MBA 568: NEGOTIATIONS (2 ECTS-14 HOURS)

Instructor: Dr. S. Voliotis

Contact: tl.: +30 210 6853320
e-mail: voliotis.seraphim@ucy.ac.cy
seraphim@voliotis.org (include Negotiations in title)

Course Description
Negotiations are enveloped by certain myths: (1) negotiations can’t be taught, (2) one is
born either a good negotiator or a bad negotiator, (3) negotiation skill is only learnt in the
‘street’ etc. Contrary to these wide-held beliefs the subject of negotiations is a subject that
can and should be taught; business or law schools being tahe natural places where such
tuition should take effect.
There is no doubt that bargaining is a results-oriented practical activity which is
tested in real circumstances. Accordingly, negotiation theory becomes relevant when it
relates to the practical application of its findings. There is also no doubt that natural talent
and intuition play a significant role in achieving good negotiation outcomes, but unaided
intuition often leads to inefficient or even wrong outcomes. Theory helps structure and
systematize intuition; it thus makes the practitioner more aware of the negotiation
process by pointing towards development and improvement. The relationship between
theory and practice, particularly in negotiations, is clearly symbiotic, and this course is
designed in such a way as to highlight this relationship.
Whether we are conflict-avoiders or highly competitive individuals, the truth of
the matter is that we negotiate all the time. The setting, the stakes, the participants, and
the issues might vary but, fortunately, there are important commonalities which every
business manager (or anybody else for that matter) should be aware of and familiar with.
This course attempts to describe some of these commonalities in a coherent and
systematic way.

Course Objectives
The course aims to introduce the student to the intricacies of principled negotiation. By
combining theoretical tuition with real case analysis, role-play simulation and active in
class participation the student will have the opportunity to understand, practice and
improve his/her negotiating skills. By the end of the course students should be able to:
1. Understand the Negotiation Problem and the need for its resolution.
2. Analyze negotiation instances.
3. Prepare effectively for future negotiations.
4. Set concrete, reasonable, and useful aims in future negotiations.
5. Devise value creating solutions to negotiation problems.
6. Claim a fair share of the value ‘on the table’.
7. Achieve sustainable and enforceable deals.
8. Maintain good working relationships with negotiation counterparts.

Course Requirements
There are no requirements in this course other than real life experience and rational
thinking. Given the students’ age and background, students are assumed to possess an
intuitive understanding of the negotiating process and have a reasonable amount of
negotiating experience both in business settings and personal or everyday life. This
course will build on such experiences and add a theoretical framework for analysis and
improvement.

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Teaching Methodology
The course is highly interactive and practical in nature. As such, a large number of role-
plays will be used throughout, in order to help the student practice their newly acquired
knowledge in ‘realistic’ settings and asses the effectiveness of their negotiating skills.
Although considerable effort has been expended so that the role-plays are realistic—often
inspired by real cases—they are nevertheless a safe place within which the students may
practice and experiment ‘against’ their peers. Accordingly, students are required to
immerse themselves in their roles (which are to be kept confidential) and view the
negotiations as seriously as possible. Although it is natural that some may feel artificial at
fist, students quickly get involved and that adds considerably to the role-plays’
effectiveness.
In addition, a few real-life high-stake mini-cases will be discussed in class. These
are chosen in order to highlight particular theoretical issues and help bridge the ‘gap’
between theory and practice. For reasons of anonymity some facts may be hidden or
distorted, but the material facts of the cases are left unaltered.
Theory forms the backbone of the course, on which other elements rest and from
which they stem. Students are expected to get a thorough understanding of the main
theoretical concepts and relate them to the practical exercises, the cases discussed, and
most importantly, their own experiences.
Caution: Role-plays are interactive, educational, realistic and entertaining; they
are a crucial part of negotiations training. You are asked to take the roles seriously, get
immersed in them as if they were your local reality, stick to the instructions provided and
improvise in a creative but consistent way when there are gaps in the roles. You are not
to share information within your confidential instructions with your ‘opponent’ unless
that is beneficial to your case within the negotiation process and only in order to gain as
much from the negotiation as possible, keeping in mind that you may in fact reveal more
information than is ‘appropriate’. You have to make sure you make yourself available for
the negotiation with your ‘opponent’ in a timely and reasonable way since failure to do so
will result in failure in the particular case both for you and your partner/opponent.
Finally, you are also requested to respect the hard work that has been put in devising
these cases:
1. not read another student’s role-play or allow yours to be read,
2. never show the confidential instructions documents to anyone, since this would
destroy their educational effectiveness for current or future students.

