant, but the tactic does not work. Danny then shows Sabian that the Scott, a HBT team member, was not really shot and that’s when Sabian believes that Danny needs a chance in order to prove his innocence. Soon, Sabian becomes the most important factor in proving Danny innocence since he has been able to influence Sabian successfully. Danny and Sabian purpose in the negotiation was to make Frost plead guilty for the embezzlement of the disability fund which was a success. Therefore we can conclude that power and influence are important in a negotiation, just like a coin has two sides. In some situation influences can be more important than power.

References

Carneiro, D., Novais, P., & Neves, J. (2014). Conflict Resolution and Its Context: From the

Analysis of Behavioural Patterns to Efficient Decision-making (Vol. 18). Springer.

The Negotiator (1998): “YouTube.” Retrieved on October 24, 2015 from:

http://boguh.nubast.com/wcgxnlq

Singh, B. D. (2008). Managing conflict and negotiation. New Delhi: Excel Books.