Course PA 7322 Negotiations for Effective Management

Professor Marie Isabelle Chevrier, Ph.D.

Term Fall 2007
Meetings Wednesday 7:00-9:45 P.M. WSTC 1.302
Revised 8/27/07

Professor’s Contact Information

Office Phone 972-883-2727
Office Location Green 3.204
Email Address chevrier@utdallas.edu
Office Hours Thursdays 5:30- 6:30 in Westec office. Thursdays 1-3 pm in Green.
I don’t read WebCT mail often. Please feel free to make an appointment
Other Information to see me if office hours are inconvenient.
TA: Matt Openshaw (openshaw@utdallas.edu)

General Course Information

Pre-requisites, Co-
requisites, & other No specific prerequisites.
restrictions
Students in this course will learn about negotiations, principally in the
public sector, and will develop and practice skills to become more
proficient negotiators. The course will be a combination of learning about
negotiations and participating in exercises and simulated negotiations.
The exercises and simulations are chosen to reinforce the theories about
successful negotiations and successful negotiators and to all students to
develop their own negotiation skills.

The ability to successfully negotiate and to collaboratively solve problems

and seize opportunities is increasingly a necessity of effective
management, and rests on a combination of analytical and interpersonal
Course Description
skills. In the case of negotiation, analysis is important because collective
problem solvers cannot develop promising strategies without a deep
understanding of the structure and context of the situation, the interests of
other parties, the opportunities and barriers to creating and claiming value
(twin forces of cooperation and competition) on a sustainable basis, and
the range of possible moves and countermoves both at and away from the
“bargaining table.” Beyond analysis, interpersonal skills are important
because negotiation and other forms of collective problem-solving are
essentially processes of communication, relationship and trust building
(or breaking) and mutual persuasion.

1. To understand the dynamics and process of interpersonal and

inter-group conflict, and recognize different conflict behaviors.
2. To understand how organizations manage conflict.
3. To learn how to manage conflict more effectively.
Learning Outcomes 4. To explore the major concepts and theories of bargaining and
negotiation.
5. To learn how negotiations can lead to better outcomes than other
methods of managing or resolving conflicts.
6. To learn the differences between distributive and integrative
 negotiations.
7. To understand the process of negotiations in varied contexts.
8. To become better principled negotiators.
9. To acquire and practice negotiation skills.

Negotiation: Readings Exercises and Cases, 5th Ed. by Lewicki, Barry and
Saunders (Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2006); referred to as
LBS.

Getting Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Costs of Conflict

by William L. Ury, Jeanne M. Brett, and Stephen B. Goldberg (Cambridge:
PON Books, 1993). Referred to as Ury.

Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to

Required Texts & Cooperation by William L. Ury (New York: Bantam Books, 1993).
Materials
Two cases studies which must be ordered from the Kennedy School of
Government case program website: www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/

Portions of Breakthrough International Negotiations: How Great

Negotiators Transformed the World's Toughest Post-Cold War Conflicts
by Michael Watkins and Susan Rosegrant (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2001) on reserve in UTD library.

All materials handed out in class.

The Manager as Negotiator: Bargaining for Cooperation and
Competitive Gain by David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius (New York:
Suggested Texts,
The Free Press, 1986).
Readings, &
Materials
Essentials of Negotiation by Lewicki, Barry and Saunders (Boston: Irwin
McGraw-Hill, 2006) Any edition.

ASSIGNMENTS & ACADEMIC CALENDAR

Week 1 Introduction to Negotiations
August 22 Topics: Terms, definitions, conflict, distributive bargaining, trust, the
negotiator’s dilemma, negotiation and management,
analytics.
Exercises: Bidding, Personal Bargaining Inventory,
Week 2 Topic: Principled Negotiations, Integrative Bargaining,
August 29 Readings: LBS Section One. Ury Chapter 1, pp. 3-19.
Exercise: Alpha Project
Assignment: Collecting Nos from LBS DUE
Week 3 Topic: Pre-negotiation Planning
September 5 Readings: LBS Section Two.
Exercise: Oil Pricing,
Week 4 Topic: Complex Negotiations, Multiple Parties, Issues and
September 12 Coalitions
Readings: LBS, Section Three.
Cases: In LBS, Case # 4 “Collective Bargaining at Magic Carpet
Airlines: A Union Perspective” Preparation Sheet Due.

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 Case # 6: “Teotihuacan Murals” No preparation sheet.
Week 5 Topic: Mediation
September 19 Readings: LBS Section Six.
Exercise: Town of Tamarack Preparation sheet due.
Week 6 Topic: Ethics in Negotiation, Informal Mediation
September 26 Readings: LBS Section Five.
Case Study: Peabody's Trailer Parks
Choice of Case for Negotiation Analysis Due by email.
Week 7 Topic: Complex Negotiations, Coalitions, Teams
October 3 Exercise: Newtown School Dispute week 1 Preparation Sheet Due.
Week 8 Readings: LBS Sections Six.
October 10 Exercise: Newtown School Dispute week 2 Revise Prep Sheet
Week 9 Topic: Management through Negotiations
October 17 Readings: LBS Section Seven.
Exercise: Power Game No preparation required
Negotiation Analysis Due: Submit to Turnitin.com
Week 10 Topic: Managing Difficult Negotiations
October 24 Readings: Getting Past No -- All
Case Study: Dealing with the Devil: The Tobacco Control Negotiations
Preparation Sheet Due.
Week 11 Topic:
October 31 Readings: Catch Up!
Case Study: Wasota Fishing Rights Preparation Sheet Due.
Observation of Undergraduate Negotiation Due
Week 12
November 7 Case Study: Wasota Fishing Rights 2 Revised Preparation Sheet Due.
Week 13 Readings: Ury -- all
November 14 Last Class
Wrap Up
Week 14
No Class Observation of undergrad negotiation substituted
November 21
Final Final Paper Due: Submit to Turnitin.com
November 28 Each student will be required to write a 10 page paper analyzing the ways
in which an organization where you currently work, or have worked,
manages conflict. Your must identify obstacles to more effective conflict
management and recommend changes that would lead to more effective
conflict management. Students must apply the concepts in Getting
Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Costs of Conflict by
William L. Ury, Jeanne M. Brett, and Stephen B. Goldberg.

Course Policies
Grades will consist of:
Grading (credit) Class participation: (including scored negotiations) 25%
Criteria Please Note: The class participation segment of your grade will be based
upon your class attendance, preparation for all class activities and the quality
of your contributions to class discussions and simulations. Your classmates
will contribute to your class participation grade. Therefore, if you come to
negotiations without adequate preparation your negotiation counterpart is
likely to notice, be frustrated, and grade you accordingly. Some of the
negotiations will be scored and included in your class discussion grade.

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 Written preparation and debrief: 5%
For many of the negotiation simulations you are required to submit a one page
preparation sheet at the time of the negotiation. These will be graded on
check, check +, check - basis. Depending on the quality of the preparation
sheets and debriefs this obligation may be withdrawn later in the semester.

Final Paper 40%

Written negotiation analysis 30%

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
1. All behavior is real. We will be participating in simulated
Ground Rules negotiations throughout the semester. Students will make their own
choices about the way they behave. All behavior has consequences
and students must be willing to live with these consequences. The
stakes are very different inside and outside the classroom, but the
behavior is no less ‘real’.
2. All confidential information provided in most role-playing scenarios
will be treated as confidential. Students are expected to excuse
themselves from an exercise if they are aware of the other side’s
confidential information.
3. The behavior of individuals and groups within the boundaries of the
course should be held in the strictest confidence. Students are
encouraged to respect the rights of others and to refrain from out-of-
class discussions unless negotiations are to take part outside of class.
4. Even within a simulated environment people become angry and
upset when betrayed, duped or ignored. No violence (threats of or
physical confrontations) will be allowed.
There is a significant amount of reading to do between all class sessions.
Simulations and You will be expected to keep up with the readings and apply what you have
Cases learned in the readings to the negotiation simulations that you are taking part
in. I have assigned the readings to roughly correspond to the topics that we
will be discussing. Getting through the first two assigned texts (LMSB and
Lax) quickly will benefit you in the exercises and the negotiation analyses—
so if you have the opportunity to do so please read ahead. The Ury et.al. text
is assigned for you to apply in your final paper. So you can wait on that text
until the end.

