NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
 
SPECIAL ISSUE

BEYOND THE DEAL:  NEXT GENERATION NEGOTIATION SKILLS

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: SEPTEMBER 30, 2007

 

Guest Editors

Mara Olekalns, Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne

Jeanne Brett, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

 
Overview


Negotiations present individuals with a complex, multilayered process.
In order to craft a deal, negotiators must manage at least three
distinct layers: the substantive aspects of negotiation, that is,
creating and claiming value; the social processes that underpin and
shape negotiators' ability to craft a deal; and, the increasingly
complex environment in which deals are made.   To manage each of these
layers, negotiators need to balance a mastery of substantive,
deal-making skills with a mastery of complementary social and relational
skills.   Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the intangible
aspects of negotiation, such as trust, emotion and reputation. There is
also a growing recognition of the changing environment in which we
negotiate, which may involve unseen enemies, unidentifiable coalitions
and intractable disputes. Managing these intangible aspects of
negotiation requires a unique set of skills that focus on the social and
relational aspects of negotiation. 


Despite our recognition that these skills play an important role in
deal-making, in practice capturing this next generation of negotiation
skills in a classroom setting is challenging in two ways.   The first
challenge is to create classroom experiences that capture the essence of
these intangible aspects of negotiation.  The second challenge is to
build these experiences from research-based knowledge about how these
intangibles factors play out in negotiation.   The goal of this special
is to (a) stimulate a discussion about how research findings in the
three areas listed below can be used to create effective learning tools
and (b) identify gaps in our knowledge that provide future directions
for research.      

 

We invite contributions that address how educators can develop next
generation negotiation skills in three key areas:  

i)              Social Context.  How can factors such as reputation,
trust and ethical behavior be captured in the classroom for
understanding and analysis?  How do we create a learning environment in
which our students experience the consequences of reputational damage,
unethical behavior or trust violation?  

ii)             "Hot" Negotiations.  Whether it is a strategic or
genuine, emotion plays a role in negotiation, and even more so in
disputes.  But how do we recreate the strong genuine emotions that can
arise when trust is violated? What happens when emotions are pushed to
the extreme? Students need to learn not just how to deal with others'
emotions in negotiations but also with their own.

iii)           Complex environments.  The environment within which we
negotiate is becoming increasingly complex, due to technology,
globalization of business, and sensitivity to the environment.  How can
we recreate and teach the complexities of negotiating with
multi-cultural teams, governments or non-governmental organizations, big
team negotiations, negotiations that include environmental issues or
seemingly intractable disputes?

 

While we have a strong preference for contributions that address these
themes, we also welcome research-based submissions that advance our
practices in teaching negotiation skills in other areas.  

For further information, please contact one of the guest editors:

Mara Olekalns              m.olekalns@mbs.edu

Jeanne Brett                 jmbrett@kellogg.northwestern.edu

 

 

 

_________________________________

Mara Olekalns

 

Professor of Management (Negotiation)

Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne

 

 

 

 

 


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