Joe Tech is a recent MBA graduate negotiating the job offer for his first permanent position. The position offered is with a leading technology company in Silicon Valley, Robust Routers, for which Joe was an intern the prior summer. He performed well during the internship and his manager, Leigh Bultema, offered him a permanent position. The offer was for the Associate Produce Manager position in the Terabit Router Group and included the following:
The offer was made in August of 2009 and Joe has only a week to accept or decline the offer. Joe has chosen to negotiate the offer to increase his compensation and avoid relocation from his home in Nashville, TN. This summary offers the results of the negotiation, a …show more content…
Joe did not reach his target point on all issues, but was ultimately satisfied with the negotiated offer. The most challenging issue was related to the request to remain in Nashville, TN instead of relocating to Silicon Valley. Leigh did not believe that working remotely would be in the best interest of the company or in Joe’s best interest. Joe had expressed his desire to transfer to another department in the future and Leigh felt that working remotely could impede his ability to meet his long term goals. Additionally, the increased travel cost associated with this request was an issue for Leigh. Although an agreement could not be met that would allow Joe to stay in Nashville, Leigh was able to make desirable adjustments in other areas to improve Joe’s satisfaction with the …show more content…
Given the strong market for new MBA graduates, Joe could risk negotiating to secure a competitive compensation package. Whereas had Joe been unable to secure a position and was unemployed following graduation, he may have been more hesitant to negotiate to the extent he did. In this negotiation, the company had the power in the negotiation process. Power is defined as “the ability to bring about outcomes they desire” (Lewicki, Saunders, & Barry, 2007, p. 152). Robust Routers is a leader in their industry and Joe did not graduate from one of the schools from which Robust routers typically recruits. Although he performed very well during his internship, there were many other interns that may have performed equally as well. The relationship that Joe had developed with Leigh and the accolades he received from executives during his internship provided Joe with enough power in the negotiation process to achieve most of his goals. The issues that were not negotiable for the company such as working remotely and payment time frames were unchanged from the company’s initial