COURSE NUMBER: MBA 252.1

 

COURSE TITLE: Negotiations and Conflict Resolution

 

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2

 

INSTRUCTOR: Juliana Schroeder

 

E-MAIL ADDRESS: jschroeder@haas.berkeley.edu 

 

MEETING DATES: First 10 weeks from 1/19 – 3/29

 

PREREQUISITE(S): None

 

CLASS FORMAT: The class is comprised of lectures, discussion, negotiation exercises (typically one per week) and videos.

 

REQUIRED READINGS: The course will have a course reader, book "Getting Past NO" and negotiation exercises.

 

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: The final grade will be based on class participation (which also includes pre-negotiation preparation and post-negotiation Q/A and feedback), a self-analysis paper, an applied negotiation experience analysis, and a negotiated case analysis.

 

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this course is to improve negotiation skills and to increase the ability to resolve conflicts with different types of people in a multitude of situations. The course focuses on the practical application of different negotiation strategies and tactics as well as the social psychological principles and theory that help explain why certain tactics are more effective under some circumstances than others. Through instructor and peer feedback, students should achieve greater insights into their negotiation strengths which in turn should greatly increase their ability and confidence to negotiate with anyone, anywhere.

 

This course is designed to be relevant to the broad spectrum of negotiation problems that are faced by managers and professionals. A basic premise of this course is that while a manager needs analytical skills to discover optimal solutions to problems, a broad array of negotiation skills is needed to get these solutions accepted and implemented. This course will allow participants the opportunity to develop these skills experientially and to understand negotiation in useful analytical frameworks. As such, considerable emphasis will be placed on in-class negotiation exercises.

 

Negotiation topics include: claiming and creating value (also known as distributive and integrative negotiations), preparation strategies, negotiating with differential power, utilizing influence tactics, managing coalitions, engaging in shadow negotiations (negotiations that occur behind the scenes in companies), team based negotiations, multiparty cross-functional team negotiations, cross cultural negotiations, salary and compensation negotiations, agency issues in negotiation (using an agent and being an agent), managers as mediators, ethical issues in negotiations, as well process skills such as effective communication techniques (verbal and non-verbal) and managing perceptions.

 

CAREER FIELD: ALL

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:  Juliana Schroeder is a professor in the Management of Organizations group at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She conducts research on the experimental study of social cognition, with particular focus on conflict resolution and negotiation. Juliana's research has been published in scientific journals such as Journal of Experimental PsychologyPsychological Science, and Social Psychological & Personality Science. Her research has been featured by outlets such as the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and the Today Show, and has been funded by the National Science Foundation.