This course will require that students come to class prepared to discuss and
negotiate. The purpose of any lectures by the instructor is NOT to
summarize the readings so that you do not have to do them! Lectures are to
help you understand difficult information, to set the stage for future readings
and simulations and to cover material that is not in the readings.

Class attendance and participation is critical; negotiating skills, like

swimming, cannot be learned by reading alone. For the majority of class
sessions you will be assigned a role, paired with one or more counterparts,
given instructions—both “general” instructions that are common knowledge
and “confidential” instructions for your eyes only. You are expected to
prepare conscientiously and carry out the exercise. These exercises are the

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 most important vehicle for learning in class. One major requirement,
therefore, is that you carefully prepare for, carry out, and be ready to share
insights from the exercises with the class.

Many of the exercises include confidential instructions. Do not show these

confidential instructions to others! You may choose to discuss or reveal
some of their content – indeed, communicating your interests clearly is
essential to effective negotiation – but you must not physically show others
your confidential instruction sheets. This rule largely mirrors reality since it
is rarely possible, in most negotiation situations, for example, to reveal your
values underlying your position or information or instructions to your
negotiating counterparts.

The instructions for the exercises are designed to be self-explanatory. Please

follow the instructions carefully. If the instructions fix the set of issues to be
negotiated, do not invent new ones; this will distract from the intended focus
of the exercise as well as make scoring and comparisons hopelessly
complicated. The class functions far more effectively when we all cooperate
in observing this rule.

Though most of the exercises are extreme simplifications of reality, they are
intended to isolate and illuminate particular aspects that do arise in real
situations. Please take the exercises seriously, prepare carefully and
participate energetically. For those exercises that have fixed numerical
scoring systems, you should take the scores as representative of your true
interests and try to do as well as you can, subject to whatever considerations
of responsibility and ethics you expect would shape your behavior in similar
real-world situations. For those exercises without numerical scoring
systems, you should think hard about what you would care about, and what
trade-offs you would be willing to make, in the specified situation.

Some students may feel uncomfortable trying to out-guess or outwit other

class members, but past students have overwhelmingly found the experience
rewarding – a low cost chance to try different approaches to negotiation and
related skill areas. To the extent that your wits and emotions are engaged in
the exercises, they will help you become more aware and effective problem
solvers. As with a sports match among friends, it does more for your game
– and is more fun – to play vigorously and intelligently while on the game
field.
What is it that you should be trying to accomplish in these exercises? In
Objectives of the general, your aim is not to try to do “better” than the player with whom you
Exercises are playing; “better” is often meaningless in games that are not strictly
competitive and where you and your counterpart start from asymmetric
situations. In some exercises, you may be in a position to help your
counterpart achieve what he or she wants to achieve and to improve your
own lot as well. This is certainly a good thing to do. But what if you can
improve the other person’s situation without improving your own? What
you do may depend on how you feel about your counterpart. During the
play of the exercise the other player(s) might have helped you or behaved
reasonably and you may wish to “reward” him or her. Or, the opposite may
be true, and your altruism could change to malevolence.

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 A word of caution: don’t expect that your colleagues will think and choose
as you do. Be wary. This does not mean you should act in ways that you
think are competitively inappropriate just because others seem to be doing it.
Your aim is to maximize your interests, and your learning, tempered by your
concern to do what you think is right.

One way to learn more about negotiations and improve one's negotiations
skills is to observe others negotiate. In the course of the semester you may
be asked to observe a negotiation and provide written (and oral) feedback to
the negotiators.
Make-up Exams N/A
Extra Credit N/A
Late Work Must make written request
Class Attendance Required
Classroom
Everything you learned in kindergarten
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