BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

NUS Business School
BMA 5406 Negotiations and Conflict Management
Special Term 1, 9 May 18 Jun 2015
P1: Monday/Thursday, 6pm-9:30pm
Instructor: Dr. Sandy Lim
Phone: 6516 3389
E-Mail: sandylim@nus.edu.sg
Office: Mochtar Riady Building, BIZ1, 8-54
Office hours: By appointment

Teaching Assistants:
Poh Hou Sheng a0123993@u.nus.edu
Muhammad Irsyad a0108574@u.nus.edu
Jared Koh jaredkoh@u.nus.edu

COURSE OBJECTIVES
The best way to learn negotiation skills and actually internalize them is to negotiate in a setting
where insight is offered, feedback is plentiful, personal reflection is encouraged, and careful
analysis is required. This course is designed to foster learning through doing, to explore your own
talents, skills, and shortcomings as a negotiator. The negotiation exercises will provide you with
an opportunity to attempt strategies and tactics in a low-risk environment, to learn about yourself
and how you respond in specific negotiation situations. If you discover a tendency that you think
needs correction, this is the place to try something new. The course is sequenced so that
cumulative knowledge can be applied and practiced.
As a result of this course, I hope you will:
Experience the negotiation process, learning how to evaluate the costs and benefits of
alternative actions.
Improve your ability to analyze the negotiation situation and learn how to develop a
strategic plan so as to improve your ability to negotiate effectively.
Develop confidence in the negotiation process as an effective means for resolving conflict
in organizations.
Understand more about the nature of negotiations and gain a broad intellectual
understanding of the central concepts in negotiation.
Improve your analytical abilities and your capacity to understand and predict the behavior
of individuals, groups, and organizations in competitive situations.
Develop a toolkit of useful negotiation skills, strategies, and approaches.
COURSE FORMAT
The course is highly experiential, and is therefore built around a series of negotiation exercises,
debriefings, and readings. There will be a negotiation exercise in every class except our last class.
Classes will also include lectures and class discussions.

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

Almost all exercises require preparation in advance. Some exercises require students to prepare
outside of class as a team, either by phone, e-mail, or in person. Students are expected to be fully
prepared for exercises prior to class and to participate in the debriefings. Students should also be
prepared to stay a few minutes after class to arrange meetings with other members of the class.
It is important to do the weeks readings AFTER class. Please do not read ahead. The readings
are selected to reinforce the learning points of each exercise, and the concepts will be more
comprehensible if you have already experienced them directly.
COURSE MATERIALS
Readings will be available online. Negotiation materials will be handed out in class.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Your grade will be made up of:
1.
Course contribution
2.
Planning documents
3.
Post-negotiation analysis
4.
On-going group negotiation
5.
Real life negotiation

25%
5%
20%
15%
35%

1. Course Contribution: Attendance and Participation in Class Discussions (25% of grade)

Because negotiation exercises are critical to the learning process in this course, students are
expected to participate in all of them. If you must miss an exercise, it is your responsibility to
contact Hou Sheng (a0123993@u.nus.edu) and Irsyad (a0108574@u.nus.edu) at least three days
before the class session. This strict policy is necessary because your classmates rely on your
attendance for their educational experience, and we must arrange logistics and pairings in advance.
Your participation in class discussion will be evaluated on the quality of your contributions and
insights. You are expected to be prepared for class and to actively participate in all class
discussions and negotiation exercises. You will be evaluated on the quality of your contribution to
class discussions. Quality comments possess one or more of the following properties:
1. Offer a different and unique, but relevant, perspective based upon analysis and theory (not
intuition or casual observation)
2. Contribute to moving the discussion and analysis forward
3. Transcend the I feel syndrome (i.e., include evidence, demonstrate recognition of basic
concepts, and integrate these with reflective thinking)
4. Link relevant concepts to current events and experiences

