Effective Negotiation
Research paper: Learning more deeply
Learning more deeply about the experience
of negotiation
R E Fells
University of Western Australia
Introduction
Most courses on industrial relations and human resource programs address the issue of
collective bargaining and negotiation. Negotiation is also found in courses dealing with
communication and conflict; it also appears within courses on alternative dispute resolution
which are increasingly popular in law schools.
Some programs, such as the industrial
relations and human resource majors at UWA, have a unit specifically devoted to the
exploration and development of negotiation skills.
Whatever the specific context, the
teaching of negotiation typically will include practical exercises to give students an
opportunity to learn about negotiation by doing it. This teaching approach is appreciated by
students because they generally prefer to learn through experience rather than from reading a
text. However, it is less certain whether they actually gain the maximum benefit from these
exercises and therefore the purpose of this paper is to make a preliminary exploration of ways
in which negotiation may be taught as a first step towards enhancing the student learning
process.
Teaching negotiation poses a number of interesting challenges for a university lecturer (Fells,
1993; Goodman, 1990; Herman, 1992; Lewicki, 1986). The study of negotiation is interdisciplinary – it draws on economic and game theories, on the social psychology of groups,
and on the processes of decision making to name but three discipline areas which have made a
significant contribution. The task of negotiating is complex requiring both analytical and
behavioural skills. In addition, negotiation is found in a wide variety of contexts, ranging
from international diplomacy through labour relations and business contracts to interpersonal
conflicts. These interdisciplinary and multi-contextual dimensions allow for the subject of
negotiation to be approached in a variety ways.
Increasingly, university teachers are being asked to give attention to the skills development
aspects of the subjects they teach. They are urged to build stronger links between the
academic content of a subject, such as might be found in research papers, and the 'real world'
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settings which the students will encounter. Negotiation is clearly one of these 'practical'
subjects - the real world application is readily apparent and, not unnaturally, students enrolled
in the subject want to learn how to do it, not just learn about it. Hence the common emphasis
on role-play exercises. Properly constructed practical exercises have been found to reflect the
situations and experiences encountered by those involved in actual negotiations and to assist
in the development of appropriate skills (Gilson, 1986; Glendon and Ingleton, 1979;
Murningham, 1991; Tracy and Peterson, 1975; van Ments, 1989) though the question of the
transfer of these skills to other contexts is still a matter for investigation (see for example Gist,
Bavetta and Stevens, 1990; Rasmussen, 1991).
-------------------------------------------* ‘Learning More Deeply about the Experience of Negotiation’ in Kelly D. (ed) Crossing Boarders AIRAANZ
Conference Proceedings 2001, Vol.1, pp.95-102.
However, while there is a need to give attention to skills development as part of the university
curricula, most academic institutions would still frown upon a unit which looked very much
like a consultancy workshop based around ‘10 time proven steps which guarantee success in
every negotiation’. Nor would most universities be very comfortable with students being
assessed solely on whether or not they ‘won’ a negotiation role-play. There has to be some
‘academic’ content in the unit somewhere, if only as the basis for a final exam!
There are good pedagogic reasons for emphasising ‘academic’ content in a negotiation unit,
not least the much quoted observation of Kurt Lewin that ‘there is nothing so practical as a
good theory’. The task of negotiating is a complex one and trying to learn individual
components in isolation does not make much sense. It makes even less sense to learn
checklists of negotiating tips, no matter how positive and appealing the list might be.1 It is
preferable to have an understanding of the process as a whole and it is this which leads to
achieving a good outcome (Watkins, 1999; Williams, 1993).
Furthermore, strategic
negotiation requires thinking as well as doing (Fells, 2000; Lewicki, Hiam, and Olander,
1996). In view of this, reviewing the research on negotiation, critically examining the various
This is particularly so when the lists are inherently contradictory or bear no relation to the models of the overall
agreement-reaching process which are presented. For example, one training package which gained some
notoriety when it was used in training public sector managers in enterprise bargaining took just three pages to
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Research paper: Learning more deeply
models of reaching agreement, and dissecting the concepts are all ways of giving the student
an understanding of what negotiation actually involves and providing the student with a
framework for knowing what to do when in a real-life negotiation.
