Dispute Resolution Research Center, Kellogg School of Management

This is an exercise that can be used to teach integrative negotiation skills in the context of deal making or dispute resolution. The exercise was intended for undergraduates; however, it may be used with more advanced students especially to illustrate: 1) the differences between negotiating deals versus disputes, and 2) negotiating as a solo and negotiating as a team in the deal making/dispute resolution context. It can also be used to illustrate how culture interacts with negotiation context.

Preparation: 15-20 minutes
Negotiation: 30 minutes
Debrief: 60 minutes

Brookside Hospital vs. Black Computer Systems, Inc.: Negotiation Version
Authors: Stephen B. Goldberg & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC

This is a dispute between a hospital and a software and hardware supplier. It is similar in structure to Rapid Printing vs. Scott Computers. It can also be used by management or law students alone or working in teams. It can be used to teach interests, rights, and power approaches to dispute resolution as well as advanced dispute resolution concepts like linked BATNAs and redirection of negotiations from rights or power to interests.

Preparation: 60 minutes or more
Negotiation: 75 – 90 minutes

Chestnut Drive
Authors: Mark N. Gordon & Bruce M. Patton
Source: Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON), DRRC version

DRRC's version of Chestnut Drive is a dispute between a group of neighbors and the company that is building a condominium development at the end of their street. The exercise provides a good opportunity to introduce dispute resolution concepts of interests, rights, and power. It is also a vehicle for discussing credible threats.

Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes

Club West
Authors: Craig R. Fox & Alan C. Fox
Teaching Notes: Stephen B. Goldberg & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC, adapted by Stephen B. Goldberg & Jeanne M. Brett

Club West is a lawsuit. It illustrates setting reservation prices in legal disputes, egocentric bias, and reactive devaluation.

Preparation: 30-60 minutes
Negotiation: 30 minutes

College Town Apartments
Author: Leigh Thompson
Source: DRRC

This is a qualitative exercise. The dispute is between two college roommates concerning the timely payment of rent. The exercise has a large variety and range of mutually acceptable outcomes. It involves perceptual differences regarding one's own behavior as well as the other party's. Since the two parties live together and share common interests, relational, emotional, and social issues also factor into the resolution.

Preparation: 45 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes

Data Printer
Author: Leonard Greenhalgh
Source: Public Domain (no charge), DRRC version

This is a qualitative dispute resolution negotiation between a party who had a printer repaired and a party who repaired the printer. Although the technology referred to in the exercise makes it dated, it can be used to discuss issues of interest, rights, power, and fairness in the context of the resolution of disputes.

Preparation: 30 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes

Eazy’s Garage
Authors: Bruce M. Patton
Source: Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON), DRRC version

DRRC's version of Eazy's Garage is a two-party, qualitative, dispute resolution exercise with some limited opportunities for integrative potential. In Eazy’s Garage, the parties, a dentist and a garage station owner, are in a dispute over a repair bill. The exercise can be used to teach concepts of interests, rights, and power, but the teaching notes do not present that approach.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes

Myti-Pet
Authors: Holly Schroth, Gianmario Corniola & Marjan Voit
Source: DRRC

This two-person/two-team exercise involves a customer goods company and one of its major suppliers. The purpose of the exercise is to: 1) help participants learn how to manage emotions in a negotiation, 2) recognize different sources of power, and 3) work within a team environment where roles must be negotiated. In addition, participants will have to utilize both integrative and distributive negotiation skills. The exercise should be used after students have been introduced to fundamental negotiation concepts for integrative negotiations.

Preparation: 20 minutes
Negotiation: 40-50 minutes

Prosando
Authors: Cathy Cronin-Harris & Stephen B. Goldberg
Source: DRRC

This exercise was designed to teach the dispute resolution concepts of interests, rights, and power, as well as some of the more subtle aspects of dispute resolution negotiations, like how to turn rights-oriented or power-oriented negotiators toward interests. The exercise was also designed so that there is no zone of agreement unless the negotiators learn each other’s interests and make appropriate tradeoffs.

Negotiation: 60 minutes
Debrief: 60-90 minutes

Rapid Printing vs. Scott Computers, Inc.
Authors: Stephen B. Goldberg & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC

This is a contract dispute negotiation. It is very good for teaching interests, rights, and power approaches to resolving disputes as well as introducing ADR concepts to management students. There are three different versions of the exercise: CEO only, CEO with lawyers, and Mediation. The CEO only version is for two management students. The CEO with lawyers version is for a joint law-management class, and the Mediation version is for two managers plus a neutral mediator.

Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 90 minutes

Rooftop Deck
Authors: Vanessa Seiden & Jason Seiden
Source: DRRC

This is a decision that must be made jointly between three interdependent condominium owners. It can be used to teach interests, rights, and power. As not all parties have the same information, it is also useful to teach the value of searching for unique information.

Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes

Viking Investments
Authors: Leonard Greenhalgh
Source: Creative Consensus, Inc., DRRC version

This complex multi-issue, two-party negotiation of a dispute between a real estate developer and a subcontractor emphasizes escalation of commitment and the effects of focusing on rights or interests in dispute resolution.

Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes