Management runs a series of bargaining sessions and concedes small points, while every outcome that matters was written down before talks began and will be enforced whatever is said.
An example
When a frozen-foods manufacturer announced it would consolidate two plants, it invited the union to "good-faith discussions" on the terms. Over twelve weeks there were nine sessions, position papers on both sides, and a joint statement after each one describing constructive progress. Management agreed to keep the night-shift cafeteria open and to raise the boot allowance. On the closure date, the severance formula, and the number of transfers offered, it did not move. In week ten, a supervisor forwarded the chief steward a planning file by mistake. Dated three weeks before the first session, it listed the closure date, the severance formula, and the transfer count exactly as they would be announced. The steward had signed every joint statement. When she objected in the final session, the plant director reminded her that she had attended every meeting and had called the talks constructive in writing.
Why it works
Process dresses the predetermined outcome as something agreed. Accepting it lets the other side claim a seat at the table, which makes it look better, and after weeks of sessions, ratifying is easier than admitting the process was hollow. Rejecting it means denouncing your own participation, which lowers its appeal, and it invites the reply that you had every chance, which makes it costly. It requires sessions that look real, concessions on minor points, the dominant party's control of the final decision, and a counterpart with no good exit.
The thinking behind it
Robert B. Cialdini Cialdini's Influence (1984), with the 1975 paper Reciprocal Concessions Procedure for Inducing Compliance: The Door-in-the-Face Technique, describes two pressures a staged negotiation uses. A concession, even on cafeteria contracts, invites a concession in return, and a public record of constructive participation creates pressure to stay consistent with it. Declining to sign statements that describe progress that did not happen keeps the second pressure from building on the union side of the table.
Erving Goffman Goffman's Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (1974) defines a fabrication as the deliberate management of activity so that others form a false belief about what is going on. A staged negotiation is a fabrication: the frame says bargaining, while the outcome was set before the first session. Documenting the predetermined terms while the process runs breaks the frame, since the other side can then see and show what was really happening.
Warning signs
Concessions land only on minor items, while every major term holds from the first session to the last. Management's negotiators cannot say what would change their position on the core issues. Joint statements describe progress without naming any. The final terms match documents dated before talks began, or plans already in motion, such as transfers, contracts, or capital requests.
How to defend yourself
Assume the record of your participation will be used later, and shape it now. Document the predetermined outcome while the process is still running: what was offered, what moved, what never did, and any evidence that the result was fixed in advance. Avoid signing joint statements that describe progress that did not happen, and decline roles that will later be cited as proof you were consulted. Ask management directly which items are open to change and which are not, and get the answer into the minutes. If the core terms are closed, say so publicly and decline to ratify a process you cannot shape. A credible exit, such as another forum or an outside authority, changes how much the other side must actually offer.
How a leader shuts it down
Say honestly what is open. If the core terms are decided, announce them and negotiate only the rest. Once counterparts recognize a staged negotiation, they treat every later process of yours as theater, which costs you the next time you need a real agreement.