B8510
Managerial Negotiations
Sections 6 & 7
Harris Sondak
David Eccles Professor Business and Ethics
Eccles School of Businss
University of Utah
Visiting Professor
Columbia Business School
DRAFT SYLLABUS
OCT 30 2015
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
1
Purpose
We negotiate every day – with potential employers, coworkers, roommates, landlords, family
members, bosses, merchants, service providers, etc. Determining what price we will pay, the
amount of our salary and compensation, what movie to watch, who will do what around the
home…all of these jointly made decisions are negotiations. Although negotiations are an
ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, many of us have not thought carefully about the strategy
and psychology of effective negotiations. Why do we sometimes get our way, while other times
we walk away feeling frustrated by our inability to achieve the agreement we desire? Why do
some negotiations strengthen our relationships while others damage them?
The purpose of this course is to help you understand the theory and process of negotiation as it
is practiced in a variety of settings. This course complements the technical and diagnostic skills
taught in other business school courses. A basic premise of the course is that while a manager
needs analytic skills to discover optimal solutions to problems, a broad array of negotiation
skills is needed for these solutions to be accepted by others and implemented with their
cooperation. The course will allow participants the opportunity to develop these skills
experientially and to understand negotiation through useful analytic frameworks. Considerable
emphasis will be placed on in-class role played negotiation exercises; these exercises have been
chosen to highlight the central concepts that underlie negotiation strategy and the skills to be
successful. These concepts and skills are the fundamental building blocks for planning
negotiation strategy, managing the negotiation process, and evaluating the quality of
negotiation outcomes.
Learning Objectives
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more
interdependent parties. The central issues of this course deal with understanding the behavior
of individuals, groups, and organizations in the context of situations that pose incentives both
to compete and to cooperate. Here are what I see as the core course learning objectives:
•
•
•
•
Gain a broad analytical understanding of central concepts in negotiation and develop
the skills to apply them strategically in a variety of contexts.
Build confidence in your negotiation skills.
Improve your abilities for understanding the behavior of others in negotiation settings.
Develop a toolkit of useful negotiation skills, strategies, and approaches.
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
2
Format
This course meets for 3 hr and 15 m twice per week. A break is scheduled approximately halfway through each class, although the exact time of the break will vary. Each session includes
role-played exercises and class discussions.
Course Requirements
I. In-Class Performance
Attendance. Please expect to participate in all negotiation exercises and class discussions.
Participation includes full preparation for exercises. The main reason for meeting this
expectation – besides maximizing your own learning – is that your fellow EMBAs come to class
each day expecting you to be there so that they can engage in the negotiation exercises. I am
open to creative solutions if you must miss a day (e.g., you and your negotiating partner meet
out of class), but such arrangements should be discussed with me well in advance. Likewise,
please come prepared.
A Note about the exercises. In past years, some MBAs mentioned to me after the course
ended that before the course began they were initially skeptical about our reliance on
role-played exercises. Afterwards, however, they had found them very engaging and
valuable experiences. So, while some of you may be nervous about this aspect of the
course content, especially considering the video/feedback assignment, I want to
reassure you that many MBA and executive participants at leading business schools
around the world attest to its effectiveness.
Other Participation. Class discussion is a very important part of the learning process in this
course. Quality comments demonstrate reflective thinking, offer a different but relevant
perspective, and contribute to moving the discussion and analysis forward by building on other
comments. Also, please bring insights from your own work and personal experiences into the
discussions.
In-class performance score = 15% of your final grade.
II. Written Assignments
A. Goals Statement 1: Please complete a short written statement (≈200 words) of your
goals for the course for the first day of class. Goals Statement 2: Please also complete an
evaluation (≈200 words) of how well you succeeded in meeting your goals for the course.
The final evaluation is due a few days after the last day of class. Please be sure to include
your name in the documents themselves. Each goal statement = 2.5% of your final
grade.
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
3
You will be graded on the timely completion of this assignment. For this and the other
written assignments you should abide by basic style rules (e.g., grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and citations if any are relevant).
B. Individual Negotiation Preparation Sheets: Preparation for negotiation is vital. Try to
take on the perspective of your character in the negotiation exercises in this course and
plan a coherent approach to the negotiation. You will need to submit a preparation
sheet for five one-on-one exercises (see the course schedule below). This assignment =
10% of your final grade.
I will provide more details about preparing for negotiations and the Preparation Sheet
assignment during the first week of the course.
C. Negotiations at Work Blog and Response: For two of our class periods, you must post an
“Ideas at Work” blog entry. You must also respond to two blog entries posted by other
students. You may choose about which classes you blog and to which posts you respond.
The window for posting a blog entry will begin at the end of each class and closes 48
hours after class; responses can be posted during the next 48 hours (that is from 48 – 96
hours after class).
In your blog entries, identify an instance at work that illustrates a specific concept from
the readings or class discussion for that class session. For each class meeting I will offer
a choice of two or three topics; be sure to be clear about the topic you are addressing.
Blog entries should be about a page in length (max 400 words) and be thoughtful
