78175 Negotiation
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Credit points: 8 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): ( 78100c Postgraduate Legal Research OR ((102 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C04236 Juris Doctor OR 102 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C04250 Juris Doctor Master of Business Administration)))
The lower case 'c' after the subject code indicates that the subject is a corequisite. See definitions for details.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 77745 Negotiation
Description
Negotiation is an essential subject for law students. It is arguable that lawyers spend more time negotiating than they do anything else. Lawyers negotiate with clients and for clients, with their employers and employees, colleagues, with lawyers for the other side (and their support staff), with the court system, with the judicial officer and with their families. Understanding how to negotiate fairly and effectively is likely to be more important to the future life and career of a legal professional than any other skill.
This subject brings together current theories and practice in negotiation skills and analysis with an emphasis on identifying effective negotiation strategies. It is taught in a three-day intensive block which is designed to provide a participatory and engaging workshop-based approach to learning and applying negotiation theory and skills followed by a single day assessment seminar. Many diverse approaches to negotiation are covered, with a primary focus on 'principled negotiation' as taught by the Harvard Law School's Project on Negotiation.
Students practise and develop their negotiation skills and understanding through simulated role-plays and exercises focused around distributive and integrative bargaining, principled negotiation theory and practice and the challenges of complex multi-party and multi-disciplinary negotiations and e-negotiations. Negotiation practice is further cultivated through a student-developed scenario and evaluation checklist to measure the effectiveness of a simulated negotiation process and its outcomes. Through role-plays and debriefs, students have continuous opportunities to receive feedback from peers and teaching staff. Finally, students demonstrate effective and appropriate written communication and the ability to analyse, research, and persuade in a research essay.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Investigate, analyse, evaluate and apply negotiation processes and bargaining styles, including integrative and distributive bargaining; |
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| 2. | Differentiate Principled Negotiation from other techniques and negotiation approaches and apply the cognitive, technical and creative skills of Principled Negotiation at practical and theoretical levels; |
| 3. | Prepare, manage, design and execute a formal negotiation by applying Principled Negotiation techniques and evaluate and review a completed negotiation; |
| 4. | Critically analyse, distinguish and communicate the major theoretical propositions, methodologies, and professional issues in negotiation literature including power, coalition building, persuasion, trust and ethical issues; |
| 5. | Implement self-directed work and development including preparing for and applying feedback on negotiation tasks, managing individual contribution to group work and employing reflective practices to evaluate their personal contribution when working with others. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of the following graduate attributes:
- Disciplinary Knowledge
An advanced and integrated understanding of a complex body of legal knowledge including:
A range of non-adversarial dispute resolution processes including commercial, family, community and court annexed processes; and
The broader contexts within non-adversarial dispute resolution processes operate and arise including consensual processes, decisional theory, regulatory, cultural, social justice, and ethical contexts. (1.0) - Critical Analysis and Evaluation
A capacity to think critically, strategically and creatively about non-adversarial dispute resolution processes, including the ability to identify and articulate complex issues, apply reasoning and research to generate appropriate responses to problems and engage in critical analysis (3.0) - Self management
A high level of autonomy, adaptability, accountability and professionalism, and, the ability to implement appropriate self-management and lifelong learning strategies including:
The ability to support personal and professional development by reflecting on and assessing their own capabilities and performance, making use of feedback as appropriate, and then developing and implementing strategies for improvement, making use of available resources and assistance as appropriate; and
A capacity to adapt to and embrace change and a commitment to ongoing learning. (6.0)
Teaching and learning strategies
Strategy 1
Independent and self-managed Learning
Preparation activities are outlined on UTSOnline and include resources such as videos, websites, and self-directed learning exercises. Engaging with these materials and completing review questions enables students to clarify concepts and terminology and to familiarise themselves with necessary content and skills prior to attending the intensive block. Students continue preparing independently for each day of the intensive by reflecting overnight upon the day’s learning. Days 2 and 3 of the intensive block begin with a review where students share their questions and observations from the previous day. During the intensive, students proactively manage their time when participating in group exercises and role-play opportunities. There is ongoing encouragement for students to learn from each other and responsibly practise new skills by experimenting with ideas in the roleplays, as well as reflect on their experiences through class discussion and group reporting. This requirement for self-directed learning and time-management mirrors the requirements of professional practice. Self-management strategies and independent learning are crucial to continuing development as legal professionals and dispute resolution practitioners.
Strategy 2
Engaging in Lectures and Seminars
Intensive block days involve a combination of lectures and interactive workshop sessions. In the lectures, students develop a thorough understanding of negotiation concepts and methods. This prepares them to experiment with practical implementation of the theory in real-world scenarios through the role-play exercises. The lectures provide students with an in-depth understanding of various negotiation techniques and methodologies, as well as ethical issues that can arise in relation to different techniques and consideration of factors such as cultural background and emotional state in negotiation. Students are encouraged to ask questions, clarify theoretical issues, explore new ideas and practise critiquing theories and literature during participatory lectures, class discussion and debriefing sessions. Students are also challenged to reflect on their own learned negotiation behaviours in the light of their new theoretical understanding.
Strategy 3
Role-plays, Exercises and Debriefs
Throughout the intensive block, students experience the practical aspects of negotiation in simulated role-plays and other negotiation exercises. Students build on the theoretical knowledge acquired through the subject materials, lectures and discussions to develop effective and appropriate communication skills. Splitting into groups at various stages throughout the intensive block, students are given outlines of a dispute to negotiate. They take on a role and attempt to negotiate a positive outcome for their character. This allows students to gain a hands-on appreciation of the techniques, emotions and difficulties that can arise in a negotiation in a supportive, non-threatening environment. At the end of the workshop, students share and explore their experiences, gaining insight into the perspectives of those on the other side of the negotiation table. This encourages greater awareness of the factors that can impact negotiation, provides them with feedback on their personal negotiation style and exposes them to the differing negotiation styles of other students. Over the three days of the intensive, students are introduced to increasingly complex and challenging negotiation processes finishing with a significant group negotiation. Students are also required to engage in reflective self-evaluation of their performance, enhancing their understanding of group dynamics between professionals in a collaborative environment.
