Discuss the following:
Nature of Negotiation in the World
1. Case Study: Noisy Neighbors
Linda and Larry are angry because their new neighbors in the apartment complex, Dale and Donna, seem to hold late-night parties every Thursday. Linda and Larry both have long work days that require them to rise early and remain alert all day. Linda and Larry have asked Dale and Donna to keep the noise down on Thursday nights and conclude their parties by midnight. Dale and Donna have ignored their requests. Linda and Larry have reached their boiling point, and have decided to call the police this Thursday if the party goes on beyond midnight.
Given this scenario, how have Linda and Larry handled the conflict thus far? What should they do now?
Some negotiating is “interest-based”, and some is “rights based”. What determines which approach is better and which approach is least costly? When is “active avoidance” appropriate?
2. Case Study: Sick Leave
Read Case “Sick Leave”,
After reading the case, identify and explain the conflict that occurred, how it occurred, how it could have been avoided, and what Kelly and the other ALTs should do now. What questions in the Personal Bargaining Inventory (located in the Appendix of the text) are more highly valued by Kelly as a matter of cultural influence, and which are more highly valued by Mr. Higashi? Given your own scoring on the Personal Bargaining Inventory, how well would you have likely handled the situation if you were Kelly?
Pre-negotiation Planning and Differences
3. What is Framing & Why Should I do It?
To what extent does the way you frame a problem influence the outcome of negotiation?
Can you change your frame once negotiations begin? Can you have more than one frame?
What if the other side frames the problem differently than you do? Provide examples from you own experience in answering these questions.
4. Pre-negotiation Planning and Differences
Movie Night – Personality & Negotiation (Graded)Have you seen the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding? We will analyze the role of personality in shaping the negotiation style of the characters in this film. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should still be able to participate in this thread (required and graded) by responding to other students’ posts, and you may bring in scenes from other films as long as the focus is on the “communication competence” of the characters in the situations presented. What do you remember about these scenes?
Strategy and Tactics of Distributive Bargaining
5. Seeing Things My Way
In a distributive bargaining situation, how do I get the other party to go along?
When is selective presentation an effective negotiating technique, and when does it become an exercise in bad faith?Provide examples from your own experience.
6. Winning at Win-Lose
Should I open “high”, and should I concede anything? How firm should my final offer be? If I commit to a position, can I walk away from it? What do I do if the other party plays hardball? Use examples from your own experience.
7. Why Integrative Bargaining?
What makes integrative bargaining different from distributive bargaining, and how do I identify the issues to be negotiated in integrative bargaining?
What are the different kinds of interests that need to be identified by each of the negotiators?
What are the factors in integrative negotiation that make it difficult to achieve an agreement?
Provide examples from your own experience.
8. Finding Alternative Solutions
One technique often used in an integrative negotiation is to generate alternative solutions to problems or issues being negotiated.
How do I generate alternative solutions based on the issues being negotiated?
How do I evaluate, select, and prioritize from among them?
Provide examples from your own experience.
Communication, Bias, Managing Difficulties & Individual Approaches
9. You Just Don’t Understand
What are the major perceptual errors? Why do they occur? What are some cognitive biases, and what can we do to manage them in the negotiation process?
What steps can we take to improve communication between the parties in negotiation, and what are some fatal mistakes to avoid?
Provide examples from your own experience and from your answers to the “Communication Competence” questionnaire.
Communication, Bias, Managing Difficulties & Individual Approaches
10. Impasse- What Happened?
We’re at an impasse. What led us to this statement?
If I get angry, can I get even?
If I don’t get angry, how can I just walk away from the negotiation?
If I don’t walk away, how do we break the impasse? Should I issue an ultimatum?
Why are some people so difficult? Should I try to bring a difficult person to his/her senses, or to his/her knees?
Use examples from personal or business experience or from outside reading.
Group Negotiation, Difficult Situations and Third Party Approaches
11. Negotiating With Relationships
What are the major social factors in negotiation?
Who are the possible parties? How are they different, and how does this affect the negotiation?
What are “fundamental relationship forms” and the characteristics of each?
What is more important when negotiating within relationships: trust or justice? Are some forms of trust better? How can one increase trust?
Provide examples from your experiences and incorporate your answers from “The Trust Scale” questionnaire.
12. Forming & Managing Multi-Party Coalitions
How do coalitions get started, and how do they grow?
What is a “bedfellow” and a “fence sitter”?
What tactics can you implement to strengthen a multi-party coalition? What are the strategies that you can implement to effectively manage the different stages of multi-party negotiations (pre-negotiation and formal negotiation)?
Applying Leverage and Ethics in Negotiation
13. Power in Negotiations
What is power? How does one acquire power, and what is the best kind of power to have?
How do I influence someone with power and make sure that my message gets through?
How do I preserve the power that I have (I like having it), and how do I resist other people’s attempts to influence me?
Use examples from personal or business experience and from the “Influence Tactics Inventory” questionnaire.
14. Your Lying and Cheating Ways
Isn’t this “ethics” business all about not lying and cheating?
If other people do it (and they’ll do it to me), shouldn’t I be doing it to them? Where does effectiveness come into play?
Who is more unethical: Men or women? Younger folks or older folks? Experienced negotiators or inexperienced ones? The highly educated or the not so educated? Sociology majors or business majors? Are some nationalities/cultural groups/personality types more likely to lie and cheat in negotiations?
After taking an ethics course, will I be a more ethical negotiator? If not, how can I deal with the other party’s deceptions (that scoundrel!)?