Negotiations and Conflict Management (saylor.org)

Negotiation refers to the process of interacting in order to advance individual interests through joint action. Contrary to what you might think, negotiations are not confined to the professional world; we often negotiate in our personal lives. The principles that guide successful negotiations in world politics are equally important in the business world as well as our personal lives. In fact, almost every transaction with another individual involves negotiation. As you will learn in this course, negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management are complex processes. Successful practitioners possess and apply a blend of perceptual, persuasive, analytical, and interpersonal skills that you will examine carefully in this course.

In the ever-changing environment of modern business, firms start and grow by virtue of successful negotiations and by developing long-term relationships among two, three, or more parties involved, either directly or indirectly, in various business processes. By the same token, such relationships can break down due to ineffective negotiating behavior and conflict management approaches. Such breakdowns can also occur because of misunderstandings and misperceptions of the other parties’ positions and interests.

This course will start with the conceptual framework of negotiations as it applies to all areas of negotiation in both the public and private sectors. As the course progresses, you will focus on business negotiation skills and strategies designed to help you maintain healthy business relationships. Specifically, you will learn about the concepts, processes, strategies, and ethical issues related to negotiation as well as appropriate conduct in multicultural business contexts. You will also learn to better understand the theory, processes, and practices of negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management so that you can be a more effective negotiator in a wide variety of situations. If you take advantage of the opportunities this course offers, you will be more comfortable and more productive managing negotiations as well as professional and personal relationships.

You will examine strategies that are effective as well as those that are not. If a strategy works, you will determine how well it works and discuss alternatives to the less effective approaches. You will also identify various patterns of negotiation and conflict resolution in different national and cultural contexts, and you will gain an understanding of the influence of national and cultural variations in the decision-making process.

By the end of this course, you will have developed an understanding of the principles, strategies, and tactics of effective negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management and enhanced your ability to assess the impact of interpersonal styles, personality, culture, and other variables that influence negotiation.

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Identify and explain the theory, processes, and practices of negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management.

Identify and explain the principles, strategies, and tactics of effective negotiation and professional relationship management.

Identify and assess the variables in negotiations.

Develop reliable planning techniques.

Identify and describe negotiation theories, concepts and tactics to manage negotiations as well as professional relationships.

Assess the importance of various factors that impact negotiations, including specific issues in question, different stakeholder positions, interests, relationships, and group dynamics.

Develop and execute effective negotiation strategies and tactics for different scenarios.

Identify and employ effective communication, problem-solving, and influence techniques appropriate to a given situation.

Diagnose negotiation problems.

Describe new negotiation ideas and practices.

Explain how culture impacts negotiations.

Identify characteristics of culture or national identity that negotiators should become familiar with prior to engaging in cross-cultural or international negotiations.

Explain how Trompenaars’ and Hofstede’s theories of cultural dimensions can be applied to cross-cultural and international negotiations.

Describe the types of political and legal issues that might arise during the course of international negotiations.