On May 1, Women in Management (WIM) held a professional workshop titled “Art of Negotiation” presented by Dr. Sabrina Pasztor, Assistant Professor of Clinical Business Communication at the USC Marshall School of Business. METRANS Associate Director Victoria Deguzman selected three female METRANS Student Assistants to attend the workshop to learn more about these important skills for women in the workforce. WIM is an organization for women in leadership positions at the University of Southern California with approximately 150 members.  Their goal in hosting this workshop was to further their mission, promoting increased representation of women professional and managerial roles and equal pay for men and women holding similar positions, and to provide a forum in which women could develop leadership skills. Pasztor, an experienced researcher in gender studies regarding organizational representation, discourse, and workplace and pay equity, guided the attendees to learn the importance of negotiation for women and gave training on negotiation skills.

At the beginning of the workshop, attendees exchanged their past negotiation experience in pairs on salary, bonus, compensation and other aspects of career development. The experiences all came to the conclusion that negotiation is confusing, intimidating, and uncomfortable. However, Pasztor stressed that it is still important to conduct, particularly for women facing gender income inequality. She shared a 2013 American Association of University Women study which concluded that, controlling for educational credentials (same major, same GPA), women who take full-time positions in same occupation will earn 7% less than their male counterparts one-year post-graduation, and this trend continues.

Dr. Pasztor shared that most people find negotiating uncomfortable and are uncertain as to how to frame their requests for more favorable employment terms. To help, Dr. Pasztor walked through a process of conducting a data based negotiation.  First, it is important to have a well-reasoned basis for your request based both on your merits and on what you can realistically expect to achieve.  Your merits can be clarified by a method termed STAR: Situation or Task, Action Taken, Results Achieved.  Then, knowing what you can and have accomplished, consider that in the context of the job you have or want.  First, understand your worth in that role and organization; second, understand the benchmark of how pay levels are determined at your chosen or target organization, third, check your position and industry compensation more broadly by using broad based salary resources; and fourth, consider your employment terms from the perspective of the other side, the decision makers who must address them.

“Most importantly, believe that you are a negotiator, and that by planning, preparing and being confident, you can learn to negotiate effectively for what you deserve.” Dr. Pasztor encouraged.

Natasha Jokic, the Professional Development Co-Chair of WIM shared the workshop feedback: “Attendees tell us that they do realize the importance of negotiation and use the skills they learned from our workshop. We are very happy to help more female colleagues increase their leadership skills.”

“What I learned from this workshop is that effective negotiation comes in no small part from confidence and good preparation,” reflected Nicole Guo, 2016-2017 METRANS Lead Student Assistant. “I greatly appreciate WIM for providing such valuable programming and METRANS for sponsoring my WIM membership and attendance. I graduate this spring and am so grateful for the opportunity to learn a new skill which I will be needing not only now but for the rest of my career.”

About the Author

Rui Zhang is a second-year Master of Planning student at USC Price School specializing in transportation. She the Publisher and Editor in Chief of the METRANS student newsletter, METRANS on the Move, is interning at Foothill Transit, and is a METRANS Research Assistant working on Caltrans funded project, “Managing the Impacts of Freight in California.” She plans to pursue a career as a transit planner, and can be reached at [email protected].