Negotiation Management, Analysis, and Support Winter 2000

Required Text: R.J. Lewicki, D.M. Saunders and J.W. Minton, Negotiation, (3rd edition), Irwin McGraw Hill, 1999, ISBN 0-256-20832-8.

Prerequisities: The prerequisite for this course is fourth-year standing. It is the responsibility of each student to ensure that he/she has met the prerequisite requirements for the course. Failure to document this requirement will lead to mandatory deregistration from the course. Waiver of any prerequisite requirement can only be granted by the School of Business. Students are urged to immediately contact the School in all cases of doubt, and are reminded that responsibility for this matter rests with the student.

A detailed course schedule and also a number of notes, handouts, software, and other materials will be available. They will be accessible from the course resource page that you should review at least once a week for new postings. Numerous materials are already available at: http://interneg.org/ the site for and about negotiations which argaubly is the most comprehensive negotiation Web site to date. InterNeg has been developed by Gregory Kersten and a team at Concordia University and Carleton University. The site and Web-based negotiation support systems have been used by thousands of managers and students.

More about this course.

Course Overview

Negotiation is a complex activity that requires time and effort. It is a dynamic process involving two or more people who are interdependent in the realisation of their objectives. People use negotiations to make decisions and to resolve conflicts, if there is no other clear and well established procedure. The complexity, efforts, argumentation, and conflict that often characterize negotiations may make people uncomfortable and even fearfull of resorting to this form of decision making. However, it is impossible not to negotiate! Hence, one needs to learn how to manage conflict and how to negotiate effectively.

The skills required for managers, engineers, computer scientists, project managers and other professionals include effective communication, collaboration and negotiation. Recent changes in the workplace and beyond make the negotiation approach to decision making more important than ever before. Commerce and trade, including electronic commerce, involve negotiations and bargaining. Globalization of trade and internationalization of services and production make negotiation even more important and -- at the same time -- difficult due to distance, time and cultural differences. New communication and computer technologies introduce negotiations of, and with, intelligent software agents, bargaining on virtual markets, negotiations via Web, as well as group decision and negotiation support systems used in negotiation planning, analysis, and conduct.

Objectives

This course is designed for the students who persue a commerce degree and for students who expect to perform managerial functions in their future careers. Its key objective is to equip the students with knowledge and basic skills required to conduct and manage negotiation processes. It is based on the following premise:

Everybody negotiates but managers and professionals should know
how to manage conflict and how to negotiate effectively.

The three key objectives of this course are to provide the students with:

1. an understanding of different theories of the bargaining process and the application of these theories to a variety of settings. The theories to be covered include rational models of bargaining behavior that have been developed in economics and decision sciences, and cognitive and behavioural theories that investigate how bargaining behavior may diverge from the predictions of the rational models;
2. the opportunity to develop their bargaining skills and apply the theoretical concepts covered in class in a variety of negotiating exercises and cases; and
3. exposure to new communication and computer technologies that are used in negotiation analysis and support, and in the conduct of negotiations in e-business and beyond.

The specific objectives are:

• Learn about distributive and integrative negotiations.
• Develop an understanding of the negotiation process and its representations.
• Learn about the phases of the negotiation process and the roles of analytical methods in each phase.
• Understand human biases and their implications for the process and outcome of negotiations.
• Understand the relationship between the structure of the negotiation process and the outcomes achieved.
• Use tools for negotiation analysis and negotiation support systems.

Indicative content

The course covers essential topics for negotiation and conflict management illustrated with cases from business, trade, engineering, computer science, and other areas. It provides the basis for understanding of negotiation strategies and tactics as well as methods for negotiation analysis and evaluation. The topics covered include:

• The art and science of negotiations;
• Communication and cognitive biases;
• Managing conflict;
• Negotiation analysis;
• Pre-negotiation planning;
• Strategy and tactics;
• Distributive bargaining;
• Integrative bargaining and the common misconceptions;
• Post-settlement settlements;
• Contexts and situations;
• Global negotiations;
• Cross-cultural negotiations; and
• Negotiation support systems and negotiation software agents.

Course Description

Managers spend a substantial portion of their time and energy negotiating and resolving conflicts with superiors, co-workers, subordinates, customers, competitors and suppliers. Poorly conducted negotiations can reduce the value of the settlement for every party involved in the negotiation. The analytical and bargaining skills in these situations can have an important and positive impact on the outcomes of negotiations.

The course covers essential topics for negotiation and conflict management illustrated with cases from business, trade, engineering, computer science, and other areas. It provides the basis for understanding of negotiation strategies and tactics, methods for negotiation analysis and evaluation, relationships between the process and to and its structure and the outcomes achieved.

During the classes students participate in a bargaining case or exercise. They are also engaged in electronic business negotiations with the use of a Web-based negotiation support tools. The dual emphasis on theories of bargaining and participation in the bargaining exercises are designed to provide students with the knowledge and experience that will enable them to become more effective negotiators and managers.

Assignments, due dates, and grading scheme

Plagiarism. Borrowing someone else's answers, unauthorized possession of tests or answers to test, or possession of material designed in answering exam questions, are subject to university policy regarding instructional offenses.

Course Outline
(cases and additonal materials are available at: coursework.html)

The work load in this class will be heavy, but I believe that you will find the work interesting and stimulating. I expect your commitment, preparation for classes, attendance and active participantion. In return, I promise that you will have fun and you will learn useful skills.

Specific information about the projects and tests is given on separate course pages. Please consult the course resource page for further information.

Links: InterNeg, InterNeg Negotiation Links