San Jose State University
Lucas College and Graduate School of Business
Negotiation and Conflict Management
Business 149
Fall 2016
Dr. Ingerson
[email protected]
Course Description
We negotiate every day -- with potential employers, classmates, coworkers, roommates,
landlords, family, bosses, merchants, service providers, etc. Determining what price we will pay,
the amount of our salary and compensation, what movie to watch, who will clean the kitchen …
all of these are negotiations. Although negotiations are a ubiquitous part of our everyday lives,
many of us know little about the strategy and psychology of effective negotiations. Why are we
successful and satisfied at times, while at other times we walk away feeling unsuccessful and
frustrated by our inability to achieve the agreement we desire?
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more parties who are
interdependent and who are seeking to maximize their outcomes. This course provides the
opportunity to develop your negotiation skills in a series of real-life case simulations and intense
interpersonal debriefings that engage a variety of bargaining processes in the contexts of deal
making and dispute resolution. It is also designed to complement the technical and diagnostic
skills learned in other courses at the best business schools. The course draws on negotiation
research, behavioral business ethics, and applied social psychology to address a broad spectrum
of negotiation challenges that are faced by individuals and managers. The art of interpersonal
influence is also emphasized—because while a manager needs strong analytical skills to develop
optimal solutions to problems, persuasion and negotiation skills are also critical if these solutions
are to be accepted and implemented.
Course Objectives
After successfully completing this course, you will be able to recognize, analyze, articulate, and
practically carry out multiple viable skillful interventions to challenging negotiation situations
that arise in business and management contexts.
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.
As a result of this course, you will have the opportunity to:
 Experience the negotiation process, learning how to evaluate the costs and benefits of
alternative actions and how to develop a strategic plan to negotiate effectively.
 Build confidence in your negotiation skills.
 Identify negotiation opportunities and recognize when not to negotiate.
 Improve your ability to understand and anticipate the behavior of others in negotiation
settings.
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

Understand psychological principles that allow you to successfully influence others (even
seemingly irrational, untrusting, or angry negotiators), maximize outcomes, and strengthen
relationships.
Develop a toolkit of useful negotiation skills and strategies that will serve you for life in both
personal and professional contexts.
Your Objectives
1. Be prepared: Preparation is perhaps the greatest advantage a negotiator can capitalize on
when approaching a negotiation. In addition, your classmates expect you to be fully
prepared for each negotiation exercise. Train yourself to make preparation habitual and
vigorous. While the class officially meets at scheduled course times, students will be
expected to meet with other students outside of class to prepare for and execute certain
negotiation exercises. Students should be prepared to stay a few minutes after class to
arrange meetings with other classmates when necessary.
2. Be focused: The course will be largely experiential, providing you with the opportunity
to negotiate in different settings, on different topics, with different people. The course is
sequenced so that cumulative knowledge can be applied and practiced. You are strongly
encouraged to experiment with alternative styles in this “safe” environment. The
classroom is a place where you can lose a million dollars and in retrospect be happy
because you will never forget that lesson! Recognize your strengths and weaknesses and
track your individual progress over the semester.
3. Be involved: We will debrief every negotiation in class. You are expected to actively
participate in these class discussions. Your negotiated agreements will be posted so the
entire class can analyze the relationship between different negotiation strategies and
outcomes and learn from everyone’s experience.
Prerequisites
Course prerequisites are completion of all SJSU core general education requirements, passage of
the writing skills test (WST), and completion of Business/Philosophy 186.
Time and Location
This class will meet on Fridays from 12:30 PM – 03:15 PM in BBC 302 on SJSU’s Main
Campus. My office hours are from 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM in BT 654 on Wednesdays and by
appointment.
Course Texts
To be announced in class each week.
Academic Integrity
This is a course on negotiation and conflict management. That means that there will be multiple
sensitive issues that will be dealt with this semester. As such, students will be expected to
adhere to the highest ethical standards and to comply at all times with the university’s policy on
academic integrity, available online at: http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/S07-2.pdf.
