Marshall School Of Business ● University Of Southern California
IBEAR MOR569 ● Negotiation and Deal-Making ● Spring 2015
Instructor: Peter Carnevale
E-Mail:
Office/hours: Hoffman Hall (HOH) 803, hours by appointment
Room: JKP 204
Time: Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays at 9am (see dates, days, times, below!)
(note the exception on Tuesday January 27 at 2:25pm-5pm)
Course Scope and Mission
Negotiation guides all aspects of business including who gets what (e.g., terms of employment such as salary and bonus) and who does what. In many ways, negotiation is about decision-making and communication in strategic interaction, which refers to situations wherein two or more parties (individuals, groups, organizations) are dependent on one another for their outcomes: what each party decides can affect their own as well as the others’ outcome.
This course is about the art and the science of negotiation: the science part is the application of economic and psychological theories developed to help understand negotiation processes and outcomes; the art part is about developing and sharpening negotiating skills by actually negotiating with others in class in simulated settings. (A simulation is like a wind tunnel in aeronautical engineering. It lets you test the shape of your wings before going out and trying to fly. It lets you experiment, and learn, in a low-cost, safe environment.) Mainly, this course is about how to improve your understanding of negotiation in a variety of settings – and your ability to negotiate.
Sometimes negotiation is about resolving a dispute: trust may be low, hostility high, communication bad. However, more often than not, negotiation is about creating value, about an opportunity, a joint venture: for example, your personal employment contract, which is about building a relationship for a mutually beneficial arrangement. In either case, negotiation is about creating an agreement between two or more parties, about “deal-making.”
For the class, I have selected several well-known practice-minded books on negotiation, in addition to the classic Getting to Yes. The core concepts of these books are relevant to negotiation as practiced in a variety of settings including the broad spectrum of negotiation problems faced by managers and professionals who negotiate in domains as diverse as marketing, real estate, consulting, entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions, and all areas of leadership. This course will cover negotiations that can occur in the daily life of the manager.
This course complements the skills learned in other courses at Marshall. A basic premise of the course is that while analytical skills are vital to the discovery of optimal solutions to problems, businesspeople need a broad array of negotiation skills to get those solutions accepted and implemented.
I hope that you will do the following:
· Appreciate and value negotiation: recognize negotiation situations, recognize strategies and tactics used by people in negotiation and, most of all, never leave value on the table.
· Gain a broad intellectual understanding of a set of central concepts in negotiation, concepts that are the building blocks to systematically understand and evaluate negotiation process and outcome; that is, fluency in negotiation language (e.g., “Reservation Point,” “Lose-Lose,” “BATNA,” “Logrolling,” “Pareto Optimal,” “Formula-Detail,” “Low-Ball,” “Framing,” etc.)
· Have confidence in your ability to negotiate effectively to create value.
· Learn to learn from experience in negotiation (your own as well as other’s experiences), including learning to evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative actions and how to manage the negotiation process.
Course Format
The course centers on a series of negotiation exercises and discussions about the exercises. Many of the exercises require some preparation in advance. I expect you to prepare for these exercises prior to class and to participate in the discussions about the exercises. While some class time will be provided when team preparation is required, you may occasionally need to meet outside of class, either face-to-face or online. You may be asked to do online presentations and class presentations.
Course Materials
These are required (please get the latest versions available):
1. Fisher, R., Ury, W., and Patton, B. (1991). Getting to Yes. New York: Penguin.
2. Malhotra, D., & Bazerman, M.H. (2007). Negotiation Genius. Bantam.
3. Thompson, L. (2013). The Truth about Negotiation (2nd). Pearson Ed.: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
4. Gawande, A. (2010). The checklist manifesto – How to get things right. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN: 0805091742
5. [R] Readings: articles and handouts, some distributed in class, others download from Blackboard, some announced later.
Recommended:
6. Shell, G. R. (2006). Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People. 2nd edition, Viking Press/Penguin Books: New York.
Communication
Check our course blackboard website regularly for announcements, assignments, readings, class notes, and all important class related information, etc: blackboard.usc.edu. I use it extensively in the course.
Individual Consultation
I am happy to meet with you to discuss your own negotiations, or your progress or problems with the course materials and assignments. Indeed, I want to meet with you. If you would like to meet, please contact me in advance via email to arrange a mutually convenient time. I am available via email most days.
Course Grade Elements
1. Participation / 25% / 250
2. Take-Home Midterm / 25% / 250
3. Take-Home Final / 50% / 500
Total / 1000
1. Participation (25%)
This is for preparation and completing the negotiation exercises, and contribution to in-class discussions. An important part of this is turning in written parts of the negotiation exercise, as applicable and announced in class, by the time indicated in class. This sheet is about the negotiation exercise conducted during that class, or about a movie, or something about negotiation in class. Every class you turn one in, or make a comment in class, you can earn points: 250 participation points for the semester, spread evenly over the term.
Preparation involves having completed any assigned readings for that day; completion involves doing the negotiation, and the debrief exercise where there is a discussion of the negotiation. Since I try to observe as many negotiations as possible, I really like to see that you are prepared. It harms your negotiation partner’s experience as well as your own if you are not. During your negotiations, I will be walking around and watching and listening to you negotiate.
You can have ELC (Experiential Learning Center, JKP 3rd Floor) video your negotiation if enough lead-time is given. I am happy to meet you to give feedback on your video. Advance notice on this is necessary since doing it depends on ELC staff, http://www.marshall.usc.edu/elc/facts.htm.
