PA 7332 – Negotiations for Effective Management

Syllabus – Fall 2005 8/23/2005

MP2.208; Green 3.402 Tuesdays 7:00-9:45 pm

Professor Marie Chevrier Teaching Assistant: Larry Terry

Office: Green 3.204 Office: Green 2.512
Phone: 972-883-2727 Email: ldt041000@utdallas.edu
Fax: 972-882 2735
Email: chevrier@utdallas.edu
Website: www.utdallas.edu/~chevrier/
Office Hours: Wednesday 1-3 pm or by appointment.

Course Description
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.

Course Objectives
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.
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.
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 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.
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I hope you will learn a great deal about yourself from exposure to situations that involve
a shifting mix of cooperation and competition as well as important ethical choices. As a
result, your effectiveness as a public manager should increase significantly. Overall, I
hope that you will complete the course a more reflective, analytically savvy, effective
and, in all senses of the term, “good” problem-solver and negotiator.

Ground rules:
1. All behavior is real. We will be participating in simulated 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.

Student Work Requirements

There is a significant amount of reading to do between all class sessions. You will be
expected to keep up with the readings and apply what you have 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 ability 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. Roughly every class session 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 most
important vehicle for learning in class. One major requirement, therefore, is that you

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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 real underlying values and information 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.

Your Objectives in the Exercises

What is it that you should be trying to accomplish in these exercises? In general, your
aim is not to try to do “better” than the player with whom you are playing; “better” is
often meaningless in games that are not strictly competitive and where you and your
counterpart start in very 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. Each of you will be required to observe an undergraduate
negotiation, write an analysis of the negotiation and provide written (and oral) feedback
to the negotiators. I will give you more information on this assignment later in the
semester.

Assignments and Grading: Midterm exam 30%

Class participation (including scored negotiations) 30%
Final Paper 30%
Written negotiation analysis 10%

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.

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 are
asked to identify obstacles to more effective conflict management and to recommend
changes that would lead to more effective conflict management. Students are expected to
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.

Textbooks and Simulations:

Negotiation: Readings Exercises and Cases, 4th Ed. by Lewicki, Saunders, Minton and
Barry (Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2003); referred to as LSM B.

The Manager as Negotiator: Bargaining for Cooperation and Competitive Gain by David
A. Lax and James K.Sebenius (New York: The Free Press, 1986). Referred to as Lax.

The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, 3rd Ed., by Leigh L. Thompson, (Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005). Referred to as Thompson.

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.

Simulations as announced in class and posted on the website.

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Class Schedule
SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME!

Week 1: Tues. Aug. 23

Introduction to Conflict and Negotiations
Topics: Terms, definitions, conflict, distributive bargaining, trust, the negotiator’s
dilemma, negotiation and management, analytics.
Commons Dilemma Week 1
Exercises: Bidding, Personal Bargaining Inventory, Oil Pricing Exercise

Assignment: Collect Nos Due Week 2 (From Lewicki, Saunders, and Minton and
Barry, Negotiation 4th Edition, pp 595-596.)

Week 2: Tues. Aug 30

Topic: Principled Negotiations, Integrative Bargaining,
Readings: LSMB Sections One, Two. Lax, Chapters 1-2; Thompson, Ury Chapter 1, pp.
3-19. Video: Chaldini, Influence (I will show this video when we move to the
permanent classroom)
Exercises: Alpha Project; Clarkson Airport Authority -- Write 1 page letter.
Collecting Nos Assignment Due
Commons Dilemma Week 2

Week 3: Tues. Sept. 6

Collect Nos assignment due.
Topic: Pre-negotiation Planning
Readings: LSMB Sections Three and Four; Lax, Chapters 3-4.
Exercise: Town of Tamarack
Commons Dilemma Week 3

Week 4: Tues. Sept. 13

Topic: Complex Negotiations, Multiple Parties, Issues and Coalitions
Readings: LSMB, Section Five; Lax Chapters 5-7.
Exercise: Operation Wilderness
Commons Dilemma Week 4

Week 5: Tues. Sept 20

Topic: Power in Negotiation
Readings: LSMB Six; Lax Chapter 9-10
Exercise: Power Game
Commons Dilemma Week 5

Week 6: Tues. Sept 27

Topic: Ethics in Negotiation
Readings: LSMB Seven; Lax Chapter 9
Exercise: Newtown School Dispute week 1
Commons Dilemma Week 6

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Week 7: Tues. Oct 4

Commons Dilemma Week 7
Topic: Complex Negotiations, Coalitions, Teams
Readings: LSMB Sections Eight and Nine; Lax Chapter 16
Exercise: Newtown School Dispute Week 2

Week 8: Tues. Oct. 11

Topic: Midterm
Commons Dilemma Week 8

Week 9: Tues. Oct. 18

Topic: Management through Negotiations
Readings: Lax Chapters 11-14
Exercise:

Week 10: Tues. Oct 25

Topic: Managing Difficult Negotiations
Readings: LSMB Section 12
Exercise: Mexico City Water

Week 11: Tues. Nov 1

Topic: Mediation, Third Party Approaches
Readings: LSMB Section 13; Lax Chapter 16.
Exercise: Pacific City Utilities Service Department

Week 12: Tues. Nov 8

Topic: Conflict Management Systems
Readings: Lax Chapter 17; Ury all.
Exercise:

Week 13: Tues. Nov 15

Exercise:

Week 14: Tues. Nov 22

Last day of class

Concise Negotiations Bibliography

Howard Raiffa, The Art and Science of Negotiation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1982)

G Richard Schell, Bargaining for Advantage : Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable

People (New York: Penguin Books, 2000).

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Roger Fisher and William Ury Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In,
2nd Ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 1999).

William Ury, Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way From Confrontation to
Cooperation Rev. Ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1991).

Roy J. Lewicki, David M. Saunders, and John W. Minton, Essentials of Negotiation

(Boston: Irwin McGraw Hill, 2000).

Roger Fisher, et. al. Beyond Machiavelli: Tools for Coping with Conflict (New York:
Penguin Books, 1996).

Deborah M. Kolb and Associates, When Talk Works: Profiles of Mediators (San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994).

Deborah M. Kolb and Judith Williams, The Shadow Negotiation: How Women Can
Master the Hidden Agendas that Determine Bargaining Success, (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 2000).

I. William Zartman & Jeffrey Z. Rubin, Eds. Power and Negotiation (Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 2000).

Michael Watkins, Breakthrough Business Negotiation: A Toolbox for Managers, (San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002).

Howard Raiffa, Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision
Making (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2002).

Dean G. Pruitt and Peter J. Carnevale, Negotiation in Social, (Pacific Grove, CA:
Brooks/Cole, 1993).

Allan H. Goodman, Basic Skills for the New Mediator (Rockville, MD: Solomon
Publications, 1994).

Roderick M. Kramer, David M. Messick, Eds. Negotiation as a Social Process

(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995).

J. William Breslin and Jeffrey Z. Rubin Negotiation Theory and Practice (Cambridge,
MA: Program on Negotiations Books, 1995)