Teaching International Business Negotiation: Reflections on Three Decades of Experience

Abstract

The author has taught international business negotiation in a wide variety of university courses and executive training programs throughout the world during the last three decades. He has taught international business negotiation both as an end in itself and as a means to teach law, an approach that he calls "the law in the shadow of negotiation." This article examines three fundamental dimensions of that experience: pedagogical goals, course content and teaching methods. His principal pedagogical goals in international business negotiation courses have been three-fold: better negotiation analysis, improved negotiation skills, and increased international business knowledge. Depending on the time available, the content of his international business negotiation courses covers three broad areas: the fundamentals of conflict analysis and the negotiation process, basic themes in international negotiation, such as the importance of negotiation, preparation and the management of internal negotiations, and the special obstacles faced in international business negotiation, such as cultural differences among the parties, the actual or potential role of governments in the negotiation process, and challenges to the stability of negotiated agreements. The author's teaching relies heavily on experiential methods and materials, such as exercises, simulations and cases, although more didactic methods also have a role.

Negotiating In Cross-Cultural Contexts

“…attitudes related to time, such as punctuality and to formats -format of the presentation), attitudes derived from the norms of the culture the negotiator belongs to. The core represents the values, such as beliefs that a certain social conduct is preferable to another [10]. Hall's cultural variables system refers mostly to high-context cultures vs. lowcontext cultures, polychronic cultures vs. monochronic cultures and to cultural differences in the perception of space.…”

Planning and Managing the Negotiation Exercise

“…Managing group process is also required as some students will seek to dominate the discussion, other students will become lost in the details and/or miss the point entirely. Sometimes the instructor misses an important point but there is always another class where such issues can be re-examined (Mans, et al 2010, Salacuse 2010, Deason, et al 2013.…”

“…The instructor should explicitly link exercise experiences to course material, while concurrently offering additional knowledge, theory and insights in a spontaneous manner. It is important that the instructor foster an atmosphere conducive to open communication and learning, while the focus is to provide tools to analysis specific situations and make choices (Mans, et al 2010, Salacuse 2010, Deason, et al 2013.…”

Windows on the World: An Experiential Exercise

“…The value of integrating cognitive conceptual learning and learning from experience has long been recognized, both in education and in the management development literature (Kolb, 1984;Ng, Van Dyne, & Ang, 2009;Potter, 2009). Proponents of experiential learning have contended that exercises and simulations shift learners from passive to active participants in the learning process (Johnston & Burton, 2009;Potter, 2009) and significantly enhance the overall learning experience and learning outcomes (Blanton & Barbuto, 2005;Salacuse, 2010). Salacuse (2010) explains how role-play simulations confront students with the need to truly understand details and issues that they have previously only studied through reading and scholarly commentary.…”