If you are aiming at the win/lose strategy and coming out on the winning team, you may get what you want but it will be at the expense of someone else. While on the surface it will appear that the conflict is over with, the truth is that the leftover feelings of resentment or frustration in the other party will fester for a long time, and you potentially will end up in another conflict.

In the workplace, we see this strategy applied either by managers (what I say goes) or by the majority (we vote and get what we want). In the former situation, the manager is an autocrat who makes decisions and implements a decision without feedback. Sometimes this includes statements like, “do as I say or go find a job somewhere else.” That statement generally ends any thought of debate or bargaining from the staff.