Negotiation and Conflict Management

Spring 2006

Texts (required):  Essentials of Negotiation, 3^rd ed. by Lewicki, Saunders, Barry, and Minton.  2004 Irwin.

Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases, 4^th ed. by Lewicki, Saunders, Minton, and Barry. 2003 Irwin.

Objectives for the course:

Negotiation is a part of life; it is also a very significant part of every job you will ever have. Managers negotiate on a daily basis and, as this has become recognized, the need for more skilled managers as negotiators has been recognized as well. As an employee you will be in negotiations on a constant basis. You will begin your career with an organization with negotiations centered on your employment agreement (i.e. compensation, hours worked, responsibilities, travel, etc.). The idea behind this course is to help you to become a more effective negotiator by learning and practicing negotiating skills you can use in your personal and business life.

This course is designed to present you with the opportunity to improve your negotiating skills. It will be oriented towards providing a forum conducive to practicing these skills and making positive changes in your behavior and habits in order to facilitate your success. At the end of this course you will: 1.) Have increased understanding of your personal strengths and weaknesses and the means to address the areas you wish to improve in a positive manner, 2.) Have an understanding of how to prepare for negotiation, 3.) Have learned multiple approaches to resolving unproductive negotiations, 4.) Have developed a deeper understanding of basic negotiation skills and had the opportunity to integrate these skills into your "tool kit".

Course Format:

We will accomplish our objectives through use of a variety of instructional methods. There will be some lecture, though this will not be the primary focus of the class. The class will discuss cases and apply the concepts of negotiation to discover ways to improve on the performance of the respective sides and "trouble shoot" the negotiation. There will also be the opportunity to perform several negotiations in the course of the semester both as an individual and in groups to have the opportunity to apply the concepts you learn as part of the class. You are expected to have the reading and homework assignments done prior to arriving at the class in which the material will be covered. Participation in the class discussions is a requirement and failure to prepare will result in a less than optimal evaluation of your performance.

Personal Observations: A primary focus of the class is the personal application of the principles covered in the class to your own style of negotiation. One way to enhance the effectiveness of the learning/application of useful information is through reflection and gaining insight. Recording these insights and reflections is an effective way to aid incorporating them into your "tool kit" as a negotiator. In an effort to assist you to gain ownership of the material that is most relevant to you, I am providing you the opportunity to write them down. After several of the negotiating experiences, you will be required to write a paper describing what you have learned in the class that you can/have applied to yourself to improve your skills, or some significant insights you have gained.

Participation: You will be evaluated on your attendance and participation. Experiential learning requires your involvement to work, so you need to get into the game. This is not to say that everything a student says must contain some brilliant insight. However your good ideas, experience, and insights do the rest of the class little good if you fail to express them. Your comfort level with this part of the class will improve with practice, so start now.  It is understood that at times you may face conflicting priorities in your life and that you may make the decision that another priority must come before the class, or you may be prevented from attending by some circumstance that is not in your control.  Regardless of the circumstances, your presence here is important.  I will not be taking attendance in class but I do notice folks who choose to skip class especially when we have in class exercises.  If you choose to be gone, you will be choosing to have your grade lowered. 

Study Groups: I encourage you to work with others in the class to gain a better understanding of the material. An approach I recommend is to form a group of 3-4 people and work on the reading assignments together. All members of the group need to read all of the assigned readings for the best results. Individual members can be assigned responsibility (by the group) to outline a particular reading in a section and to make the notes available to the other members of the group. Then, meet for an hour or so to discuss the content of the readings prior to the class discussion of the related material. If you do this you will accomplish the following: 1) You will have a complete set of the reading notes at the end of the semester to refer to with a fraction of the effort it would take to do them all yourself. 2) You will be exposed to differing points of view on the material informally prior to the class. 3) You will achieve greater command of the material and be better prepared for the quizzes.

Extra Credit: Extra credit for participating in research projects may be available for up to 5% of your total grade. Opportunities for this will be announced in class, as they are available.

Cheating: Plagiarism and other forms of cheating will not be tolerated. Anyone caught engaging in these activities will receive an "F" grade for the class.

Optional Research Paper:  At your option you may write a research paper in lieu of the comprehensive reflection paper due at the end of the semester.  As an incentive, I will offer up to 10 additional points for a very well crafted paper.  The best paper(s) will be considered for entry in the Garth Jones Writing Award competition (there is a cash prize) and the Student Showcase.  If you desire to investigate this as an option please see me and we will discuss it.

Course Points Summary:

In Class Protocol:

The primary purpose for attending class is to learn the subject material in order to further your professional and personal development.  For that reason it is important to have an environment that is conducive to learning and free from unnecessary distractions.  Therefore the use of cell phones, pagers, watches that are set to chime at certain times, boom boxes, walkmans, or any other devices that produce noise that will create a distraction in the classroom is specifically prohibited from use in the classroom.  If you carry any of these devices into the classroom, please make sure that they are turned off or set so that they alert you silently.  Anyone can make a mistake, so the first time a person violates the rule, it is on me.  Each successive occurrence will result in him/her being invited to leave the class and reduction of his/her final evaluation in the class by one letter grade.  Your consideration for your classmates will be appreciated.

All work is due the as noted in the syllabus.  It is to be handed in at the beginning of the class in the classroom.  Any work handed in at any other time or place will be awarded 10% deduction in points unless prior arrangements have been made with me.  I will accept late work, but it will be awarded a reduced grade. 

Tentative Course Schedule:

The course schedule, assignments, and content will be held to the information contained in this document as closely as possible. It is understood that changes may be made time to time to meet the needs of the class at the discretion of the instructor. This document is specifically not intended to constitute a contract between the instructor and the students in the class.

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