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Teaching the Art and Science of Negotiation (From International Negotiation, P 39-45, 1984, Diane B Bendahmane and John W McDonald, Jr, eds. See NCJ-99624)

NCJ Number
99628
Author(s)
H Raiffa
Date Published
1984
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The author outlines a role playing model he uses to teach negotiation to graduate students and discusses how to move from a simple exercise involving two parties and a clear-cut dispute to negotiations involving many issues and parties.
Abstract
In this format, real cases are discussed with the students before they play the roles of different parties in a simple negotiation game. In the simulation, students are given some common information and some confidential information, must resolve the dispute, and then complete statistical forms. The teacher analyzes the results and discusses with the students what worked and what did not. This paper provides one simple problem that can be used in a role playing exercise; a developer who wants to buy a halfway house from a group of young people, and the two parties must negotiate a price. Common and confidential information and discussion questions are included. A more complicated senario of police union negotiations with a city government involves two parties and several issues such as wages, benefits, disciplinary actions, and working conditions. One the next level of complexity, diplomatic negotiation over what happens in the Panama Canal is the example of two-party bargaining where each party is not monolithic.