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MGMT 6520L: Cross-cultural Negotiation

Fall 2018

Department of Management
School of Business and Management
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Prof. Melody Chao Becky TSUI

Associate Professor Instructional Assistant
Office: LSK Room 5022 LSK Room 5018
Phone: 2358 7739 3469 2239
Email: mchao@ust.hk mnbecky@ust.hk
Office hours: By appointment
Course website: http://canvas.ust.hk/

Class Meetings:
Nov 3 – Dec 22 Saturdays LSK 1032 2:00pm-5:20pm

Course Overview

Negotiation happens every day and every minute. In personal domain, we might often find
ourselves negotiating with our parents, siblings, friends, classmates, romantic partners, sales
representatives, waiters/waitresses, or even strangers. In work context, we might find ourselves
negotiating our starting salary with potential employers, discussing our workload with
supervisors or teammates, or representing our company to negotiate with suppliers, distributors,
or other partners. Being able to negotiating is important to both our career and personal life.
Although some of us might be an experienced negotiator and have developed a set of negotiation
strategies, our negotiation skills can always be improved.

This course aims to broaden your understanding in negotiation by introducing you to a variety of
systematic frameworks and models of negotiation. These frameworks would enhance your ability
to analyze the kinds of conflict and negotiation you are engaging in, and to derive optimal
strategies that help to attain your goal in these situations. We also extend the negotiation
repertoire to a cross-cultural level. We will discuss how culture affects negotiations. Often times,
culture affects how you and your opponent perceives the negotiation process, your negotiation
behaviors, and whether you are able to cut a deal or not.

In this course, apart from imparting you with knowledge of negotiation and conflict management,
we also recognize that enacting the strategies is very important. Therefore, we have incorporated
a wide range of activities to the classes for you to practice the strategies that you develop from
your analysis of negotiation.

Course Objectives

This course aims to improve your negotiation skills by:

1. Introducing you to core concepts and frameworks of negotiation;

2. Providing platforms for you to explore the situational contingencies of the negotiation
concepts and frameworks. You will get to practice and apply the negotiation frameworks in a
broad variety of situations, such as single-issue, multi-issue, dyadic, multi-person, team,
cross-cultural, deal-making, and dispute resolution settings. These practices aim to enhance
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your ability in designing and implementing strategies for negotiating effectively across a wide
range of situations.
3. Exposing you to negotiators who might have different cultural background and help you to
assess the relevance of culture in negotiation.

Another important objective of the class is to have fun!

Course Materials

Recommended
Brett, J. M. (2014). Negotiating Globally: How to Negotiate Deals, Resolve Disputes, and Make
Decisions. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Additional Suggestions
Siedel, G. J. (2014). Negotiating for Success: Essential Strategies and Skills. Van Rye
Publishing, LLC.
Ury, W. (1991). Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situation. Bantam Books.

Other resources
 Lecture notes: Available for download from course website. These are just outlines and not
meant to replace your own note taking.
 Additional readings: Available for download from course website.
 Additional handouts will be distributed on the course website or in class.

Course Format

In this class you will learn how to negotiate by really negotiating with each other in different
situations. You must be prepared to actively participate in every class. Throughout this semester,
you will be involved in multiple negotiation simulations in which you will negotiate with another
student or team of students. The negotiation results will be posted for discussion afterward.
Given that this is an experiential course, your participation in the role-play and the discussion is
very important in contributing to your own (and also other classmates’) learning experiences.

For every negotiation exercise you will be given some confidential information. To simulate real
life situations, do not share the confidential information with other classmates (treat them as
‘strangers’) before the negotiation. During the negotiation, you may tell your opponent(s)
whatever you like but you should NEVER show your opponent your confidential information. In
the real world, people often have hidden agenda and do not know each other’s confidential
information. We would like to make the negotiation simulation as close to real life situation as
possible to maximize your and your classmates’ learning experiences. So, please do not share
your confidential information with anyone, both inside or outside of classes until after we have
full debriefed and discussed about the exercises.

Class Norms

 Come to class on time. If you are late, please walk in quietly to minimize disturbance to the
class.
 Turn off the ringer of your mobile phones.
 Listen attentively and participate actively to contribute to the classroom learning
environment.
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Class Discussion/Participation

Participation is valuable as it gives you the opportunity to contribute to the learning in this class and
to learn from others. Your participation grade will reflect the quality of your contribution to the
collective learning environment. Attendance is important for your own learning and for your
contribution to the collective learning environment. It is important to share your own views with the
class. When presenting your own perspective, consider how that adds value to our collective learning.

Learning Logbook

You will be provided with a “Learning Logbook” at the beginning of the semester. This logbook
aims to help you focus on the insights that you have gained throughout the course. It can be used
to record the development of your or other classmates’ ideas and their implications for practice.
You can reflect on the content of the subject matter and on your own learning process (e.g., What
are my strengths and weaknesses as a negotiator? How are these ideas relevant to my
experiences?).

Planning Document

Prior to each negotiation exercise, you should craft out your own planning document. You need
to use the planning document template provided for you or create a planning document that
would best fit your need. The planning document should help you to plan thoroughly for the
negotiation.

Reflection Paper

The Reflection Paper provides you with an opportunity to consider the ways in which the issues
and concepts discussed in class affect you personally as an individual and as a business
professional. You can choose to either:

a) Analyze an international or cross-cultural negotiation situation about which you have personal
knowledge, or have access to participant (e.g., starting salary with potential employers, work
allocation among team members, free gift/discount for purchases, etc.); or
b) Analyze an international or cross-cultural negotiation situation in which you have interest, but
will have to use publicly available documents.

In writing your paper, take a few paragraphs to set up and describe the negotiation situation. You
can include tables with timelines and parties, positions, and interests as appendices. Usually the
best papers result from choosing a situation that could have benefitted from better negotiation
strategy. After analyzing the situation, say what should have been done or could have been done.
Other good papers result from in-depth analysis of why a negotiation went well. These situations
provide an opportunity for developing strategic advice that can be used in other situations having
a similar structure. This paper should not exceed 4 pages (double-spaced; 12-point Times New
Roman). Appendices and reference list would not count toward the page limit.

The paper will be graded based on its writing, correct use of negotiation concepts, analyses, and
insights.

Examination

There will also be a final exam in this course. The exam focuses on the understanding and
application of the key ideas discussed. All course materials (such as, assigned readings, lectures,
videos, exercises) are subjected to examination. A make-up exam will only be granted if your
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absence is due to extraordinary circumstances beyond your control, such as medical emergencies.
Appropriate documentation is required in order to be considered for a make-up exam.

Performance Evaluation

The course grade consists of the following components:

Percentage
Learning Logbook 15%
Planning document 15%
Class participation 20%
Reflection Paper 25%
Final Exam 25%
Total 100%

Final Grade. Your final grade will be given based on the distribution of the students’ total scores
in MGMT 6520L.

Email policy
We usually receive a large amount of emails before exams and submission deadlines. Please
allow 48 hours to reply your email. Last-minute questions that are sent less than 48 hours before
exams or submission deadlines might not be responded as priorities will be given to students who
send their emails earlier.

Grade appeal
If you disagree with the evaluation of your performance on any exam and assignment, you may
submit a grade appeal. Your appeal will only be considered if you submit a written rebuttal to us
within one week of receiving the grade. In the rebuttal, you should detail the reasons why you
believe your grade should be revised. A grade review will be completed within one week, which
may result in a grade increase, grade decrease, or no change.

Student Feedback

We welcome feedback throughout the semester. Feel free to contact us any time you have
questions, concerns, suggestions, or would like to ask for advice.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a critical value of the university community. You are expected to uphold
the HKUST Academic Honor Code and show the highest level of integrity and honesty in the
work you do. I have absolutely no tolerance for cheating – cheating in exams, copying other
people’s work without proper citation and acknowledgment, allowing others to copy your work,
putting down others’ names on class exercises, using other students’ PRS handset, and any other
form of academic dishonesty. Please DON’T cheat! Be proud of yourself and remember why
you are attending HKUST – to learn, to challenge, to dialogue with others, to receive feedback on
your work, and to improve.

Refer to http://www.ust.hk/vpaao/integrity/ for information on university regulations regarding

academic integrity. Remember, two cases of ethical misconduct will get you dismissed from the
university automatically.
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Accommodations for Students with Disabilities or Special Education Needs

Accommodations for students with disabilities or special education needs can be provided.
Students with disabilities who need special accommodation should inform the instructor or
instructional assistant of their needs at the beginning of the semester so that appropriate
arrangements can be made.

Course Schedule
Week Date Topic Recommended Readings
(Brett, 2014)
1 Nov 3 Negotiation Chapter 1
2 Nov 10 Cross-cultural Negotiation Strategies Chapters 2 & 3
3 Nov 17 Resolving dispute Chapter 4
4 Nov 24 Using third parties Chapter 4
5 Dec 1 Negotiating in teams Chapter 5
6 Dec 8 Multi-party Negotiation: Social Dilemmas Chapter 6
7 Dec 15 Government at the table Chapter 7
8 Dec 22 Exam
Note: Submit reflection paper & learning
logbook
* The instructors reserve the right to revise the syllabus as needed.