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As such, and due to the multiple proprietary interests of this experiential learning class, there is
to be no filming, recording, photographing, photocopying, or sharing of the course content in any
way. Any infraction whatsoever of these terms without the express written, signed, and
witnessed consent of the professor will result in any or all of the following: being given an F for
the class, being dropped from the management major (or your respective major), being expelled
from the College of Business (or your respective College if you are not a business student), being
disqualified from enrolling in and attending classes at the University, and/or being civilly and/or
criminally charged and legally prosecuted for any and all infringements and torts.
Compliance with the ADA
If you need course adaptations or classroom accommodations because of a disability, or if you
need to make special arrangements relating to a disability, then please make an appointment with
the professor as soon as possible or see me during my office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03
requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations register with the DRC
(Disability Resource Center) to establish a record of their disability.
Classroom Protocols
Please show respect for yourself, me, and your fellow students by:
1. Coming to class on time. Do not be late.
2. Turning your cell phone completely off prior to class beginning.
3. Using your phone, computer, tablet, or any other electronic devices only as permitted by the
professor.
4. Refraining from speaking unless you are addressing the professor, taking part in negotiation
cases, or participating in group discussions.
5. Making it a point to respectfully include everyone in team, group, and class interactions.
6. Keep the Negotiation Case Honor Code
Negotiation Case Honor Code
 You are expected to be prepared and on time for all negotiation exercises.
 You are expected to participate actively in class discussions.
 You may not show your confidential role information to others before or during the negotiation, though you
may tell others what you desire from the negotiation. Never assume role materials are identical even if a
classmate is playing the same role, and do not discuss them with anyone else, unless you are told that you
can share information and strategize together. When you have completed a simulation, please do not reveal
your information to the other party before returning to the classroom.
 You may use any strategy, short of physical violence, to reach agreement. 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.
 No false facts. 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.”
 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.
 It is not appropriate to borrow notes, discuss cases, or share exams with people outside of class.
 Class discussion stays in class.
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Breaking any of these aforementioned protocols will result in penalties ranging from
participation point deductions up to 1/14th of your total letter grade per infraction, being asked to
leave the class session, being reported to the SJSU Student Advisement Center and Lucas
College of Business for further discipline, as well as any other class, college, and university
penalties deemed to fit the situation. Simply put, please be respectful and keep the rules.
Grading
Your grade in this course will be based on the following:
Active Participation
Negotiation Case Documents
Negotiation Journal
Final Exam
TOTAL
400 points possible
100 points possible
400 points possible
100 points possible
1000 points possible
Grade Distribution
A+ 970-1000
A 940-969
A- 900-939
B+ 870-899 C+ 770-799 D+ 670-699
B 840-869 C 740-769 D 640-669
B- 800-839 C- 700-739 D- 600-639
F 000-599
COURSE LEARNING ACTIVITIES
We will work to fulfill the objectives of the course in the following ways:
Participation
As this is a highly experiential course, you are expected to participate in all classes and take on a
role in every negotiation.
It is imperative that you arrive early and at the latest on time and stay for the entire class session.
If you have an unavoidable conflict, please do not disturb the class by arriving late, leaving early,
or asking to have information you missed repeated during the class.
Because this course will be highly experiential, active participation is critical to your learning.
Hence, your consistent active participation is essential for long-term success in this course. Thus,
students have a responsibility to be fully present, ask thoughtful questions of clarification to
enhance the learning of their peers, share well-reasoned insights, interact respectfully,
energetically, and helpfully with their peers, write personalized and meaningful responses to inand out-of-class assignments, and be creative and individual in your weekly journal entries.
Aside from its immediate impact on your grade for the class, this skill of active participation is
crucial in your movement from passively letting life happen to you to actively owning your own
life. Once you own your life, then you can move from being led to leading. As in any other
domain, business is no different; that is, the best leaders are ethical leaders who negotiate well.
And ethical leadership consists of the art and science of managing up, across, and down with
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wisdom and excellence, savvy and ethical courage, which can only be developed through active
participation and engagement.
