CALL FOR PAPERS
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:
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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?
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“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.
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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
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: SEPTEMBER 30, 2007