Four approaches to teaching negotiation
The University environment offers a number of ways of teaching - lectures, tutorials, visiting
speakers, case studies, exercises and, of course, assignments and exams. These teaching
methods can be developed in a variety of interesting ways to enhance learning. Four different
approaches will be explored here - the use of case studies, the use of metaphor, the
experiential approach and the deep learning approach. Throughout we will be exploring the
question, ‘how do students learn about negotiation?’ with a focus on how the notion of deep
learning can be applied to this subject which is inherently experiential.
Comparative analysis of case studies
Most of those who research and teach about the workplace are comfortable with the use of
case studies.2 These give rich insight into the real world but it is also suggested that teaching
from case studies does not fully address the difficulties of transfer, the taking of key elements
learned from the case study and applying them to pertinent but not obviously similar real
world events.
If a transfer is made what tends to happen is that the solution which is
identified in the case study is applied to the new situation, rather than the underlying concepts
being transferred from one to the other. Gillespie et al (1999) suggest that the transfer of
learning can be improved if students are given cases to compare rather than examine single
cases in isolation. In other words, ‘compare and contrast’ is a good learning technique, not
just a good exam question.
The use of metaphors
A second way in which we gain understanding and insight into complex processes is through
the use of metaphor. Metaphors or images help in the process of gaining insights into the
totality of an issue or situation - what Heron (1989, p.12) terms imaginal or intuitive learning.
Metaphors or images have been used to convey an understanding of organisations and
explain a model of negotiation based on ‘Getting to Yes’ and then provided eleven pages of tactics, many of
which are completely at odds with the principles embodied in the model which had been described earlier.
2 See, for example, Barnes, Christensen and Hansen (1994).
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organisational life (eg Barker, 1993; Drummond, 1998; Morgan, 1986). Imagery has also
been used in relation to the process of reaching agreement through negotiation. It has been
understood in terms of trench warfare (Axelrod, 1990; Douglas, 1962); it might be viewed as
a dance - ‘it takes two to tango’ - or as a sporting contest (an especially masculine
characterisation, see Greenlalgh and Gilkey, 1999). Haynes (1998) explores the way in which
mediators, and the conflict participants themselves, use metaphors to convey their sense of
what is happening and he suggests that the metaphor of conflict resolution as a journey might
be preferable to the more common image that conflict is war. The idea of negotiation as a
journey can be portrayed in the contrast between the relatively straightforward journey across
the Nullarbor Plain and the twists and turns of the Ffestiniog Railway (Fells, in press). The
downhill slalom was popular amongst students when answering the exam question, ‘what
imagery can be used to describe the essential nature of the negotiation process?’
The idea of metaphors can be the basis of reviewing ones’ negotiation experience, such as in a
post-exercise discussion. Where examples have been provided, the student negotiators can
use these as the start of their reflection, ‘did you think you were crossing the Nullarbor or
were travelling on the Ffestiniog?’ Or more broadly, the initial review question might be,
‘what images are there/can you develop to help reflect upon your negotiation experience in
order to understand it more fully?’
Experiential learning
Students find it easy to involve themselves fully in the experiential aspects of any teaching
program; they enjoy the experience and often then give the lecturer good ratings as a result.3
Yet despite this positive involvement, the actual learning in terms of consistently changed
behaviour and increased understanding of the underlying processes might not be significant.
In other words, students might simply reinforce their existing practice of negotiation and
dismiss areas of difficulty on the grounds that “its only a role play”.
3
Christopher and Smith (1991), Errington, (1997) and van Ments (1989) provide some useful advice on role
plays.
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concrete
experience
reflective
active
observation
experimentation
abstract
conceptualisation
Figure 1 The experiential learning cycle (after Kolb)
One model of learning which has been developed to counter this tendency to superficial
learning is Kolb's experiential learning cycle (Figure 1). Given its emphasis on experiential
learning, this model has been suggested for teaching negotiation (by Carlisle, 1980; Lewicki,
1986 and Pedler, 1978, for example). Essentially Kolb envisages a circular process of four
stages - concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active
experimentation (Kolb, 1984; Kolb, Rubin and McIntyre, 1984).
Learning starts with
experience, either from real life or from a constructed experience in the classroom. For
example, the learner may engage in a negotiation that is recorded on video (concrete
experience) and then watch the video and discuss it with other participants (reflective
observation). Our learner might become aware that questions which invite a ‘yes’ or ‘no’
answer do not really seem to help the negotiations and this leads onto consideration of the
principles underlying the processes of information exchange (abstract conceptualisation).
