BMA5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
NUS Business School
BMA5406 Negotiations and Conflict Management
Special Term 1, 2013/2014
Instructor: Dr. Sandy Lim
Phone: 6516 3389
E-Mail: sandylim@nus.edu.sg
Office: Mochtar Riady Building, BIZ1, 8-54
Office Hrs: 30 mins after class/by appt
COURSE INFORMATION
We negotiate every day. We negotiate with potential employers, coworkers, roommates, landlords,
parents, bosses, merchants, service providers, spouses, and even our children. What price we want to
pay, how much we want to be paid, who will do the dishes ... all of these are negotiations. Yet,
although people negotiate all the time, most know very little about the strategy and psychology of
effective negotiations. Why do we sometimes get our way whereas other times we walk away feeling
frustrated by our inability to achieve the agreement we desire?
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties.
It is a craft that must hold cooperation and competition in creative tension. Therefore, the purpose of
this course is to understand the theory and processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of
settings. The course is designed to complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other
courses at NUS. A basic premise of this course is that while a manager needs analytical skills to
develop optimal solutions to problems, a broad array of negotiation skills is needed in order for these
solutions to be accepted and implemented. Great analysis is of little value if you are unable to win
support for the action it recommends.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The best way to learn negotiation skills and actually internalize them is to negotiate in a setting where
insight is offered, feedback is plentiful, personal reflection is encouraged, and careful analysis is
required.
This course is designed to foster learning through doing, to explore your own talents, skills, and
shortcomings as a negotiator. The negotiation exercises will provide you with an opportunity to
attempt strategies and tactics in a low-risk environment, to learn about yourself and how you respond
in specific negotiation situations. If you discover a tendency that you think needs correction, this is the
place to try something new. The course is sequenced so that cumulative knowledge can be applied and
practiced.
BMA5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management
As a result of this course, I hope you will:
 Experience the negotiation process, learning how to evaluate the costs and benefits of
alternative actions.
 Improve your ability to analyze the negotiation situation and learn how to develop a strategic
plan so as to improve your ability to negotiate effectively.
 Develop confidence in the negotiation process as an effective means for resolving conflict in
organizations.
 Understand more about the nature of negotiations and gain a broad intellectual understanding
of the central concepts in negotiation.
 Improve your analytical abilities and your capacity to understand and predict the behavior of
individuals, groups, and organizations in competitive situations.
 Develop a toolkit of useful negotiation skills, strategies, and approaches.
COURSE FORMAT
The course is highly experiential, and is therefore built around a series of negotiation exercises,
debriefings, and readings. There will be a negotiation exercise in every class except our last class.
Classes will also include lectures and class discussions.
Almost all exercises require preparation in advance. Some exercises require students to prepare outside
of class as a team, either by phone, e-mail, or in person. Students are expected to be fully prepared for
exercises prior to class and to participate in the debriefings. Students should also be prepared to stay a
few minutes after class to arrange meetings with other members of the class.
It is important to do the week’s readings AFTER class. Please do not read ahead. I have selected
readings to reinforce the learning points of each exercise, and the concepts will be more
comprehensible if you have already experienced them directly.
COURSE MATERIALS
Readings will be available online. Negotiation materials will be handed out in class.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Your grade will be made up of:
1.
Class contribution
2.
Journal 1
3.
Journal 2
4.
Group Negotiation
5.
Real world negotiation analysis
20%
10%
20%
15%
35%
BMA5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management
EXTRA CREDIT
You can earn an extra credit point in the course by posting an article on negotiations in the popular press
or examples of interesting negotiations from movies, television shows, comic strips, etc. This input
oftentimes results in enriched class discussions or further development of the course. All you need to do
is post the item on IVLE in the Extra Credit Folder. If you see a noteworthy negotiation in a movie, just
write a brief description of it, provide the name of the movie, and note when (approximately) the
negotiation occurs in the movie. The references must illustrate a concept from the course and you must
write a few sentences describing it and how it relates to the concepts discussed in class.
ATTENDENCE POLICY
If you must miss an exercise, it is your responsibility to contact me. With at least three days notice,
please e-mail my assistant. If you have last minute emergencies that necessitate missing class, please
contact me on my phone. This strict policy is necessary because your classmates rely on your
attendance for their educational experience, and because instructors must arrange logistics and pairings
in advance.
HONOR CODE
The honor code applies to this class as follows:
 You may use any strategy, short of physical violence, to reach an agreement, including
misrepresentation. However, in selecting a negotiation strategy it is important to remember that
a strategy may have ramifications that go beyond the particular negotiation in which it was
used.
 You may not make up facts that materially change the power distribution of the exercise, e.g.,
your family just bought the company with which you are currently negotiating. If you are
asked a question that calls for information that is not in your confidential instructions, you may
say, “I don’t know.”
 You may tell the other side what you wish, but do not show them your confidential role
instructions.
 It is not appropriate to borrow notes or discuss cases with people outside of class.
 Class discussion stays in class.
 Material used in this class including but not limited to handouts, exercises, cases, discussion
questions, charts, and graphs are copyrighted and may not be used for purposes other than the
education experience of this class without the written consent of the instructor.
RESEARCH
The research at NUS has been instrumental in developing the University’s reputation as one of the
premier institutions for teaching negotiations. As a result, cutting-edge research on negotiations is
conducted at NUS. You have an opportunity to benefit from this research in this course. Just as prior
NUS students have contributed to your learning experience by participating in research, you contribute
to the experiences of future students. If you do not want your outcomes from any exercise used for
research purposes, please notify me. Negotiation results for research purposes are always aggregated
and anonymous.