Negotiation Strategies and Skills

Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties who seek to maximize their outcomes. It is a key leadership skill. While leaders need analytical skills to develop optimal solutions, they also need negotiation skills to win acceptance and implementation of these solutions.

We negotiate often, but many of us know very little about the strategy and psychology of effective negotiations. In this module, students will have the opportunity to evaluate their existing approach to negotiations, learn new strategies, and learn how to apply these strategies to the wide variety of negotiations they will encounter across their career. The module is designed for students in all managerial and entrepreneurial careers.

The module will be largely experiential, providing students with an opportunity to develop their skills by participating in negotiation role-plays and integrating their experiences with the principles presented in the assigned readings and module discussions.

The module has six major parts, adding more complexity as we proceed in the module:

(1) Single-Issue, Two-Party Negotiations

(2) Multiple Issues, Two-Party Negotiations

(3) Multi-Party Negotiations

(4) Agency and Ethics in Negotiations

(5) Conflict Resolution

(6) Negotiations in International Context

(1) Gain a broad intellectual understanding of central concepts in negotiations to understand the structure and dynamics of negotiations in different contexts

(2) Learn to develop strategic plans and improve ability to lead the negotiation process to formulate and execute win-win agreements

(3) Handle complexities, such as dealing with multiple issues, parties, principal-agent relationships, and ethical dilemmas in negotiations

(4) Build confidence in negotiation skills by understanding one’s own and the other parties’ strengths, weaknesses, and biases

(5) Learn how to resolve conflicts effectively and create value out of them

(6) Negotiate effectively across cultural boundaries

The negotiation role-plays will treat a variety of situations (e.g., company acquisition, employment and salary, multi-party coalition building, real-estate purchases, and resolving conflicts between business partners) and will provide students with an opportunity to attempt strategies and tactics in a low-risk environment and learn about themselves and build their confidence.

• Class Contribution (18%)

• Team Presentation (40%)

• Self-Assessment and Reflection Paper (42%)

For details, please see the Syllabus (PDF-File).