Finally, the learner conducts another negotiation, this time trying out some open-ended
questions (active experimentation) which completes the cycle by providing a new set of
experiences.
If managed properly, conscious reflection is a powerful learning experience and the
'debriefing' stage of any experiential exercise is an important element of this process (Boud,
Keogh and Walker, 1994; Gredler, 1992).
Lewicki (1986, p.20) suggests a number of
objectives for the debriefing: to compare and evaluate the different outcomes and the different
processes which led to those outcomes; to compare and evaluate the differences between
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intended actions and actual events; to highlight key conceptual or theoretical points and,
finally, to create the opportunities to define, implicitly or explicitly, new or different ways to
behave. This reflection stage of learning is then typically developed so as to focus on the
experience - what happened? why? and what was the effect? (Boud et al, 1994, p.36; Herman,
1992; Tureck, 1999, p.20; van Ments, 1989, p.133 are examples). A typical sample set of
debriefing questions is provided below:
• what worked well and why?
• if you has to do it all over again, what might you do differently? and why?
• how did the behavior of the other side affect your behavior?
• what, if anything, surprised you?
• how did the magnitude and frequency of offers by the other side influence your concessions?
• what have you learned from this simulation about yourself, the other side and about the
negotiation process?
Debriefing questions (Herman, 1992, pp.9-10)
These are good questions to help 'unpack' and interpret the negotiation experience and can
provide a basis for exploring what might be done better next time. The link between concrete
experience and reflective observation can also be strengthened by students undertaking selfaccounts of their experience or by requiring the student to complete learning journals across
the semester. Nevertheless the reflection focuses almost exclusively on the actual experience.
The inference here is we might anticipate that in following the Kolb model of learning the
‘abstract conceptualisation’ stage in the process will tend towards matching the experience to
a predetermined model of preferred behaviour. To address this it is suggested that the
learning cycle start with the instructor describing or presenting the topic so that students gain
an initial conceptual understanding of it, this understanding being developed further through
practice (see Figure 2).4
4
Another difficulty with experiential learning is that no matter how carefully the exercise is structured the actual
experience and learned outcomes may (even possibly, should) differ from those predicted by the instructor
(Reynolds, 1994, p.77). This can make it difficult to ensure the required curriculum is actually covered. The
lack of time can also be a problem; when time is short, the learning ‘cycle’ becomes a straight and diminishing
line: experience -> some reflective observation -> even less conceptualisation -> no experimentation.
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modelling
review
reflection
feedback
reruns
practice
Figure 2 Stages of an exercise (Heron, 1989, p.105)
The process can not therefore be completely experience-based; at some point additional
material has to be brought into the learning cycle, either by drawing on the experience of
others (case studies, talks from practitioners etc) or by drawing on research (from texts,
lectures, etc). This provides an opportunity to develop (or at least encourage) the abstract
conceptualisation element of learning, as does the use of concept frameworks (Fraser, 1996),
critical incident/crisis decision simulations (Brookfield, 1993) and concept tests. An example
of a concept test is provided below. The ‘test’ merely presents a series of similar workplace
negotiations and as each is presented, students are asked to decide the extent to which a
distributive strategy would be appropriate. When all five have been presented students are
then asked to identify what factors they took into account when making their assessments.
This leads onto an open discussion. (In this particular test, students are typically then able to
identify how they could try to restructure a situation so as to make it potentially more
integrative, which then sets up an exploration of integrative bargaining.)
How appropriate is the distributive bargaining strategy in each of the following situations? and
why?
1.
a manager and an employee have to agree to an amount of retrenchment pay; all other issues
relating to the employee’s departure have been satisfactorily resolved.
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2.
a manager and potential employee have to agree the starting rate of pay; all other issues
relating to the employment have been satisfactorily resolved.
3.
a manager and an employee have to agree on whether the employee will go on a particular
training course, which the employee really wants to do, but which the manager views is
unrelated to work.
4.
an employee has been declared redundant and, in fact, wants to leave the company; the
manager and employee have to agree the retrenchments terms.
5.
a manager and employee have to resolve differences over the employee’s training program;
the annual appraisal of the employee identified certain training needs, particularly in the
area of computer skills; the employee has nominated for an external (and accredited) course,
the manager wants to continue the practice adopted with other similar employees, ie inhouse training ‘on the job’.
Concept test: distributive bargaining
[See the end of this paper for an additional concept text on integrative bargaining.]
