Course PA 7322 Negotiations for Effective Management

Professor Marie Isabelle Chevrier, Ph.D.

Term Fall 2006
Meetings Tuesday 7:00-9:45 WSTC 1.216

Professor’s Contact Information

Office Phone 972-883-2727
Other Phone
Office Location Green 3.204
Email Address chevrier@utdallas.edu
Office Hours Wednesdays 2-4 pm; Tuesdays 6-7 pm
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: Larry D. Terry

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, 2003); referred to as
LBS.

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.
Required Texts &
Getting Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Costs of Conflict
Materials
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

Cooperation by William L. Ury (New York: Bantam Books, 1993).

Simulations as announced in class and posted on the website. All

materials handed out in class.
Suggested Texts,
Readings, & Daily: The New York Times or the Washington Post
Materials

Assignments & Academic Calendar

[Topics, Reading Assignments, Due Dates, Exam Dates]
Introduction to Negotiations: Topics: Terms, definitions, conflict,
Week 1 distributive bargaining, trust, the negotiator’s dilemma, negotiation and
August 22 management, analytics.
Exercises: Bidding, Personal Bargaining Inventory, Alpha Project
Topic: Principled Negotiations, Integrative Bargaining,
Week 2
Readings: LBS Section One. Lax, Chapters 1-2; Ury Chapter 1, pp. 3-19.
August 29
Oil Pricing Exercise
Topic: Pre-negotiation Planning
Week 3
Readings: LBS Section Two; Lax, Chapters 3-4.
September 5
Exercise: Pacific City Utilities Service Department
Topic: Complex Negotiations, Multiple Parties, Issues and Coalitions
Week 4
Readings: LBS, Section Three; Lax Chapters 5-7.
September 12
Exercise: Town of Tamarack
Topic: Power in Negotiation
Week 5
Readings: LBS Section Four; Lax Chapter 9-10
September 19
Case Study: Dealing with the Devil: The Tobacco Control Negotiations
Topic: Ethics in Negotiation
Week 6
Readings: LBS Section Five; Lax Chapter 9
September 26
Exercise: Operation Wilderness . Choice of case analysis Due.
Week 7 Topic: Complex Negotiations, Coalitions, Teams
October 3 Exercise: Newtown School Dispute week 1
Week 8 Readings: LBS Sections Six; Lax Chapter 16
October 10 Exercise: Newtown School Dispute week 2

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 Topic: Management through Negotiations
Week 9
Readings: LBS Section SevenLax Chapters 11-14
October 17
Exercise: Power Game Negotiation Analysis Due
Week 10
Guest Lecture on Mediation
October 24
Topic: Managing Difficult Negotiations
Week 11
Readings: Lax Chapter 16.
October 31
Case Study: Peabody's Trailer Parks
Week 12 Readings: Lax Chapter 17.
November 7 Case Study: Colonia Bridge Negotiations
Week 13 Readings: Ury all
November 14 Case Study: Colonia Bridge Negotiations
Week 14 Last Class
November 21 Wrap Up
Final Paper Due
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
Final
conflict management and to recommend changes that would lead to more
November 28
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.

Course Policies
Grades will consist of:
Class participation (including scored negotiations) 30%
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
Grading (credit) will contribute to your class participation grade. Therefore, if you come to
Criteria 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.

Final Paper 40%

Written negotiation analysis 30%
IMPORTANT
INFORMATION
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
Ground Rules
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.

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 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.
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
Simulations and “confidential” instructions for your eyes only. You are expected to prepare
Cases conscientiously and carry out the exercise. These exercises are the 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
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

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 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
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.
Objectives of the
Exercises
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.

Make-up Exams N/A

Extra Credit N/A
Late Work Must make written request
Class Attendance Required
Classroom
Everything you learned in kindergarten
Citizenship
Field Trip None

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 Policies
The University of Texas System and The University of Texas at Dallas have
rules and regulations for the orderly and efficient conduct of their business.
It is the responsibility of each student and each student organization to be
knowledgeable about the rules and regulations which govern student
conduct and activities. General information on student conduct and
discipline is contained in the UTD publication, A to Z Guide, which is
provided to all registered students each academic year.

The University of Texas at Dallas administers student discipline within the

procedures of recognized and established due process. Procedures are
defined and described in the Rules and Regulations, Board of Regents, The
Student Conduct University of Texas System, Part 1, Chapter VI, Section 3, and in Title V,
and Discipline Rules on Student Services and Activities of the university’s Handbook of
Operating Procedures. Copies of these rules and regulations are available to
students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are
available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations (SU
1.602, 972/883-6391).

A student at the university neither loses the rights nor escapes the
responsibilities of citizenship. He or she is expected to obey federal, state,
and local laws as well as the Regents’ Rules, university regulations, and
administrative rules. Students are subject to discipline for violating the
standards of conduct whether such conduct takes place on or off campus, or
whether civil or criminal penalties are also imposed for such conduct.

The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and
academic honesty. Because the value of an academic degree depends upon
the absolute integrity of the work done by the student for that degree, it is
imperative that a student demonstrate a high standard of individual honor in
his or her scholastic work.

Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, statements, acts or

omissions related to applications for enrollment or the award of a degree,
Academic
and/or the submission as one’s own work or material that is not one’s own.
Integrity
As a general rule, scholastic dishonesty involves one of the following acts:
cheating, plagiarism, collusion and/or falsifying academic records. Students
suspected of academic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary proceedings.

Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other
classes, and from any other source is unacceptable and will be dealt with
under the university’s policy on plagiarism (see general catalog for details).
This course will use the resources of turnitin.com, which searches the web
for possible plagiarism and is over 90% effective.

The University of Texas at Dallas recognizes the value and efficiency of

communication between faculty/staff and students through electronic mail.
Email Use At the same time, email raises some issues concerning security and the
identity of each individual in an email exchange. The university encourages
all official student email correspondence be sent only to a student’s U.T.
Dallas email address and that faculty and staff consider email from students

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 official only if it originates from a UTD student account. This allows the
university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all
individual corresponding and the security of the transmitted information.
UTD furnishes each student with a free email account that is to be used in all
communication with university personnel. The Department of Information
Resources at U.T. Dallas provides a method for students to have their U.T.
Dallas mail forwarded to other accounts.

The administration of this institution has set deadlines for withdrawal of any
college-level courses. These dates and times are published in that semester's
Withdrawal course catalog. Administration procedures must be followed. It is the
from Class student's responsibility to handle withdrawal requirements from any class. In
other words, I cannot drop or withdraw any student. You must do the proper
paperwork to ensure that you will not receive a final grade of "F" in a course
if you choose not to attend the class once you are enrolled.

Procedures for student grievances are found in Title V, Rules on Student

Services and Activities, of the university’s Handbook of Operating
Procedures.

In attempting to resolve any student grievance regarding grades, evaluations,

or other fulfillments of academic responsibility, it is the obligation of the
student first to make a serious effort to resolve the matter with the instructor,
supervisor, administrator, or committee with whom the grievance originates
(hereafter called “the respondent”). Individual faculty members retain
primary responsibility for assigning grades and evaluations. If the matter
Student
cannot be resolved at that level, the grievance must be submitted in writing
Grievance
to the respondent with a copy of the respondent’s School Dean. If the matter
Procedures
is not resolved by the written response provided by the respondent, the
student may submit a written appeal to the School Dean. If the grievance is
not resolved by the School Dean’s decision, the student may make a written
appeal to the Dean of Graduate or Undergraduate Education, and the deal
will appoint and convene an Academic Appeals Panel. The decision of the
Academic Appeals Panel is final. The results of the academic appeals
process will be distributed to all involved parties.

Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office
of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available to assist students
in interpreting the rules and regulations.

As per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only for work
unavoidably missed at the semester’s end and only if 70% of the course
Incomplete work has been completed. An incomplete grade must be resolved within
Grades eight (8) weeks from the first day of the subsequent long semester. If the
required work to complete the course and to remove the incomplete grade is
not submitted by the specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed
automatically to a grade of F.
Disability
The goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities
Services
educational opportunities equal to those of their non-disabled peers.

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 Disability Services is located in room 1.610 in the Student Union. Office
hours are Monday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday and
Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The contact information for the Office of Disability Services is:

The University of Texas at Dallas, SU 22
PO Box 830688
Richardson, Texas 75083-0688
(972) 883-2098 (voice or TTY)

Essentially, the law requires that colleges and universities make those
reasonable adjustments necessary to eliminate discrimination on the basis of
disability. For example, it may be necessary to remove classroom
prohibitions against tape recorders or animals (in the case of dog guides) for
students who are blind. Occasionally an assignment requirement may be
substituted (for example, a research paper versus an oral presentation for a
student who is hearing impaired). Classes enrolled students with mobility
impairments may have to be rescheduled in accessible facilities. The college
or university may need to provide special services such as registration, note-
taking, or mobility assistance.

It is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors of the need for
such an accommodation. Disability Services provides students with letters
to present to faculty members to verify that the student has a disability and
needs accommodations. Individuals requiring special accommodation
should contact the professor after class or during office hours.

The University of Texas at Dallas will excuse a student from class or other
required activities for the travel to and observance of a religious holy day for
a religion whose places of worship are exempt from property tax under
Section 11.20, Tax Code, Texas Code Annotated.

The student is encouraged to notify the instructor or activity sponsor as soon

as possible regarding the absence, preferably in advance of the assignment.
The student, so excused, will be allowed to take the exam or complete the
assignment within a reasonable time after the absence: a period equal to the
Religious Holy length of the absence, up to a maximum of one week. A student who notifies
Days the instructor and completes any missed exam or assignment may not be
penalized for the absence. A student who fails to complete the exam or
assignment within the prescribed period may receive a failing grade for that
exam or assignment.

If a student or an instructor disagrees about the nature of the absence [i.e.,

for the purpose of observing a religious holy day] or if there is similar
disagreement about whether the student has been given a reasonable time to
complete any missed assignments or examinations, either the student or the
instructor may request a ruling from the chief executive officer of the
institution, or his or her designee. The chief executive officer or designee
must take into account the legislative intent of TEC 51.911(b), and the

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 student and instructor will abide by the decision of the chief executive
officer or designee.
Off-campus, out-of-state, and foreign instruction and activities are subject to
state law and University policies and procedures regarding travel and risk-
Off-Campus
related activities. Information regarding these rules and regulations may be
Instruction and
found at
Course Activities
http://www.utdallas.edu/BusinessAffairs/Travel_Risk_Activities.htm.
Additional information is available from the office of the school dean.

These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor.