Negotiation Strategies

Catalog description

This course covers strategies and tactics for understanding conflicts, for negotiating effectively, and for dealing successfully with power in organizations. BUSAD 545BUSAD 545 Negotiation Strategies (3) Although situations involving international incidents, corporate acquisitions, or national collective bargaining contracts demonstrate the dramatic effects of the need for negotiation, it is something that most people do every day. Negotiation is not a process reserved for skilled diplomats, top salespeople, or leaders of labor unions. The structure and processes of negotiation at the interpersonal level are fundamentally the same as at the corporate or international level. For this reason, knowledge about and skill in negotiating is essential to anyone who works with and through other people to accomplish objectives. It is part of the normal "give and take" of any business situation, such as negotiating salaries, arranging deals with vendors, or allocating resources for a project. Unfortunately the ability to simply recognize conflict and the need for bargaining does not insure successful negotiating situations. Negotiation is a complex human activity, involving a dynamic interpersonal process. The skilled negotiator possesses a number of skills including: the intellectual ability to understand the key facts that shape and characterize different negotiation situations; the skills to diagnose problems and select appropriate strategies and approaches to address them; and the understanding of one's own personality and value system, which affect the perception of a situation and the choice of tactics and strategy. Negotiation is a learnable process. In this course students will learn how to recognize and resolve conflict through bargaining, what the bargaining process involves, and how to plan and carry out a successful negotiation.