Each and every student will be evaluated in their participation by the professor based on his
subjective personal observations of you objective record of your participation. As such, you are
expected to be actively engaged in every class session and in your individual journaling
assignments between every class session. As such, it should be obvious that you have to be here
in order to participate in the manner described above.
As a sidebar, there will be no makeup allowed for any class participation missed unless it is for
university excused reasons and where you have provided the professor sufficient written
evidence at least one week in advance for non-emergencies or contacted the professor via email
at least one week in advance of missing the class period in the event of an emergency.
To reiterate, if you must miss a class, please notify me via e-mail at least a full week (7 calendar
days) in advance. In case of an unforeseen university excusable EMERGENCY, then please
email me with the word “emergency” in the subject line. Failure to contact me before an absence
and validate your claims with sufficient evidence will result in a letter drop of your grade (e.g. A
to B) for the course.
This strict policy regarding notification and validation of missed participation is necessary
because I must arrange logistics and pairings in advance. Your classmates rely on your being
here for their educational experience — if you do not show up for a negotiation, they have no
partner to negotiate with.
Also, if you ever need to email the professor, make sure to include the following in the subject
line “Business 149 Important” and allow for at least 48 hours in order to receive a response. If
you don’t receive a response after 48 hours, then simply resend the initial email. Once you have
received a response from the professor make sure to write a simple confirmation return email
acknowledging that you have received the response.
If the above sounds intense, then realize that today’s workplace is even more intense. And if you
take your academic commitments seriously then you will likely do well both in this class and in
your present and future work life.
Thus, it should be clear that this negotiations course is not a class that is learned only from texts
and tests. Instead, it is an ethics course that is based on lived experience -- your experiences,
your fellow students’ experiences, my experiences, and our experiences together as a group this
semester. Pushing further, I devote the majority of our classroom time to Socratic discussion and
interactive case exercises with you and your classmates. Consequently, the use of any modern
computerized technology in class is non-essential. Rather, I find that looking at your smart
phone or laptop screen materially inhibits the likelihood that you will contribute meaningfully to
class discussions, and it becomes distracting to myself and other students. For these reasons, I
have a no electronics policy for my class unless I instruct you otherwise. In other words, I’ll let
you know if it’s OK to use your smart phones or laptops. Otherwise, please do not use
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computers (or any other electronic devices) during class time. If you wish to take notes during
class, please do so the old-fashioned way – that is, by using a pencil or pen and paper.
Because negotiation exercises are critical to the learning process in this course, you should be at
every class. You should try your hardest to get the best possible outcome for yourself or group.
You are not graded on the outcomes of your negotiations, but rather on the quality of your
preparation prior to the negotiation and your participation in post-negotiation discussions.
Your participation in class discussion will be evaluated according to the quality of your
contributions and insights. You are expected to be prepared for class and to actively participate
in all class discussions and negotiation debriefs (I will always let you know the topic of
discussion in advance so that you can be prepared to contribute). After each negotiation
exercise, a debriefing session will include sharing information about results, sharing information
about strategies attempted, and sharing reactions to the process. Quality comments possess one
or more of the following properties:




Link relevant concepts to current events and "real-world" experiences
Build on a classmate's comment or move the discussion and analysis forward
Transcend the “I feel” syndrome (i.e., include evidence or logic, demonstrate recognition
of basic concepts, and integrate these with reflective thinking—explain why you think
certain reactions/outcomes occur)
Offer a unique, but relevant, perspective based upon analysis and theory (not intuition or
casual observation)
Negotiation Case Documents
Because negotiation case exercises are critical to the learning process in this course, you should
be fully prepared for every negotiation. The best way to be prepared for any negotiation is to
compose a written planning document that delineates your goals, reservation prices, BATNA, the
other parties pertinent disclosed information, and your creative strategies. All negotiation
documents will be graded using a +//- system. Late documents will not be accepted since that
does not accomplish the goal of coming to your negotiation prepared.
Negotiation Journal
Purchase a new Mead Composition Book, Wide Ruled, 9.75 x 7.50 Inch Sheet Size, Black
Marble, Bookbound, 100 Sheets (09932).