observations that demonstrate your understanding of a concept from class and how it
helps you interpret the event. You should go beyond mere description to provide
specific explanations, interpretations, and illustrations.
Other students will be able to see your entries and may respond to them. You may
respond to any student’s blog entry you wish, or you may respond to another student’s
response to a blog entry. Responses to blog postings should be about 100 – 200 words
in length. Responses should not just be congratulatory; rather, engage the author
and/or other respondents, refine their application of concepts, and move the
conversation forward. Throughout, make use of your critical and integrative thinking
skills.
The purpose of the Negotiations at Work blog is to encourage you to reflect on your own
experience in situations where negotiations were involved in terms of concepts
introduced in the course and to help your classmates to refine their understanding of
those concepts. Thinking carefully about your past experiences will allow you to apply
the concepts from this course in the future, increasing your effectiveness as a
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
4
responsible leader. The purpose of the responses is to allow you to give and receive
feedback from other students.
You will be graded on your grasp of the concepts you apply, the quality of the application
of those concepts to the situation, and the insight you provide your classmates in your
responses. Each blog entry = 10% of your final grade and each response = 5% of your
final grade.
D. Peer Videos Analysis and Feedback. This assignment will give you one formal chance to
reflect on how you and others negotiate, to help a classmate develop his/her negotiation
skills, and to receive feedback on your own negotiation skills. You will review the video
of a classmate to whom you have been assigned and provide some feedback and
comments. After receiving the feedback, I encourage you to reflect on your performance
in light of the feedback from your peer. The deliverable is a set of at least three
comments, emailed to your assigned peer and cc’ing the course TA.
You will be graded on your insight into your peer’s negotiation behavior and the
usefulness of your feedback in terms of specific actions that your peer can take to
improve. This assignment = 5% of your final grade.
E. There is a Team Written Negotiation Preparation Assignment due March 27. This
assignment is a team-based analysis of the narrative description of a complex negotiation
and the quantification of your role’s interests. I will provide instructions about this
assignment and grading criteria in class. This assignment = 20% of your final grade.
III.
Go Get a Deal and Report
To encourage you to think about the many everyday opportunities you have to
negotiate, and to improve your negotiations skills further, you will negotiate a real deal
to purchase a good or service and submit a written report about that negotiation. For
this assignment, you will submit an analysis of the negotiation that includes two
sections: a planning section and a post-negotiation analysis. The planning section
should include your aspiration level, identification of your BATNA, your reservation
price, and your planned negotiation strategy. The post negotiation analysis should
briefly describe the events of the negotiation and your assessment of the negotiation
outcome, your perception of the strategies you used successfully and unsuccessfully,
your assessment of the strategies used by your counterparty, what you learned from
the negotiation, and what you would do differently in the future.
There are four rules for this exercise: 1. You must negotiate at least some portion of
it in person (i.e. face to face). You may not conduct the entire negotiation over the
phone or email. 2. You may not tell the person you are negotiating with that this is
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
5
for a class project until the negotiation is complete (after which you can decide
whether or not you want to reveal this information). 3. You must follow through
with the transaction if the other party meets your target price (i.e. you must
negotiate “in good faith”). 4. You must behave ethically in conducting this exercise.
Your written report should be about 4-5 pages in length (max 1500 words). You will be
graded on the thoroughness of your negotiation preparation, the quality of your
negotiation strategy, and the rigor of your post-negotiation analysis. The report is due
on 4/18; this assignment = 15% of your final grade.
IV.
Reading Assignments
Your learning will be enhanced to the extent that you complete the assigned reading, when
assigned. All readings can be found on Canvas (except for Thompson, and Neale & Lys, which
are books).
Brett, J., Friedman, R., & Behfar, K. (2009). How to manage your negotiating team. Harvard
Business Review, (September), 105-109.
Farquharson, R. (1969). Theory of voting. New Haven: Yale, pp. 5-8.
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New
York Times (September 13), SM17.
Galinsky, A.D. & Magee, J.C. (2006). Power plays. Negotiation (January), 9-11.
Kolb, D.M. & Carnevale, P.J. (2007). When dividing the pie, smart negotiators get creative.
Negotiation (July), 1-4.
Lincoln, A. (1953-55). “To Horace Greeley” in The collected works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5,
Rutgers University Press.
Lumineau, F. & Malhotra, D. (2011). Hoping to avoid or resolve a dispute? First, fix your
contract. Negotiation (December), 7.
Machiavelli, N. (1909) The Prince, (W. K. Marriott, Trans.), New York: Alfred A. Knopff. (Chapters
15 & 18).
Mannix, E.A. (2006). Three keys to navigating multiparty negotiations. Negotiation (February),
3-5.
Neale, M. & Lys, T. (2015). Getting (More of) What You Want: How the Secrets of Economics
and Psychology Can Help You Negotiate Anything, in Business and in Life. Bantam.
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
6
Plato, The Republic, (1941). (Francis MacDonald Cornford, Trans.), Oxford: University Press,
(Chapter 3).
Raiffa, H. (1982). “Elmtree House,” from The art and science of negotiation. Cambridge, MA:
Belknap, pp. 35-43.
Schweitzer, M. (2007). Call their bluff! Detecting deception in negotiation. Negotiation
(March), 7-9.
Sondak, H. & Galinsky, A.D. (2006). Gain less pain: How to negotiate burdens. Negotiation
(June), 3-5.
Subramanian, G. (2011). Sitting down at the table. Negotiation (May), 8.
Thompson, L. (2013). The truth about negotiations (2nd Ed). FT Press.
Ury, W., Brett, J., & Goldberg, S. (1988). Getting disputes resolved. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass,
pp. 3-19.
Schedule
•
Session 1 (3/21): Introduction to a decision making approach to negotiations