The notion of deep learning
The notion of ‘deep’ learning is central to the student-centred approaches which are now
regarded by many as the preferred model for effective teaching and learning. An example is
presented in Figure 3; these 10 points may be viewed as leading to ‘best practice’ learning.
1. Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections: biologically through
neural networks; mentally among concepts, ideas, and meanings; and experientially through
interaction between the mind and the environment, self and other, generality and context,
deliberation and action.
2. Learning is enhanced by taking place in the context of a compelling situation that balances
challenge and opportunity, stimulating and utilising the brain's ability to conceptualise quickly
and its capacity and need for contemplation and reflection upon experiences.
3. Learning is an active search for meaning by the learner - constructing knowledge rather than
passively receiving it, shaping as well as being shaped by experiences.
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4. Learning is developmental, a cumulative process involving the whole person, relating past and
present, integrating the new and the old, starting from but transcending personal concerns and
interests.
5. Learning is done by individuals who are intrinsically tied to others as social beings, interacting
as competitors or collaborators, constraining or supporting the learning process, and able to
enhance learning through co-operation and sharing.
6. Learning is strongly affected by the educational climate in which it takes place: the settings and
surroundings, the influences of others, and the values accorded to the life of the mind and to
learning achievements.
7. Learning requires frequent feedback if it is to be sustained, practice if is to be nourished, and
opportunities to use what has been learned.
8. Much learning takes place informally and incidentally, beyond explicit teaching or the
classroom, in casual contacts with faculty and staff, peers, campus life, active social and
community involvements, and unplanned but fertile and complex situations.
9. Learning is grounded in particular contexts and individual experiences, requiring effort to
transfer specific knowledge and skills to other circumstances or to more general understandings
and to unlearn personal views and approaches when confronted by new information.
10. Learning involves the ability of individuals to monitor their own learning, to understand how
knowledge is acquired, to develop strategies for learning based on discerning their capacities
and limitations, and to be aware of their own ways of knowing in approaching new bodies of
knowledge and disciplinary frameworks.
Figure 3 Learning principles and collaborative action (AAHE, 1998)
It has been established that students can adopt either a surface or deep approach (see Marton
and Saljo, 1976; Biggs, 1987, 1990 and Ramsden, 1992, for example). With a surface
approach, the student’s intention is to simply complete the task requirements. Students treat
the task as an external imposition and are unreflective about its purpose. They focus on
discrete elements, on unrelated parts of the task, without any attempt at integration - an
atomistic approach.
There is a failure to distinguish principles from examples, and an
unquestioning focus on symbolic points without understanding. Memorising information for
assessment is a key process. Alternatively, students taking a deep approach to learning
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endeavour to understand, to focus on what an author intends or on the concepts applicable to
solving a problem.
The task is interpreted as an opportunity to gain new insight and
understanding rather than to satisfy external demands. Students relate previous knowledge to
new knowledge, theoretical ideas to everyday experience, evidence to argument.
The
approach is holistic and integrative.
Building upon the notion of the deep approach, it is possible to offer a description of how a
good student might study. When given an assignment or tutorial topic our good student will
go off to the library for preliminary reading but once there he or she is likely to read outside
the specified chapters or references and is likely to scan the catalogue and shelves for other
items of interest. This is not only a case of reading ‘widely’, our good student will also be
thinking widely, that is, the student will be ‘reading for meaning’ and trying to contextualise
what is being read. For example, when reading our good student will take time out to
consider practical experiences or cases which relate to the points being made in the text. This
collateral thinking will not necessarily be confined to those examples or cases specified in the
unit outline; our good student may well cross over to material and examples encountered in
other subjects which he or she is studying. The student does not compartmentalise but tries to
create a more global coherent picture of the material. Further, our good student is likely to
stop reading from time to time and try to write up some notes on a case study which he/she
has thought of, and this note taking will not simply be extracting the main points from the text
but will include notes on the examples or applications which have been thought about. As a
consequence of all this ‘deep’ activity and learning, our student will provide answers,
presentations and assignments which are wide ranging, show that the concepts are understood
and how they can be applied. The lecturer would be confident that the student could apply the
particular concepts to other situations, not just to the question which was asked in the
assignment or tutorial topic. A good student indeed!
