OPM 452: Processes and Strategies of Negotiation

Contents
Negotiations occur in situations where parties cannot attain their goals without each other's cooperation. Such situations arise in all areas of business, and managing them successfully requires a combination of analytical knowledge and practical skills. This module provides the theoretical foundations and practical tools of negotiation. The content is relevant to a broad range of application domains, with particular emphasis on negotiations in the procurement context.
The module covers the fundamentals of negotiation, including key terminology, the negotiation process, and pre-bargaining preparation. A central module on bargaining examines the structural foundations of bilateral negotiation, anchoring and concession strategies, communication and argumentation, hardball tactics, and closing techniques. It addresses both competitive (distributive) and cooperative (integrative) dynamics, including movement mechanisms such as reciprocity, interest-based problem-solving, and value creation through logrolling and trade-offs. A final module addresses advanced topics, including persuasion, cognitive biases and heuristics, personality types and profiling, team negotiation, cross-cultural negotiation, and the role of power, trust, and fairness. Cases and negotiation simulations are integrated throughout.

Learning outcomes
Negotiation requires the ability to analyze situations, choose appropriate strategies, and manage human factors under uncertainty. This module equips participants with the analytical frameworks and interpersonal skills required to prepare, conduct, and evaluate negotiations. On successful completion, participants will be able to:

• Analyze negotiation situations by identifying the parties' interests, positions, alternatives (BATNAs), and reservation prices, and develop comprehensive negotiation plans.
• Apply bargaining strategies in bilateral negotiations, including anchoring, concession management, argumentation techniques, movement mechanisms, and closing tactics, and assess when competitive and cooperative approaches are appropriate.
• Evaluate integrative tactics such as interest-based problem-solving, logrolling, and trade-offs as movement mechanisms within a bargaining process, and judge their applicability in professional negotiation settings.
• Recognize and mitigate cognitive biases and heuristics that impede negotiation outcomes.
• Assess the influence of personality types, cultural differences, team dynamics, and power asymmetries on negotiation behavior and adapt strategies accordingly.
• Critically evaluate hardball tactics and persuasion techniques, and select appropriate responses.

Necessary prerequisites
semester 4 or higher

Recommended prerequisites
–

Examiner Performing lecturer

Prof. Dr. Christoph Bode Prof. Dr. Christoph Bode