Success in business and everyday life hinges on the ability to navigate negotiations and resolve conflicts effectively. Whether securing favorable terms with suppliers, closing deals with clients, managing workplace disputes, handling investor relations, or de-escalating interpersonal tensions, the capacity to negotiate strategically and manage conflicts constructively is essential. This course equips students with the frameworks, skills, and practical tools necessary to negotiate in diverse settings and address conflicts with confidence. Through case discussions, simulations, and interactive exercises, students will enhance their ability to analyze interests, create value, and reach mutually beneficial agreements.

This course expands students’ understanding of foundational and advanced topics in negotiation and conflict management. Across five main sessions, the course focuses on:

1. Claiming value in negotiations
2. Creating value in negotiations
3. Strategies for multiparty negotiations
4. Rights, interests, and power in human conflict
5. Conflict resolution as a first- or third party

Throughout the course, students will:

• experience various negotiation situations firsthand in the classroom that allow you to apply negotiation concepts, influence tactics, and improve your negotiation skills.
• understand how individual biases shape behavior, and how these biases can be overcome using insights from social judgment, social cognition, and decision-making.
• reflect on their negotiation performance based on feedback from the course instructor, their peers, and AI-supported analysis of recorded negotiation simulations.

The course is designed for students who are not yet familiar with negotiation theory and concepts as well as students who have acquired first experience in these domains (e.g., through participation in related courses).

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand and apply key negotiation frameworks, strategies, and conflict-resolution techniques.
• Develop practical negotiation skills through role plays, simulations, and experiential exercises.
• Analyze interests, power dynamics, incentives, and communication styles in negotiation settings.
• Manage emotions and resolve conflicts both as a negotiating party and as a third party (mediator).
• Negotiate more confidently under complex conditions and when dealing with difficult counterparts.

Attendance in class is required (formal records of attendance will be kept). You need to be present at least 80% of the time, which implies that you should not miss more than one session. However, as a great deal of the value you will derive comes from the in-class negotiation exercises, I strongly encourage you to be present in all sessions.

In case you do have to miss a session (e.g., due to sickness), please let me know as far ahead as possible. In case of excused absence (please provide medical certificate if possible), there is the possibility to make up for your participation points with an additional, voluntary assignment.

The course uses in-class negotiation simulations as the primary method for developing practical negotiation and conflict-resolution skills. Through these exercises, key theories, concepts, and frameworks are experienced, discovered, and applied in an engaging and interactive way. The course is built on the premise that learning is most effective when students are actively involved and enjoy the process.

Every session includes an in-class negotiation exercise. These exercises form the core of the course and range from simple two-party negotiations to complex multiparty settings and emotionally charged conflicts requiring resolution. They are designed to give students repeated opportunities to test and refine negotiation strategies and tactics that are applicable in professional contexts as well as in everyday life.

Course Materials and Licensing Fees

Please note that some role-play simulations used in this course require a licensing fee. Each student is responsible for purchasing their assigned role using their own credit card. The total cost for all required materials is expected to be approximately €15–€20 for the course.

Grading components for performance assessment:

• Participation (30%)
• Negotiation Exercise Design (30%)
• Capstone Negotiation (40%)

Below are brief descriptions of each of these grading components. For each component, a more detailed instruction will be provided in the respective Canvas assignment.

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.

If you have any further questions regarding the course content or organization, feel free to contact me anytime: pascal.guentuerkuen@wu.ac.at.