However, much of this research into student learning has focused on how students read
articles, texts and other written material - which is what students are expected to do a lot of in
their university studies (see, for example, the research surveyed in Entwistle, 1988). The
question then arises: given that 'deep' learning has been found to be the most effective
learning strategy, can it be applied in a practical subject such as negotiation? Clearly, the
'deep' approach can be adopted when reading Walton and McKersie's (1965) 'A Behavioral
Theory' and trying to grapple with their concepts of distributive and integrative bargaining, or
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when trying to relate Chamberlain and Kahn's (1965) analysis of bargaining power with the
notion of a BATNA (Fisher, Ury and Patton, 1991). In this respect, teaching and learning
negotiation would then be no different from politics, literature or history but do the learning
processes become different when it is time for the negotiation role-play?
The aims of the deep learning strategy and the experiential learning cycle are the same - that
'thinking is reorganised on a higher level' (Gredler, 1992, p.145) but, as has been suggested
above, the potential of the Kolb learning cycle may not be realised because of its focus on
experience. Therefore, rather than have the reflection focus principally on the experience, if
the reflection is outward, and if it involves activities which provoke deep learning, then the
subsequent conceptualisation will be built upon a broader foundation and will give rise to
more creative active experimentation.
A survey of student learning approaches
We can take some encouragement that this use of a deep learning approach to an experiential
exercise can happen from a survey of student strategies in two negotiation classes at UWA.
The survey instrument was based on the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) developed by
Biggs (1987) which is designed to explore the use of surface or deep learning strategies.
Participation in the study was voluntary and although there were no refusals to complete the
questionnaires the numbers on each occasion varied because class attendance was noncompulsory. The students were asked to complete questionnaires at different times during the
semester, each questionnaire relating to a specific learning opportunity (lectures, tutorial
discussions, role plays, assignments). Between 73 and 75 responses to each questionnaire
were received with 28 students completing all four. The size of the sample means that
caution must be taken in interpreting the results but they do nevertheless offer insights into
student learning strategies and provide a starting point for an exploration of how teaching and
learning in negotiation might be enhanced. There are two key findings for our purposes,
firstly that students did approach the task of role-play exercises by using a deep learning
strategy and secondly that there was variation in the student’s approaches.
We might expect that students would be more inclined to engage in a deep learning strategy
when doing an assignment and less inclined when trying to learn something from attending a
lecture. Pair comparisons suggest that this was generally the case. Since role-plays are
'experiential' then we might expect that students will be less likely to adopt deep learning
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strategies but generally the opposite was so. In the majority of cases, the students had a
stronger tendency to utilise a deep learning approach in respect to role-plays than to either
assignments or lectures.
Encouraging deep learning in experiential exercises
To encourage further deep learning in experiential exercises the reflective observation stage
on a negotiation role-play could include questions such as those listed below. These questions
are derived from those used in the SPQ research instrument. They are outward looking and
would encourage the learner to develop a holistic and integrative approach without forsaking
the learning value of the experience itself.
• what real life negotiation situations can I relate this role play experience to?
• what other real life situations can I relate this role play experience to?
• how has this experience enabled me to see what I ‘already knew’ about negotiation in a new
light?
• what else do I need to explore and examine before I can make up my own mind on what this
experience means?
• what have I learned elsewhere (eg in political theory, good management principles, physics?
sport? !) which I can draw upon to help me understand this experience?
‘Deeply reflective’ questions for an experiential exercise
As a practical example, students engaged in a collective bargaining simulation might well
seek to draw upon Friedman's (1994) notions of front stage and backstage to explain some of
the dynamics of reaching agreement. Friedman's insights help us understand how industrial
relations negotiators reach agreement while being so adversarial and also give us guidance on
how this process might be managed more effectively. Yet we might want to consider whether
the observations of Friedman will apply in other contexts - have any of the students
experienced a business contract negotiation where the parties fought each other across the
table but nevertheless did a deal out in the corridor? does, perhaps, the political area have
anything to offer about how agreements can be reached despite public positions of conflict?
(see an example, Tucker, 1996). What does the notion of front stage and back stage tell us,
for example, about those management processes and organisational dynamics which we were
taught in Management 100? Is negotiating on two fronts what the 'good cop, bad cop routine
is really all about? The answer to this last question may be an emphatic 'no' but that is not the
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point; the point is to encourage students to take the experience to other contexts and to look
for new lenses through which to view it. As a result the student might understand the
processes of collective bargaining more fully but might also now see where else the notion of
dual processes might be usefully applied.
