Assignments
Grades are based 50% on class work and 50% on writing: your Little Papers, the journal and Separate Pages. Please write in your confidential journal and write evaluations of your colleagues every week. I will read your papers, keep them confidential, and return the papers at the next class – no one else sees them.
Many of the documents that relate to these assignments can be found on the lecture notes page.
| SES # | TOPICS | ASSIGNMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction and Course Overview | Please write your first journal soon after the first class. Note the page attached to this syllabus on writing a journal. The first journal should include:
|
- The Class Notes reading assignment for today: Rowe, Mary. Options and Choice for Conflict Resolution in the Workplace, in Negotiation: Strategies for Mutual Gain, by Lavinia Hall, ed., Sage Publications, Inc., 1993, pp. 105-119, ends with an "Exercise" which is your first self-assessment. Write about your conflict management preferences and those of people close to you.
- Score the Thomas-Kilmann Questionnaire – the second self-assessment. Please write about your scores in three areas of your life. Some people photocopy the questionnaire and the answer sheet for a Significant Other before filling it out, either to find out the self-analysis of the Other, or to see how the other person thinks you would answer it, or both.
- Write about the $2 game: How did you feel about the negotiation conditions, and the tactics you used or observed in the $2 game? Whose negotiating behavior particularly impressed or irritated you, and why?
- Turn in at least one Separate Page, about the negotiation behavior of someone in the class which you found particularly noteworthy on the first day.
Case this week: Stratego Aero I. (Please save your copy of the case)
For next week: Please find the Ethics and Machiavelli Questionnaires, and scoring sheets in the Class Notes, for the assignment due in Session 3. Pick up your part in Terry and Josephine at Navigational Systems.
The Ethics and Machiavelli Questionnaires are the third and fourth self-assessments of this class. You will find the Ethics and Machiavelli Questionnaires, and scoring sheets, in the Class Notes. If you wish, photocopy the questionnaires and give a copy to someone who knows you well, to fill out about you and return to you. NB: The Machiavelli Questionnaire is at best quaint and sexist, and there are no right answers. The point is to assess the extent to which you think or act in a way that others might think is "Machiavellian," and to see if you believe that your thinking and behavior reflect your own values. Please feel free to (re) read The Prince, or recall anything you would like about Machiavelli, as you think about this. Alternatively, just deal with the image of "Machiavellianism" and whether you think it suits you.
Also – please write in your journal and, as usual, please write a separate page about the negotiation of someone in the class (journals are handed in during Session 6).
Case: Prepare your role in the Terry and Josephine case. If you can, prepare together with anyone who is playing the same role as you.
For Next Week: Pick up your roles for next week in the Hiring/Salary case (Barrister) and the Performance Evaluation case (The Yearly Review). Prepare with someone else with the same role if you can.
Write: Write in your journal, (which is due in Session 6). As usual, please write a separate page about your observations of someone in the class?
Cases: Prepare your role in Barrister, Counselor, Solicitor and Avocat, and your role in The Yearly Review. Please prepare together with anyone who is playing the same role as you.
Pick up copies of the Aggressive Competitive Negotiator and Tax Books cases to prepare for next week. Choose a partner for next week – the negotiation next week will be two on two.
Cases: Prepare the Tax Books case with a partner. NB: Please together choose a negotiating style and strategy and tactics that you and your partner will pursue – see the tactics sheet from Negotiation 101 (refer to the study materials section). Keep your plans secret from the other side, but please tell me in your journals how the planned choice of strategy, style and tactics influences (if at all) your negotiating, and the outcome of the case. See if you are able to figure out which strategy and style the other team adopted? In real life, can you recognize the strategy and style of others? (negotiated two on two)
Please also prepare the Aggressive Competitive Negotiator with your partner. Come up with several suggestions about how you might deal with this ACN.
Pick up your role in Telemachus, for next week. Please prepare with someone who has the same role.
Case: Prepare Telemachus, (but not the Coalition case). Prepare together with anyone who is playing the same role as you in Telemachus. Please pay special attention to the question of choosing a strategy and style and planning your tactics – again please review the Tactics sheet from Negotiations 101 and review the possible roles Ury describes for a Thirdsider – two pages at the end of N101 (refer to the study materials section).
Next Week: Please do the reading for Session 7, before you write your Perceived Injurious Experience letter. Then read the instructions in the Class Notes on how to write a P.I.E. letter. This letter is your Little Paper #2, due in Session 7. You may turn this assignment in early if you wish to because you are taking a trip. Please try hard to follow the instructions even if you think they are too rigid.
Hand in Little Paper #2: "Perceived Injurious Experience."
Please try hard to follow the instructions, even if you think they are too rigid?
Preparing for Next Week: Read the instructions (in the Class Notes) for Little Paper #3, "Seeing Both Sides of a Dispute", due on Session 9.
Pick up Stratego Aero II. Check to see that you still have Stratego Aero I. You will need both I and II to prepare for next week.
Before you leave class please arrange to prepare together with one or more people playing the same role as you in the mediation next week. Preparing for any important negotiation is probably the most important skill in negotiations. It is especially vital if you are going into a mediation in any role. You will find the Moore readings useful, so try to do the readings for next week before you meet with a colleague who has the same role. See also the Moore chart: Figure 2.1 from Moore, Christopher W. The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict. 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass, 1996.
Hand in: Little Paper #3: Seeing Both Sides of a Dispute (PDF)
Case: Prepare Stratego Aero II. To do so, you should have re-read Stratego Aero I as well as your Stratego II Secret Instructions. Prepare together with someone who is playing the same role as you and please prepare carefully. Otherwise you will mess up your colleagues' role-playing, and they will write me fierce notes about requiring people to prepare better.
Pick up cases for next week. These cases are somewhat controversial. Can you find a classmate, or someone else quite different from you, to read the cases together with you, and help prepare for the class discussion?
Remember the double class (6 hours) next week with pizza.
(Double Class, 6 hours)
The last journal (covering the period Session 6 through today) and separate pages, are due after this class, any time later this week.
Class: Certified Public Accountants, Inc. (Theft); Discussion of Cases Distributed in Class (Drugs, Whistleblowers, and a Convicted Employee).
Cases: Please prepare to discuss the cases. If you possibly can, prepare by asking people outside the class – preferably ask someone who is not of your own background – what should happen in any of these cases. There is no role-play preparation.