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

2. Planning Documents (5% of grade)

Because negotiation exercises are critical to the learning process in this course, you should be fully
prepared for every negotiation. To help you prepare for the role you will play in each negotiation,
you should prepare a negotiation planning document before each negotiation. If you are
negotiating as part of a team, you and the other team members should prepare one planning
document together. An example of a planning document is included at the end of this syllabus.
You or your team (if you are negotiating as a team) will be given time during class before the
negotiation to prepare the following planning documents. Please type and upload them into IVLE
during class before you start your negotiation:
Cartoon (with your teammate)
Viking (with your teammate): 5% of grade.
Note that points will be deducted for planning documents turned in after the negotiation.
3. Post-Negotiation Analysis (20% of grade)
You will be required to turn in a post-negotiation analysis. You can provide an analysis on any of
the following negotiation exercises: Biopharm-Seltek, Lion City, Cartoon, or Bullard Houses. The
purpose of this analysis is to encourage you to reflect on your behavior and your classmates
behaviors in a negotiation exercise, and to analyze what you have learned from your experience.
Your analysis will also give me a sense of your individual progress and provide me with an idea of
which topics require more class discussion. Your task in this post-negotiation analysis is to
describe your reactions, perceptions, and significant insights gained from participation in a
negotiation exercise. The analysis should not be a detailed report of everything that happened in
the negotiation. Rather, it should focus on the following issues:
1. Provide a brief overview of the key events.
2. What were the critical factors that affected the negotiation situation and outcomes, and
what can you say about these factors in general?
3. What did you learn about negotiation or conflict from this situation?
4. How do the concepts presented in lectures or readings enrich your understanding of the
process of this negotiation, its outcome, or your own style?
5. What would you do the same or differently in the future, or how would you like to behave
in order to perform more effectively?
The post-negotiation analysis should not be more than 500 words (including title page, appendix,
etc), and is due on 22 May before Class 5 (please submit to IVLE).
You are encouraged to share your post-negotiation analysis with the other people who were
involved in your negotiation; your feedback could be quite helpful to your peers.

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

4. On-going Group Negotiation (15% of grade)
You will be working in a group with other classmates on a multi-round negotiation, some of which
will be completed outside of class. Your group will be assigned either the role of union negotiators
or management representatives, and will be paired with another group for three rounds of
negotiations. Your group will work together to develop negotiating strategies and complete the
negotiations.
Before each of the three negotiations, you will receive detailed information regarding the
negotiation. After each negotiation, your group should turn in the outcomes of the negotiation. In
addition, after the first round your group will be asked to turn in the scoring system you developed
for the negotiation. (Well talk more about scoring systems in class.)
Round 1 Scoring System (10% of grade)
The scoring systems developed by your group will be evaluated as part of your overall grade. In
particular, the scoring system you design for the first round will constitute 10% of your grade.
Your scoring systems will be graded based on your understanding and application of an additive
scoring system and your integration of issues in the case, and should be placed on IVLE before the
end of the night of Class 5, at the very latest.
Round 2 Outcome for On-going Negotiation (5% of grade)
For the second round, each groups outcomes will count for 5% of your grade. This grade will be
based on how well your results compare to those of your peers in the same role. This on-going
negotiation is the only instance in which your performance in a negotiation exercise will affect
your grade. Your outcomes can be submitted to me the night of the negotiation (Class 7).
5. Real Life Negotiation Analysis (35% of grade)
Although our course on negotiations has just begun, you have all been negotiating for years
perhaps without even thinking about the exchanges as negotiations. Likewise, in the past, you
have probably overlooked many opportunities for potential negotiations. To encourage you to
think about the many everyday opportunities you have to negotiate, and to improve your
negotiation skills, you are being asked to go out and negotiate!
You can negotiate for anything you would like. Be creative. Your negotiation could involve a
good or service from a merchant, a salary or bonus with an employer, a discount from a service
provider, or anything else. Also, note that you do not have to buy anything to complete this
assignment (e.g., negotiating with a child over bedtime). Similarly, your negotiations do not need
to be a success often, we learn as much from negotiations that fail as from those that succeed.
There are only two rules for this assignment:
1. You may not tell the person you are negotiating with that this is for a class project until the
negotiation is complete (and even then, its probably not necessary).
2. You are not allowed to engage in a negotiation that you do not intend to follow through
with if the outcome you desire is obtained.