When negotiating, you must follow all the instructions provided for your case role. However, you do have freedom to be creative in how you interpret this information and the kinds of strategies you employ, provided that they do not contradict any of the explicit instructions or fundamentally alter the negotiation’s structure.
Participation in class discussions involves active participation that contributes to the class. Active participation means asking questions, answering questions, making observations, commenting on other students’ comments, or challenging a view. Participation is also business professionalism. Professionalism – in word and in behavior – is a critical part of any business situation. Here, it includes: 1. On-time arrival for class (in seat, ready to go at start); 2. In-class comments that are cordial, constructive; 3. On-time completion of tasks; 4. Respect for the norms of the class.
Important Policy Note: This course has a policy: You must provide 24-hr prior notice to the instructor if you must miss a class and / or a negotiation. If you do not provide such notice, your negotiating partner for the day may be left without someone to negotiate, and your fellow students can end up being inconvenienced. If you miss a negotiation without prior notice to the instructor, you will not get participation points for that class. If you miss a class but give prior notice, I’ll arrange for another way for you to get participation points (I’ll do this twice; more than that means no participation points for that class). This means that you do not need to provide a reason for not being in class. Notify me of your absence at least 24 hours before the start of class so I can make the adjustments to the exercises.
2. Take-Home Midterm (25%)
There will be a take-home Midterm (see announcement on Blackboard). This may include your personal evaluation of the agreements achieved in one of the in-class negotiation exercises. It may include posting a video of something to Blackboard.
3. Take-Home Final (50%)
There will be a take-home final exam at the end of the semester. The exam will cover the concepts discussed in class, as well as the readings, and will ask you to analyze a negotiation(s) and/or a deal(s) as well as evaluate the class books. This will be distributed the last class of the term and is due on the scheduled day of the final exam, March 6, at noon.
Course Grading
Grades for the class will be assigned according to the percentage distribution outlined above. At any time during the term you may inquire about your points to date, and I will tell you how you are doing. At the end of the term, I look very closely at students that are close to any cutoff between two grade categories, and try to find a way to boost any such students into the higher category. Because I reserve this flexibility, you will not be able to ask me questions like "what score do I need to get on the final project to get the following grade?" This is not something to worry about, it is designed to help you.
In the event of a grading dispute - the procedure is as follows: (1) Think about why you believe your grade should be different. (2) Write down the reasons why you believe your grade should be changed. (3) Send me the written explanation via e-mail, and I will respond to it as quickly and fairly as possible.
One final note: I will not accept 'retroactive excuses' by students. By this I mean students bringing up ameliorating circumstances to justify any poor performance at the end of the semester. If there are unique or unusual circumstances that prevent you from doing as well as you normally might, whatever it may be, you must inform me immediately. I make no guarantees as to what is acceptable and what is not, but I encourage you to communicate any problems to me.
Academic Integrity Policy.
The Marshall School is committed to upholding the University’s Academic Integrity code as detailed in the SCampus Guide. It is the policy of the Marshall School to report all violations of the code. Any serious violation or pattern of violations of the Academic Integrity Code will result in the student’s expulsion from the degree program. It is particularly important that you are aware of and avoid plagiarism, cheating on exams, fabricating data for a project, submitting a paper to more than one professor, or submitting a paper authored by anyone other than yourself. If you have doubts about any of these practices, confer with a faculty member. Resources on academic dishonesty can be found on the Student Judicial Affairs Web site (http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS.) The “Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism” addresses issues of paraphrasing, quotations, and citation in written assignments, drawing heavily upon materials used in the university’s writing program; “Understanding and avoiding academic dishonesty” addresses more general issues of academic integrity, including guidelines for adhering to standards concerning examinations and unauthorized collaboration. The “New SCampus” (http://www.usc.edu/scampus) contains the university’s student conduct code, etc. Note that assignments for this class employ the “Turnitin” software system and this means that any assignment that receives a high plagiarism index score will receive 0 points. (This includes final team reports.)
Disabilities Policy. Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations may be obtained from DSP. Please deliver the letter to me as early in the term as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 (phone 213-740-0776) and is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Grading, Maintenance of Records, and Confidentiality of Student Information
GRADING STANDARDS
Grade distributions over time, across departments and courses, and within departments and courses, should be consistent and in conformity with recommended Marshall School of Business grading standards below.
Evaluation should be measured against an undergraduate population that is limited to students who have taken or are currently enrolled in the course in question, including multiple section courses. The same suggestion would hold for the graduate program as well.
The following five basic grades are currently available to the faculty to evaluate a student's performance. Descriptive words have been added to explain the quality of student performance and provide a benchmark for the standard. Additionally, the University has adopted plus/minus grading (A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, F) which modifies the basic five to a total of 12 possible levels of performance. The use of plus and minus grades is a mandatory, not optional feature of the USC grading system.
A = Outstanding or exceptional work. Mastery of course concepts, tools, and techniques, plus a solid understanding of implications, applications, or interrelationships, as may be appropriate for a given course. Ability to apply and express that understanding with meaningful language--oral and/or written.
B = Very good work. Solid understanding of course concepts, tools, and techniques, plus knowledge of, or awareness of implications, applications, or interrelationships, as may be appropriate for a given course. Capability to converse effectively in the terminology of the course.
C = Good or satisfactory work. Knowledge of course fundamentals. Basic understanding or awareness of finer points of course and discipline. Meets normal expectations of course input criteria.
D = Poor work. Barely grasps the essentials of the course with little or no understanding of the finer points.
F = Unacceptable work. Unable to communicate an understanding of the basic concepts, tools, or techniques of the course. A failure to measure up to the basic course output goals.