Educational Material
Class notes, which for pedagogical reasons will be uploaded after class, are adequate for
the understanding of the main concepts of the course. However, below is a list of
suggested reading material for students to expand their knowledge base. Recommended
Text book (ΤΒ): Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Fisher R.,
Ury W. and Patton B., 2nd Edition.
CLASS READING MATERIAL
1 TB: Chapter 1
2 TB; Chapters 2 – 3
Selecting a strategy, Lewicki, Hiam & Olande
3 Interest based negotiation, Stepp, Sweeney & Johnson
TB: Chapter 4-5
Negotiation lessons from the browser wars, Sebenius
Six habits of merely effective negotiators, Sebenius
Best practices in negotiation, Lewicki, Saunders & Barry
TB: Chapters 6 – 8
TB: In Conclusion & Ten Questions People Ask

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Coursework & Assessment
The course will be assessed as follows:
Class Participation 10%
Group Assignment 15%
Final Individual Assignment 75%

Class Participation: It is expected that all students do their best to participate actively in
class, consisting of: active participation in various simulations, ‘games’ or assignments not
graded independently, and partly of contribution in class discussions. A major part of the
learning process for each student stems from their interaction with fellow students in
class; each one has a unique perspective to offer and this perspective is invaluable.
Students are also expected to participate actively and fairly in the role plays; without their
participation the exercises will be rendered useless.

Group Assignment: You will be placed in work groups, within which you will be asked to
collect data in order to analyse an important real-life negotiation. Detailed instructions
will be uploaded on Saturday, 25/05/2019.

Final Individual Assignment: It will consist of your analysis of a real-life negotiation

instance, instructions of which will be uploaded automatically on Monday, 10/06/2019,
immediately after your group assignment submission deadline. Your answers should
uploaded on Blackboard by the deadline below. All the regulations concerning
examination conduct apply correspondingly to this examination. There will be a 5%
penalty for each day of delay in submission.

General instructions: (1) in order to successfully pass the class you need to achieve a
50% overall and 40% in the Final Individual Assignment, (2) if length restrictions are
placed on any of the questions they are to be respected; graded deductions will result
unless it is obvious that the depth of the answers provided is such that warrants extended
space, (3) any form of cooperation in the individual assessments will be considered
‘cheating’, and (4) failure to observer the role-play rules and conditions (see above) will
also be considered ‘cheating’, and (5) any form of plagiarism or cheating will be penalized
without reservation according to the severity of the offence, as per regulations.

Assignment Deadline

Group 9/6/2019 (23:59)

Final Individual 23/6/2019 (23:59)

Schedule

DATE CONTENT
Distributive Negotiation
Introductions and Course description
Negotiation Situations
1 23/05/2019
Role-play1 (videotaped)
Reservation, Range, Alternatives and Aspirations
Initial Offers, Concessions and Closure

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 Integrative Negotiation
Style, Strategy, and Preparation
Role-play2
2 24/05/2019
Debrief role-play2
The Negotiation Problem

Principled Negotiation
Role Play 3
People, Culture & Interests
3 25/05/2019 Value Creation
Role-play 4
Value distribution & norms
Conclusion

