OPM 593: Negotiation
Contents
The ability to manage negotiations – where co-dependent parties try to arrive at decisions that satisfy their interests – and the broader micropolitical environment in which they occur is critical for success in business as in life. This module provides the theoretical background of micropolitics and the practical tools to affect joint decision-making processes (negotiations) and their outcomes. It discusses the application of these concepts and tools in different contexts: Agenda setting, mapping the political terrain, networking and coalition building, and bargaining. Different approaches of negotiation and the corresponding tactics will be analyzed. Guest speakers will enrich the module with practical insights from different contexts. Special emphasis will be put on the (inter-)cultural dimension and its impact on negotiations. The topics will be discussed along the typical timeline of a negotiation process: pre-negotiation phase, negotiation phase, post negotiation phase. Psychological tactics will be discussed as well as possible defenses against such tactics.
This course is a mandatory course for incoming students in the European Management track
Learning outcomes
Students understand the importance of developing micropolitical skills for effective leadership in the workplace. After successful completion, participants will:
- understand the theoretical concepts of micropolitics,
- know the negotiation process, key negotiation concepts, and are able to reflect on the different negotiation approaches,
- are able to apply practical tools during bargaining,
- understand and reflect on the impact of (inter-)cultural dimensions in negotiations,
- have reflected about their own personal style in negotiations and how they can advance it.
- have gained a deeper understanding, how psychological aspects influence the negotiation process and the possible outcome.
Necessary prerequisites
–
Recommended prerequisites
Basic knowledge in operations/
| Forms of teaching and learning | Contact hours | Independent study time |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture with integrated exercise | 2 SWS | 11 SWS |
| ECTS credits | 6 |
| Graded | yes |
| Workload | 180h |
| Language | English |
| Form of assessment | two essays (each 50%) |
| Restricted admission | yes |
| Further information | “Student Portal” |
Examiner Performing lecturer |  | Prof. Dr. Christoph Bode Dr. Ingo Bayer, Prof. Dr. Christoph Bode |
| Frequency of offering | Fall semester |
| Duration of module | 1 semester |
| Range of application | M.Sc. MMM, M.Sc. WiPäd, M.Sc. VWL, M.Sc. Wirt. Inf., M.Sc. Wirt. Math., MAKUWI |
| Preliminary course work | – |
| Program-specific Competency Goals | CG 1, CG 3, CG 4 |
| Literature | Bolman, Lee. G. and Terrence E. Deal. 2013. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (Chapter 9, section “Power, conflict, coalition”)
Bolman, Lee. G. and Terrence E. Deal. 2013. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (Chapter 9, section “The manager as politician”)
Burns, Tom. 1961. “Micropolitics: Mechanisms of Institutional Change.” Administrative Science Quarterly 6, no. 3: 257–81. doi: 10.2307/2390703 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2390703)
Fisher, Roger, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. 2012. Getting to YES : Negotiating an Agreement without Giving in. Third Edition, Updated and Revised ed. London: Random House.
Hall, Edward T. 1976. Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Books.
Hofstede, Geert. 2011. “Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context.” Online Readings in Psychology and Culture 2, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014.
Keeney, Ralph L. (1992): Value-focused Thinking: A Path to Creative Decisionmaking. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.
Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M., & Barry, B. (2015). Essentials of Negotiation (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Raiffa, H., Richardson, J., & Metcalfe, D. (2002). Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
Thompson, L. L. (2015). The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Voss, Chris and Raz, Thal. 2016. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on it. New York: HarperCollins.
Weiss, Stephen E. 1994. “Negotiating with ‘Romans’ Part I.” MIT Sloan Management Review 35, no. 2 (Winter): 287–302. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/negotiating-with-romans-part/. Weiss, Stephen E. 1994. “Negotiating with ‘Romans’ Part II.” MIT Sloan Management Review 35, no. 3 (Spring): 85–99. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/negotiating-with-romans-part-2/ |
| Course outline | 1.
Pre-negotiation Phase: General Preparation – What is the problem? (understanding of problem, objectives, and alternatives); excursus: demand analysis and the power of specifications 4. Pre-negotiation Phase: Specific Preparation – Who is the counterpart? Exploiting sources of information (profiling, history, network analyses) 5. The Harvard Negotiation Approach, principled bargaining as an approach for non confrontational negotiations like in the EU 6. The Harvard Negotiation Approach, principled bargaining Part two, typical questions related to this Approach, technical as well as moral aspects are covered 7. Distributive negotiation, Zero-sum game part one 8. Psychological “warfare“ tools and tricks, how to construct persuasive arguments 9. Distributive Negotiation, part two, zooming in, closing the deal 10. Negotiation game, practise what you learned, try out the psychological tools 11. Intercultural Negotiation, the influence of culture on negotiations, (Hofstede) intercultural intelligence vs. social and intellectual intelligence 12. Presentations by the students, intercultural aspects of my homecountry, use your new knowledge and help your fellow students to avoid cultural traps |