User:Herlick/sandbox

Delaying tactic is a deliberate action to guide decisions to achieve beneficial outcomes, by delaying a decision, or an occurrence. or by slowing it or confusing the other party down to win an advantage. Since they interfere with the goals of the people, they are seen as a negative thing. There are many motivations behind the act of using delaying tactics, some include wanting to make it difficult or complicate it for the other party in hopes that they will drop the issue or that they will agree to a settlement or compromise12. Many governments, and organizations are accused of applying such tactics, some examples of delaying tactics are:

·       Active silence: The negotiator uses silence skillfully to induce a targeted discomfort in the other parties. The silence serves as a sign that the negotiator is confident and shows that they expect a response13.

·       Bigger picture: The negotiator makes light of the proposed issue, and turns the focus to a wider discussion.

·       Bluff: The negotiator makes a false claim, as if he has better offers from other parties.

·       Bogeyman: The negotiator introduces a false threat or warning.

·       Changing the Negotiator or Change up: The negotiator is changed to reset the progression made thus far.

·       Control the Agenda: The negotiator controls the agenda, and the priorities to control what is discussed and when.

·       Discovery challenges: The negotiator claims that they had a hard time finding or doing what the other party asked them to produce in order to buy themselves time.12

·       Divide and conquer: The negotiator creates an internal conflict between other parties who are opposed to them.

·       Ellsberg paradox or also ambiguity aversion: The negotiator uses the human bias toward choosing the option that they know more about, despite of its real merits.

·       Empty Promises: The negotiator makes promises that they know they will not keep.

·       Feather ruffling: The negotiator utilizes personal attack to divert the discussion to the involved parties instead of the results.

·       Fragmentation: The negotiator breaks the discussion into minor discussions.

·       Introducing a new issue: The negotiator introduces a new issue during the negotiation for distraction.

·       Jurisdictional challenges: Used in the court of law, this is a delaying tactic in which another group claims that it is their jurisdiction in order to drw out or prolong the case12.

·       Late objections: The negotiator makes an objection late in the negotiation, to set it back to square one.

·       Limited Authority, Absent Authority, or Missing person tactic: The negotiator declares their limited ability to make a decision, They also claim that the person who can make the decision is not available at the moment, drawing out the process

·       Logrolling: The negotiator concedes on low-priority items to them.

·       Overwhelming: The negotiator provides other parties with too much requests or information to overload them.

·       Questioning goals: The negotiator debates the value of other parties' ultimate goals.

·       Phasing: The negotiator offers to phase in or out the requested changes, buying themselves more time.

·       Playing Dumb: The negotiator acts stupid to avoid confrontations.

·       Selective listening: The negotiator overlooks certain fragments of the other parties' argument hearing what they want to rather than what is actually being said.

·       Taking something back: The negotiator offers something only to take it back later8,

Some examples of delay tactics in use:

In Newcastle, England barristers have called for an end to delay tactics. The delay tactics in question? The police force is taking in suspects only to release them and then arrest them and charge them some time later. This delays the inevitable and prolongs the case. Tis also allows the judges to have more to dismiss cases for learning about the delays. The time it takes them to gather more evidence, is a delay tactic that could lead to more people getting hurt.14

Queensland resources council called on governments at both a state and local level to stop delay tactics. The delay tactics are being used by the Green party. The Green party has been utilizing it in order to delay resources going out to places. How are they doing this? They are doing this by making the projects go through the government repeatedly, without approval. They have been approved by federal and state governments but the party continues to put them through a delay via the legal system. 15

In England, politicians accuse the Secretary of State of delay tactics. The Secretary of State, is being accused of using delay tactics in order to stop compensation payments to abuse victims or at least frustrate the process. The compensation has been delayed for two and half years as it sits on ice. They are calling for her resignation after the delay. Forcing pressure, she agrees to legislate it but still has yet to do anything about it. Something that people are saying is just not enough. 16

In the United States, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has been called to address delay tactics. The delay tactics have been affecting lower-cost generic drugs from getting to the market. One common thing that has been delaying the entry of these drugs, is the disagreement over the purpose of the drug and what it is used for. Companies have to agree on this in order for them to decide how to train doctors on the risks and symptoms of the drugs. This misuse of the “risk evaluation and mitigation strategies” has delayed a lot of drugs from hitting the market.17

In South Africa they have been experiencing delay tactics. The delay tactic in question, discovery challenges. They have been faced with a deadline in order to have them produce the applications that they wanted to have submitted by a date. However, they have been previously ignoring the deadlines saying that they were unable to produce them at that time. Why are delay tactics being used? To delay and draw out the trial of Joao Rodrigues someone accused of murdering Ahmed Timol.18

Delay tactics have stopped millions of pension savers from moving their money to a better, cheaper provider. They delay the people from leaving by making them pass through a series of hurdles in order to switch over to a different provider. They also use the delay tactics to cause confusion which makes it harder for the people to be able to switch or know what kind of service they are getting. They also use delay tactics to draw out the time that they have to respond to people.19

In the United States, the Democrats in the House have taken to using delay tactics to stop bills from passing. This is a common thing done by all parties in an effort to stop the bills passing that go against their party. This time around it happened with the Democrats, using stalling and asking questions repetitively, even once they knew the answer, just stop the bill from meeting the midnight deadline. Their delay tactics led to the failure of any unrelated bills that were casualties in an effort to stop the bill. 20