Course content
Course Description
Much managerial activity involves bargaining, negotiation, and settling of disputes. Managers bargain with superiors, peers, and subordinates; suppliers and customers; competitors and allies. Negotiation is a decision-making process in which two or more actors seek to reconcile their conflicting interests. Effective negotiation can improve outcomes for everyone involved. Ineffective negotiation, in contrast, usually leads to poor outcomes for those who negotiate poorly; it can also lead to poor outcomes for others, and sometimes result in failure to agree even when agreement is possible.
In a globalizing world international negotiations have become the operating norm. Globalization has increased the costs and benefits of interdependence for national governments, international firms, and non governmental organizations. It is the management of interdependence which necessitates negotiations. The ability to act insightfully in complex situations is critical to successful negotiations. Insightful action is in turn dependent on the managerial ability to accurately assess and appraise international negotiating situations
Course aim
The overall goals of the course are to improve students’ negotiating skills, and to do so by providing a theoretical underpinning that will help them to understand the sources of effective and ineffective approaches to negotiations. We will use the basic principles of negotiation theory in appraising national and international negotiating situations. Ensuing discussions will focus on the ways in which concepts and theory inform practice.
See course description in course catalogue