Strategy 4
Feedback
Individual and group feedback is provided to students during and after completion of each role-play throughout the intensive block. Students receive on the spot instruction and support from teaching staff as well as having many opportunities to discuss their experiences with their peers and engage in individual self-evaluation. Students incrementally develop and increase their negotiation skills through exploring various roleplay characters, receiving feedback and adjusting their approaches in the next negotiation. Each negotiation exercise provides students with an opportunity to practise for the Negotiation Scenario in Assessment Task 1. The formal debrief which follows each negotiation exercise also ensures that students integrate practice with theory and reflect on their improvement as the subject progresses.
Additionally, these feedback and debrief periods after each role-play provide students with the opportunity to critically engage in testing and adapting evaluative techniques and approaches. As students become more familiar with evaluative perspectives, they become better prepared for the evaluation in Assessment Task 2. Written feedback is provided for the assessment tasks.
Subject Delivery
The subject is presented in block mode over 4 days: a three-day intensive block plus one seminar day.
The intensive block will take place on Thursday 31 March, Friday 1 April and Saturday 2 April and the seminar day on Wednesday 4 May.
Attendance at all three (3) days of the intensive block and the final seminar day is compulsory to successfully complete the subject.
Content (topics)
- Distributive and Integrative Bargaining
- Principled negotiation theory and practice
- Pre-negotiation analysis, preparation and participation
- The challenges of complex negotiations, including agency and team issues
- Collaborative Law as a multi-disciplinary negotiation process
- Negotiation behaviours and communication issues
- Coalition dynamics
- Risk analysis
- Trust issues
- Good faith, persuasion and deception
- Power
- Gender in negotiation
- Cultural issues
- E-negotiation
- Evaluation and review of a completed negotiation to enhance future performance.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Negotiation Scenario (Group project)
| Intent: | This task assesses the ability of students to negotiate the creation of a comprehensive dispute scenario based on their understanding of negotiation theory and the factors that can influence the dynamics of a negotiation. |
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 This task contributes specifically to the development of the following graduate attributes: 1.0, 3.0 and 6.0 |
| Weight: | 15% |
| Length: | 1,000 words (min) – 1,500 words (max) |
| Criteria: |
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Assessment task 2: Evaluation of negotiated scenario
| Intent: | Students engage in independent evaluation of the role-play based on their negotiation scenario (Assessment Task 1) as it is performed by other students. Students are assessed on their ability to plan the evaluation criteria as an author group, and as individuals on their ability to reflectively evaluate how well their negotiation scenario demonstrates the theories they selected to embed in it. This assessment task has two sub-parts. |
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 This task contributes specifically to the development of the following graduate attributes: 1.0, 3.0 and 6.0 |
| Weight: | 35% |
| Length: | 1,000 word equivalent |
| Criteria: |
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Assessment task 3: A critique of a theory explored in the scenario
| Intent: | This task assesses the ability of students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the main concepts of a negotiation theory and to explore its usefulness or impact in the dispute resolution field. |
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2 and 4 This task contributes specifically to the development of the following graduate attributes: 1.0, 3.0 and 6.0 |
| Weight: | 50% |
| Length: | 5,000 words |
| Criteria: |
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Required texts
Roy J Lewicki, Bruce Barry, and David Saunders, Essentials of Negotiation (McGraw Hill, 6th ed, 2015)
Recommended texts
Michael Watkins, Breakthrough Business Negotiations (Jossey Bass, 2002)
Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton, Getting to Yes: Negotiating an Agreement Without Giving In (Random House, 2nd ed, 1999) – or any later edition.
Other resources
Books
Nadja Alexander, Jill Howieson and Kenneth Fox, Negotiation: Strategy, Style, Skills (Lexis Nexis, 3rd ed, 2015)
Max H Bazerman and Margaret Neale, Negotiating Rationally (The Free Press, 1992)
Michael Benoliel, Negotiation Excellence: Successful Deal Making (World Scientific, 2011)
Roger Fisher, E Lopelman and A Schneider, Beyond Machiavelli: Tools for Coping with Conflict (Harvard University Press, 1994)
Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro, Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate (Penguin Books, 2005)
Deborah Kolb and Judith William, The Shadow Negotiation: How Women Can Master the Hidden Agenda that Determine Bargaining Success (Simon and Schuster, 2000)
Roderick M Kramer and David Messick, eds, Negotiation as a Social Process (Sage Publications,1995)
Roy J Lewicki , DM Saunders, JW Minto and B Barry, Negotiation: Readings, Exercises and Cases (McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2003)
Howard Raiffa, John Richardson, and David Metcalfe, Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making (Harvard University Press, 2002)
Robert H Mnookin, Scott R Peppet, and Andrew S Tulumello, Beyond Winning: Negotiation to Create Value in Deals and Disputes (Harvard University Press, 2000)
Robert H Mnookin and Lawrence E Susskind, eds, Negotiating on Behalf of Others: Advice to Lawyers, Business Executives, Sports Agents, Diplomats, Politicians and Everybody Else (Sage Publications,1999)
Lawrence Susskind, Good for You, Great for Me (Public Affairs, 2014)
Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton, Getting to Yes: Negotiating an Agreement Without Giving In (Random Century Ltd, 2nd ed, 1999) or any later edition.
Journals
Negotiation Journal
Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal
Bond Law Review
Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution
Harvard Law Review