We need to understand that with power comes responsibility. Therefore, with any increase in
power comes a proportionate increase in responsibility. This is especially true in business. Thus,
if our education in business is not helping us to improve our ability to create value and engage in
trade in an ethical and effective manner, then we have failed. In other words, education in
business, including in negotiation and conflict management, should encourage persons who can
live and lead as good examples of character and integrity.
This type of business leader character development in negotiations doesn’t just happen. It
requires meaningful and decisive engagement on the subject matter in an active setting.
Therefore, real preparation for class (and authentic reflection on the topics we engage with in
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class) is critical to deriving any significant benefits from the class. Thus, in the same way that
you are the author of your life, you will be writing your own textbook for this course.
That textbook we are calling your negotiation journal. In your negotiation journal you should
neatly log and arrange all assignments chronologically; and include all of your class notes, in
class assignments, negotiation planning documents, case role materials, and at home writing
assignments as well as any additional personal writing you wish to include. Every day of class
should be accompanied by two pages of illustration. By illustrations I mean you are going to
creatively fill those two pages with drawings, paintings, and pictures from modern media
(newspapers, magazines, internet, etc.) that exemplify the topics that we work through within
each case.
Your journal will be graded not only on the completeness and accuracy of the assigned content,
but on the overall effort put into making your journal authentic, artistic, personalized, and
presentable. Again, remember that your writing and illustrations should adhere to the following
critical ratio: for one case there should always be two pages of illustrations. Additionally, in this
same journal you should take the initiative to write and share insightful personal reflections on
the topics and assignments we cover in each class session between the sessions, including
implementation of such negotiation skills in your current work, family, extracurricular clubs,
recreational hobbies, church, volunteer, etc. settings. With each of these personal reflection there
should be one page of illustrations for every page of writing.
Further description and assignments for your negotiation journal will be given each session in
class only. The final version of your negotiation journal is due in class (at the beginning of
class) on Friday 12/02. No late journals will be accepted.
Final
The Final Exam will be held in class. Further details regarding the content of the final will be
announced in class only during the summary and review class session.
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TENTATIVE COURSE
SCHEDULE
Unit
Date
Core Topic
Case/Debrief
Assignments Due at
the Beginning of Class
Who Are We
F 08/26
Introduction
Syllabus
None
How
We
Think
and
Feel:
Negotiation
Basics
F 09/02
Distributive Negotiation
SB Case
F 09/09
Integrative Negotiation
BB Case
F 09/16
NR Case
F 09/30
Distributive, Integrative, and
Compatible Negotiation, Part I
Distributive, Integrative, and
Compatible Negotiation, Part II
Creative Negotiation
F 10/07
Agent-Representative Negotiation
BH Case
MID-TERM
F 10/14
MID-TERM IN CLASS
None
How
We
Behave:
Advanced
Negotiation
F 10/21
Online Negotiation
Surprise Case
Week One Writing
in Journal
Week Two Writing
in Journal
Week Three Writing
in Journal
Week Four Writing
in Journal
Week Five Writing in
Journal
Week Six Writing
in Journal
Mid-Semester
Negotiation Journal
Due
None
F 10/28
Dispute Resolution Negotiation
V Case
F 11/04
T Case
F 11/11
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Negotiation
Multi-Party Negotiation
H Case
F 11/18
Leadership & Negotiation, Part I
K Case
F 11/25
None.
F 12/02
THANKSGIVING BREAK –
No Class.
Leadership & Negotiation, Part II
Week Seven Writing in
Journal
Week Eight Writing
in Journal
Week Nine Writing in
Journal
Week Ten Writing
in Journal
None.
Watch
Negotiation
Documentary
Final
Negotiation
Journal Due
F 12/09
Summary and In-Class Review.
Review Sheet
None
T 12/20
FINAL EXAM IN CLASS
Sec 01 1215 – 1430
TBA
Summary and
Review
FINAL EXAM
F 09/23
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NC Case
T Case