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

After you have finished negotiating, you should write an analysis of the negotiation that includes a
planning document, scoring system (if applicable), and a post-negotiation analysis. Your analysis
should not exceed 1000 words (including title page, appendix, etc). This paper is due on 16 June,
so you should have plenty of time to find an interesting negotiating opportunity. As with the postnegotiation analysis, the key is to focus on an analysis rather than a description of the negotiation.
Your grade for this project will be based on your creativity and your analysis of the preparation,
process, and outcome of the negotiation.
HONOR CODE
The honor code applies to this class as follows:
You may use any strategy, short of physical violence, to reach an agreement, including
misrepresentation. However, in selecting a negotiation strategy it is important to remember
that a strategy may have ramifications that go beyond the particular negotiation in which it
was used.
You may not make up facts that materially change the power distribution of the exercise,
e.g., your family just bought the company with which you are currently negotiating. If you
are asked a question that calls for information that is not in your confidential instructions,
you may say, I dont know.
You may tell the other side what you wish, but do not show them your confidential role
instructions.
It is not appropriate to borrow notes or discuss cases with people outside of class.
Class discussion stays in class.
Material used in this class including but not limited to handouts, exercises, cases,
discussion questions, charts, and graphs are copyrighted and may not be used for purposes
other than the education experience of this class without the written consent of the
instructor.
RESEARCH
The research at NUS has been instrumental in developing the Universitys reputation as one of the
premier institutions for teaching negotiations. As a result, cutting-edge research on negotiations is
conducted at NUS. You have an opportunity to benefit from this research in this course. Just as
prior NUS students have contributed to your learning experience by participating in research, you
contribute to the experiences of future students. If you do not want your outcomes from any
exercise used for research purposes, please notify me. Negotiation results for research purposes
are always aggregated and anonymous.

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

Date

Topic

In Class

Class 1
May 9
(Mon)

Introduction to
Negotiations

Prepare Biopharm-Seltek

After Class - To Do

After Class To Read

Bazerman & Neale: Thinking
rationally about negotiating

Negotiate Biopharm-Seltek
Simple, Two-Party
Negotiations

Class 2
May 12
(Thu)

Assignments Due Today

Lewicki, Saunders, & Minton:

Strategy and tactics of
distributive bargaining

Debrief Biopharm-Seltek

Multiple Issue, Two- Negotiate Lion city

Party Negotiations
Debrief Lion city

Lax & Sebenius: Interests: The

measure of negotiation
Lax & Sebenius: The
Negotiators Dilemma: Creating
and Claiming Value

Class 3
May 16
(Mon)

Class 4
May 19
(Thu)

Class 5
May 23
(Mon)

Beyond "Win-Win"

Negotiate Cartoon
Debrief Cartoon

Power, Trust, and

Influence

Film: 12 Angry Men

One planning document per

negotiating team for Cartoon
(upload during class after
discussion, before negotiation)

Post-negotiation analysis for

Biopharm-Seltek, Lion City, or
Cartoon (20% of grade) due on
22 May

On-going Negotiation Prepare ABC/Local 190 Round 1 Scoring system for ABC/Local
190 Round 1 (upload postRound 1
Negotiate ABC/Local 190
negotiation scoring system (10%
Round 1
of grade) & outcome when you
finish Round 1, end of the night)

Thompson: Win-win
negotiations: Expanding the pie
Hammond, Keeney, Raiffa:
Even Swaps: A rational method
for making tradeoffs
Begin preparing your role for
ABC/Local 190 Round 1 you
will also be given some time to
prepare with your group at the
beginning of the next class.

