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Wage Corner
by Anne J. MacLachlan
THE ART OF NEGOTIATION
In any workplace the ability to negotiate successfully is helpful with issues of every kind. In the
academic workplace it is particularly valuable since receiving the full benefits of employment often
requires you not only to know what all of these might be, but often creates what you actually get via
negotiation. This can extend from salary through family and medical leave to teaching the classes you
want to teach. Negotiation is a critical skill for all of this because there is a vast body of unwritten
rules and expectations about how to get what you want or need to do your job well.
There are basic steps to effective negotiation. 1. Knowing what you need to be effective in your position,
2. What it costs. 3. What are the operating norms in your field. 4. What the institution making you an
Offer already might have in terms of resources you need. Once you know all of this, when you discuss your
needs, you will be fully prepared.
This discussion can occur at the on-campus interview or more likely in greater detail when the Offer is
made to you over the phone. As with the salary, which I discussed in the last Newsletter, all of the
details of your employment should be discussed in a friendly fashion in a series of conversations. Usually
the initial offer is made with an understanding of your needs, so you will be informed about what the
institution thinks you ought to get. If you have done your homework you will know immediately if that is
a ballpark figure or not.
But academic contracts at most colleges and universities are tailored to each new hire, their actual
contents the result of negotiation. Keep in mind that it is at the point of the job offer that you can
negotiate within reason a set of circumstances which will be most supportive of your work. Things open
to negotiation can include actual start date, teaching load in the first years, number of new classes
to develop, level of classes, level at which you begin, number of years before you come up for promotion,
leaves, funds for conference attendance, library resources, computers, all the scientific equipment you
might need, research funds, space, moving costs, housing, and a spousal/partner hire. Actually, anything
you can think of.
The flexibility to negotiate all of these things will also depend on the type of institution making the
offer. Generally any college or university which has made an offer really wants you to accept it. It is
important, however, that you fully understand the constraints which may affect the offer. Some things are
much easier to give than others. If the standard teaching load is four classes a semester, you might get
it down to three in your first year or two. However, at liberal arts colleges, it is entirely possible
to negotiate no teaching at all in the first term in order to prepare one or two new classes for the
following term.
There are some very useful books to help put all of this in context. The first is Lynn H. Collins,
Joan C. Chrisler, Kathryn Quina, eds., Arming Athena: Career Strategies for Women in Academe, Sage,
1998. Directed to women, this covers the totality of life in the academy, and includes a chapter on
negotiation. Another, and in my view still the best source book on academic organization and how to
interact with it is: Richard M. Reis, Tomorrow´s Professor: Preparing for Academic Careers in
Science and Engineering, IEEE Press, 1997. Although targeted Continued in next column Continued from
previous column at science, this book is invaluable for all fields and has a chapter on "Getting
the Results You Want." Finally, John A. Goldsmith, John Komlos, and Penny Shine Gold,
The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School through Tenure
, University of Chicago Press, 2001.
The best example of an Offer letter was created by the American Sociological Association in 1978.
It is available for free by requesting it from asanet.org/pubs/pubs/html.
Or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to WAGE and we will send you a copy. On the actual nuts and
bolts of negotiation, one of our members swears by Herb Cohen´s You Can Negotiate Anything,
1980. There is now an ocean of books on negotiation and probably the most useful one for you can be found
in the careers section of your local chain bookstore.
Next time: Strategies for dual career couples.
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