RSM2604H – Managerial Negotiations (SiT 2024)

Target Audience

This course is intended for students who expect to work with people. This class provides an opportunity to develop their interpersonal skills and learn how to negotiate resources. This course is also a prerequisite for Advanced Negotiations & Conflict Management (RSM2603); this class will provide you with a foundation necessary for Advanced Negotiations & Conflict Management.

Format

Summer Intensive Term 2024 – weekend intensive course with anticipated in-class time to be four 6-hour sessions.

Course Mission

Negotiation is the art and craft by which decisions are made, agreements reached, and disputes resolved between two or more parties. Managerial Negotiations can be hard work, where negotiators are confronted by obstacles of uncertainty, the potential for conflict and limited control. This course focuses you on a different way of thinking about negotiations – of approaching it with a prospecting mindset, where negotiators see negotiation as an opportunity, one that focuses them on the skills at communication and problem-solving. As such, this introductory course has three main aspects. The first is to discuss and apply theories you may find helpful in improving your own negotiation skills. The second, to help you sharpen your skills by having you negotiate with other students in realistic settings. The third, to help you feel more comfortable and confident with the negotiation process. This course should be relevant to the broad spectrum of bargaining problems that are traditionally faced by managers. This course is designed to complement the knowledge provided in other MBA courses and to prepare students for second-year electives in organizational behaviour, such as courses on leading teams and advanced negotiation. It is also a prerequisite for RSM2603 – Advanced Negotiations & Conflict Management.

Course Scope

To advance our discussion of a prospecting mindset, the course scope targets four learning outcomes. The first will focus on strategies that help students measure their success, by enhancing skills essential to value creation and value claiming through negotiations. The second will focus on improving negotiator flexibility in the face of complexity; managerial negotiations often involve information that is volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and/or dependent on future events. Students will learn how to avoid biases that uncertainty creates and capitalize on the value that complex negotiations can bring. Finally, students will develop themselves to be more effective negotiators: Students will learn about themselves through an online self-assessment on relationships, and by conducting negotiation exercises throughout the course. They will also apply what they learn in a written assignment about their continued development as a negotiator. They will also receive peer feedback, from discussions with classmates on their experiences negotiating with each other. Throughout the course, students will have a chance to apply the strategies they learn through in-class team activities.

Evaluation and Grade Breakdown

Component	Due Date	Weight
Class Participation	Ongoing	20%
Self-Appraisal Paper	Usually one week after final class	80%

Required Resources

A book accompanies this course. The book, in the instructor’s experience, is the best ongoing resource available for learning about managerial negotiations. The instructor will also distribute supplementary materials throughout.

Notes

This course is a prerequisite for anyone interested in taking RSM2603 – Advanced Negotiations & Conflict Management