Cialdini: Harnessing the Science

of Persuasion
Malholtra: Risky Business: Trust
in Negotiations

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

Date

Topic

Class 6
May 26
(Thu)

Agents and Ethics in Negotiate Bullard Houses

Negotiations
Debrief Bullard Houses

In Class

Assignments Due Today After Class - To Do

Begin preparing your role for
ABC/Local 190 Round 2 you
will also be given some time to
prepare with your group at the
beginning of the next class.

Class 7
May 30
(Mon)

On-going Negotiation Prepare ABC/Local 190 Round 2 Outcome for ABC/Local 190
Round 2
Round 2 (upload outcome by
end of night) (5% of grade)
Negotiate ABC/Local 190 Round 2

Class 8
June 2
(Thu)

Dispute Resolution

Class 9
June 6
(Mon)

On-going
Prepare ABC/Local 190 Round 3 Outcome for ABC/Local 190
Negotiation: Round 3
Round 3 (upload outcome by
Negotiate ABC/Local Round 3
end of night)

Class 10
June 9
(Thu)

Multi-Party
Negotiations and
Coalitions

Class 11
June 13
(Mon)

Multiparty, CrossPrepare Mouse

Cultural Negotiations
Negotiate Mouse
Wrap-up
Debrief Mouse

Negotiate Viking
Debrief Viking

One planning document per

Begin preparing your role for
ABC/Local 190 Round 3
negotiating team for Viking
(upload during class after
discussion, before negotiation)
(5% of grade)

Debrief ABC/Local 190

After Class To Read

Malholtra & Bazerman:
Recognizing and resolving
ethical dilemmas
Thompson: Team Decision
Making, Pitfalls and Solutions

Lytle, Brett & Shapiro: The

Strategic Use of Interests,
Rights, and Power to Resolve
Disputes

Malholtra & Bazerman :

Negotiating from a position of
weakness

Real life negotiation (35% of

grade) due on 16 June.

Note: Schedule is subject to change

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

PLANNING DOCUMENT
Before every negotiation (both in class and in the real world) you should construct a planning
document. The purpose of the planning document is threefold:
1. It will help you prepare systematically for negotiations.
2. Some weeks you will have a partner on your own side of the table with whom you will
develop and implement your negotiation strategy. Having completed a planning document
will expedite your strategy session with your partner.
3. It will help you transfer the negotiation skills you learn in class to negotiations you will do
outside of class.
Preparation is a vital part of the negotiation process. Time spent in preparation should focus on
assessing your interests and goals and those of your opponent. The more complete the information
you have about yourself and your opponent, the more control you can assume over your own
actions and reactions during the negotiation process. When you dont have information, especially
about your opponent, GUESS. One way of beginning the negotiation process is to ask questions to
try to fill in gaps in the information you have, or to test the assumptions you made in your guesses.
The Planning Document Form on the following page is provided for your use in class. The form
asks for information about both yourself and your opponent. Feel free to modify the existing form
in any way that helps you to prepare for your negotiations. As the course progresses and new
concepts are added, you may wish to change the format of your planning document. Just make
sure that you do not leave out any of the basic concepts in doing so.

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

Name(s):
PLANNING DOCUMENT FORM
Negotiation:

Role:

What issues are most important to you (e.g., what are your interests)? List in order of importance
and add more issues if necessary (in parenthesis list your position on each issue)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is your BATNA? Reservation Price? Target?

What are your sources of power?

What issues are most important to your opponent (e.g., what are their interests)? List in order of
importance, add more issues if necessary (in parenthesis list their expected position on each
issue).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

BMA 5406: Negotiations and Conflict Management

What is your opponents BATNA? Reservation Price?

What are your opponents sources of power?

What is your opening move/first strategy? Other important information? You should also create
contingencies and plans of action given potential moves by your opponent.

10