Negotiation and Consensus Building

Catalog description

Negotiation is an essential part of our professional, academic, and personal lives, and is also increasingly relevant to tackling global questions such as climate change, social inequalities, and biodiversity loss. How can we evaluate the need for - and impact of - negotiation? Is negotiation innate or can we develop skills to become more strategic and effective negotiators? What changes when we negotiate for ourselves or on behalf of someone else? What are the links between negotiation and justice, fairness, and ethics? This colloquium aims to understand the theory and practice of negotiation, including conflict resolution and consensus building. Exploring concepts in negotiation, interpersonal effectiveness, and organizational behavior, students will encounter various types of negotiations including integrative (win/win approach), distributive (win/lose approach), and various iterations of these two extremes. Topics include communication, emotion, perception, team negotiations, international negotiations, and cultural differences. Theory and practice will be integrated to improve students' conceptual understanding and cultivate negotiation, conflict resolution, and strategic skills.