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

The course aims to introduce the student to the intricacies of principled negotiation. By
combining theoretical tuition with real case analysis, role-play simulation and active in
class participation the student will have the opportunity to understand, practice and
improve his/her negotiating skills. Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Analyse negotiation instances and prepare effectively for future negotiations.
2. Set concrete, reasonable, and useful aims in future negotiations.
3. Devise value creating solutions to negotiation problems.
4. Claim a fair share of the value ‘on the table’.
5. Achieve sustainable and enforceable deals.
6. Maintain good working relationships with negotiation counterparts.
The above course ILOs are linked with the MBA Program’s ILO’s, which are the following:
Strategic thinking: Negotiation is one of the most common strategic situations, whereby
two (or more) parties interact with the aim of reaching a commonly accepted outcome. It
is indispensable for intra- and extra-organizational interaction, both of which require the
consent of others.
Communication: All experts agree that communication is integral in negotiations and
some even define negotiation are a purely communicative process. Either way, mastering
the skills of effective communication is indispensable for effective negotiation and vice
versa.
Ethical Leadership: Effective, integrative negotiation, which is the central subject-matter
of this course, raises the ethical yardstick by requiring one to seek another’s consent in
value-creating ways and by distributing the value added in a fair and objective manner.
Critical Thinking: The cornerstone of integrative negotiation is argumentation; the main
‘power’ that drives good deals. The student will be required to exercise critical thinking
and practice his or her argumentation skills effectively in order to bring the theoretical
aspects of this course to life.
Entrepreneurship: The modern entrepreneur engages in variety of consensus building
activities with external and internal stakeholders, all of which require constant
negotiation and re-negotiation; occasionally even, conflict resolution. Mastering
negotiation skills is indispensable.

Detailed information as to how the course ILOs are linked with the MBA Program’s ILOs
are presented below:

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 Strategic Thinking Communication Critical Thinking Ethical Leadership Entrepreneurship
ILO 1 Analyzing negotiations In order to analyze the
proactively requires negotiations effectively
forethought which is an students are required to take a
integral aspect of strategic holistic view of the
thinking. Rather than relying circumstances, assess the
solely on intuition, the negotiating situation, and
students will learn to position themselves
systematize their approach to accordingly or seek appropriate
negotiations. advice.
ILO 2 Goal setting is a fundamental The entrepreneur needs to
process in strategizing and strike a fine balance between
the negotiator who fails to set the drive to create and the
the appropriate goals realism that the economic
consistently undermines the situation warrants. The same
negotiation process. holds true for the negotiator
who needs to push the frontier
of the negotiation outcome
without risking a stalemate.
ILO 3 Strategic interaction is rarely The entrepreneur, like the
purely zero-sum and neither negotiator, needs to be creative.
are negotiations. The effective The focus is squarely on the
negotiator needs to look for future and on growth. Such a
value-creating solutions creative outlook drives
explicitly, although he or she economic activity as well as the
will invariably also need to integrative negotiations that
deal with the win-lose aspects underlie it.
that distribution entails.

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ILO 4 One cannot hope to claim Effective value claiming in Distributive justice is a
one’s share of the value- the integrative setting fundamental aspect of
added without presenting requires sound collective interaction. ‘Fair’
one’s case effectively. The argumentation. The processes and criteria for
emphasis, however, is not on counterparty needs to be value distribution
‘influence’, but rather on persuaded to grant you your distinguish the purely
clear and genuine requests, in a deal that distributive bargaining
presentation of one’s views. becomes sustainable and from the more principled
efficient. You need to think negotiations.
and hard on how to structure
your arguments.
ILO 5 One needs to look well ahead Even the best propositions Ethical leadership is partly The entrepreneurial spirit is
in order to structure deals will be wasted if they are not about a genuine interest in free, but not utopian.
that will last. Foresight is a communicated and, resolving conflict and Ultimately, one needs to engage
fundamental strategic skill ultimately, recorded differences, not just at in practices that are
which the effective negotiator effectively. Information present but with a view to implementable and sustainable.
needs to master. exchange and negotiation long-term tranquility
closure ultimately hinge on Effective negotiation
communication abilities. closure shares similar
concerns.
ILO 6 The strategic thinker, like the Relationship management is It would be absurd to Entrepreneurial activity rests
effective negotiator, nearly impossible without a believe that one may on networking, synergistic
recognizes that they don’t high level of communication maintain and acceptable interaction with others, and the
operate in vacuum. Rather quality. Without it the ethical stance in social ability to mobilize a number of
they are concerned about the interaction is at best tacit interaction without actually others behind ones vision. All
interests of all those with and the outcomes more or developing healthy these activities ultimately hinge
whom they interact or may less random. relationships with others. on trust, which is the underlying
interact. Negotiation is, by context behind healthy business
definition, a social activity relationships.
and, as such, is no
exception.

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