The responses of the students also indicate that individual students vary their approach to
learning considerably depending on the circumstances in which they find themselves. It is
therefore unwise to assume that there is a relationship between a particular format for
teaching and a consequent set of strategies for learning on the part of the students. Working
on the premise that the deep learning strategies are more effective than surface learning, it is
possible, even desirable, to create opportunities for deep learning strategies to be adopted in
the full range of teaching modes which are used. For example, a lecture presentation on
integrative bargaining could include material which would serve the purpose of answering the
deep learning strategy questions as they relate to lectures.
• what real life negotiation situations can I relate this lecture material to?
• what other real life situations can I relate this lecture material to?
• how has this lecture enabled me to see what I ‘already knew’ about negotiation in a new light?
• what else do I need to explore and examine before I can make up my own mind on what this
lecture is trying to convey to me?
• what have I learned elsewhere (eg in political theory, good management principles, physics?
sport? !) which I can draw upon to help me understand this lecture material?
Deep learning strategy question in relation to lectures
In taking this approach to writing a lecture, the lecturer would not only include real life
example of integrative bargaining but also explore some of the key concepts in other contexts.
For example, the lecturer might try to get students to understand the role of trust in integrative
bargaining by considering what trust is in the context of friendship or politicians' promises.
Also, it might be possible to draw attention to what students may have learned in other units
on decision making, group dynamics or communication to describe the processes of
integrative bargaining. The lecturer may encourage students to defer judgement by perhaps
foreshadowing other issues which will need to be considered before integrative bargaining
can be fully understood. (This would also deter the compartmentalisation of topics in the
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student's mind whereby they think that the material on power which was presented in one
session is separate from what they were taught about integrative bargaining in another.)
Two further ways to encourage deep learning
One of the best ways to get a person to understand something is to require them to explain it
to someone else – we all know that the best way to get on top of a subject is to become a
tutor. Building on this idea, one useful class exercise is to get students to write up and act out
their own presentation -whether as a role play or some other demonstration - of an aspect of
negotiation. In this ‘Thespian exercise’ students have re-run a previous role play which they
found difficult, written new role plays or, in one case made up ‘flags’ of specific behaviours
(stating position, making an offer, etc etc) and during their negotiation they picked up the
appropriate flag to indicate the type of statement they were making. (This otherwise powerful
learning exercise ended in a fight over the flags!) The real learning in the thespian exercise
occurs while developing the presentation though this learning was usually reinforced by the
students also being required to lead the subsequent discussion on their topic.
Another useful exercise is to get the students to determine their own assessment criteria.
Many students feel they should be assessed on their negotiation behaviour, on how they
perform in exercises and role plays but there are considerable difficulties of quality and equity
in this sort of assessment, particularly where the proportion of total marks being designated
for performance is large enough to have a motivating effect. However, by getting students to
develop their own assessment criteria the exercise becomes a learning opportunity. The
student group was required, first individually then collectively, to determine the criteria.
There were some strong but constructive debates about how you could actually recognise
'good' negotiating behaviour and (as anticipated) the development of these criteria became a
powerful learning exercise in its own right. The students were, in effect, teaching themselves
from their own reading and from their own experience.
The assessment sheet became a comprehensive list of specific negotiation strategies and
behaviours (see the Appendix). The design of the sheet was based on the principals of
behaviourally anchored performance ratings, this being an example of ‘deep learning’ in its
own right because it is a human resource management technique. Students assessed their
peers in one exercise in the knowledge that this would not count towards the final mark; this
gave them the opportunity to practice and to check their understanding of the criteria. They
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then formally assessed each other in a final major negotiation exercise. From my own
observations of the students during the course of the exercise I considered that the student’s
own assessments were generally reliable.
Conclusion
This paper has explored some aspects of how negotiation may be taught, and in particular to
consider how negotiation students might be encouraged to become ‘deep’ learners. Research
into student learning has demonstrated the effectiveness of deep learning strategies and a key
point in this paper is that these essentially contemplative and reflective strategies can and are
used by students in experiential learning settings. Some examples have been provided as a
stimulus to others to develop (and hopefully to share) other innovative ways of encouraging
deep learning by negotiation students. This is not just a question of pedagogy. Not only is
this is an effective way to learn but it is also an important element in being an effective
negotiator. When in the thick of a negotiation, to be accustomed to ask the sorts of questions
which are encouraged by the deep learning strategy will enable a negotiator to 'go outside the
square' and so avoid relying on simplistic prescriptions which are often of doubtful practical
validity.
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APPENDIX
Negotiation peer assessment form
The purpose of this sheet is to make a considered assessment of the extent to which a negotiator demonstrated
what are regarded as good negotiation behaviours. The aim is to measure the quality of the contribution. Note
that the examples are indicative of a range of similar behaviours. The range of scores is 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2.
(Note: a score of 5 is appropriate only when the negotiation behaviour is outstanding.)
Preparation
when the opportunity or need arose,
made clear and concise
only provided basic
statements which demonstrated
information
said nothing
made confused statements
about issues/context; had to
an understanding of the issues
keep checking the main points
and context
(checking for detail is ok)
(5) 4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
said nothing
vague and ambiguous;
Ability to present one's case
when the opportunity or need arose,
clearly articulated
told, rather than
position, interests
explained positions,
concerns, intentions etc
or intentions
interests or intentions
are not made clear
as a result
as a result,
you were reasonably confident
you felt the need to ask further
that you know where the
questions to find out what the
negotiator is coming from
(5) 4
3
other negotiator is really saying
2
1
0
-1
-2
when involved in discussion,
stayed focused on the issue
displayed a mix of being
said nothing
made derogatory remarks
and process, despite the
focused and tangential
which was relevant
wandered off the issues etc
differences between you
as a result
as a result
you remained confident that
you had some concern about
a negotiated outcome would
the prospects of reaching an
be achieved
agreement
(5) 4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
Ability to find solutions
when the opportunity or need arose,
helped work towards a
displayed a mix of
minimal
challenged statements,
solution by asking questions,
seeking information and
involvement
countered other's contribution
clarifying, seeking underlying
challenges
with own position/offer etc
information, concerns etc
as a result
as a result
you felt that you were making
you felt that any solution was
going
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progress towards a joint solution
to have to be based on their
proposal
(5) 4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
was open to ideas, made
displayed a mix of being
minimal
negative reaction to suggestions;
suggestions, explored other's
open to solutions and
involvement
positional statements
suggestions
negative reactions
as a result
as a result
you felt reasonably confident that
you felt that the only outcome
new solutions, linkages etc would
would be a compromise based on
be found, rather than have to resort to
forcefulness
a clear-cut compromise
(5) 4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
Ability to maintain the process
made meaningful
on balance, contributions
only minimal
contributions had the effect of
contributions throughout,
had a positive rather
involvement
causing difficulties to the process
the effect on subsequent
than negative impact
(could include a dominating
discussion was generally positive
(5) 4
3
contribution)
2
1
0
-1
-2
Other aspects of negotiation (might vary the final score by a point or two):
Additional note:
Concept test on integrative bargaining
What, if anything, is missing in the following situation which would make cooperative
bargaining more appropriate and effective?
1. A company and a long-term supplier are about to embark upon the renegotiation of their
agreement. Each knows the contract is critical to both themselves and to the other party.
They also realise the need to renegotiate the whole agreement, given that over the past
couple of years there has been a succession of serious disagreements over the
implementation of the previous 5 year contract, each strongly believing the other to be a
fault.
2. A human resource manager and a potential employee have to negotiate a salary package;
the employee has some awareness of the ‘going rate’ for the level of work (and, of course,
her salary in her previous job); the HR manager relies on salary survey data provided by the
company’s remuneration consultant.
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3. Management has some proposals to improve productivity, and employee earnings, which it
wants to negotiate through with the union; the last push for workplace productivity also
involved a number of retrenchments.
4. In discussing how the mine site rehabilitation would take place, the contractor put forward
the proposal that would involve doing the work in two stages, either side of the wet season.
He indicated this was a new proposal that might need to be worked on to make sure it was
acceptable. The mine operator rejected this proposal on the grounds that it would mean an
extension of the lease payments his company would have to make and said “the only way
to ‘beat the wet’ would be for the you as the contractor to put more workers onto the job
and so get it finished in time”
5. A company, looking to purchase another, realises the cash benefit that would emerge from
spinning off some of the merged activities into separate companies. Having conducted due
diligence, the potential purchaser realises the vendor is in a poor financial position and so
makes a low but reasonable cash offer. The vendor wants more but also insists on having a
seat on the Board. The purchaser is not prepared to share control in anyway but would
raise the cash offer if necessary.
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