Reading: Raiffa (“Elmtree House”); Neale & Lys, Ch 1; Thompson “Truths” 1-6

Negotiation Exercise: Ultimatum Bargaining

DUE: Goals Statement 1
•
Session 2 (3/23): Dividing Resources

Reading: Neale & Lys, Ch 2; Kolb & Carnevale

Negotiation Exercise: Sugar Bowl

Negotiation Exercise: Texoil
•
Session 3: (3/28): Finding Joint Gains while Distributing Outcomes

Reading: Neale & Lys, Ch 3 and Ch 4; Thompson “Truths” 7-23

Negotiation Exercise: New Recruit

DUE: Preparation Sheet for New Recruit
•
Session 4 (3/30): Negotiating Into the Future

Reading: Neale & Lys, Ch 8; Thompson “Truths” 23-29

Negotiation Exercise: Moms.com

DUE: Preparation Sheet for Moms.com
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
7
•
Session 5 (4/4): Negotiating through Actions; Negotiating in Teams

Reading: Neale & Lys Ch 9; Thompson “Truths” 34-37; Schweitzer

Negotiation Exercise: Comparative Advertising
•
Session 6 (4/6): Negotiating as Agents; Ethics in Negotiation

Reading: Lincoln; Friedman; Machiavelli; Plato

Negotiation Exercise: Bullard Houses

DUE: Preparation Sheet for Bullard Houses
•
Session 7 (4/11): Panel Discussion (Negotiation Across Contexts)

Reading: TBD

Negotiation Exercise: N/A

•
Session 8 (4/13): Negotiation for Dispute Resolution

Reading: Lumineau & Malhotra; Ury, Brett, & Goldberg

Negotiation Exercise: Viking

DUE: Preparation Sheet for Viking
•
Session 9 (4/18): Multi-Party Negotiation

Reading: Neale & Lys, Ch 11 and Ch 12; Mannix; Farquharson

Negotiation Exercise: Federated Science Fund

DUE: Preparation Sheet for Federated Science Fund

DUE: Get a Deal Report (on 4/15)
•
Session 10 (4/20): Complex Multi Party Negotiation 1

Reading: Brett, Friedman, & Behfar; Sondak & Galinsky

Negotiation Exercise: Albion Basin 1 (Within Party Negotiation)
•
Session 11 (4/25): Complex and Multi Party Negotiation 2

Reading: Galinsky & Magee; Subramanian; Neale & Lys, Ch 14; Thompson
“Truths” 41-43

Negotiation Exercise: Albion Basin 2 (Across Party Negotiation)

DUE: Team Written Assignment
•
Session 12 (4/27): Managers as Third Parties; Summary and Wrap-Up

Reading: Neale & Lys, Ch 10; Thompson “Truths” 30-32 and 44-46

Negotiation Exercise: Amanda

DUE: Preparation Sheet for Amanda

DUE: Goals Statement 2
B8510 Managerial Negotiations Spring 2016
8