Exercises Based on Real World Cases
Abhas Bussan
Authors: Amol Patel & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC
Abhas Bussan is a negotiation between a Japanese manufacturer and an Indian distributor. It is designed to be used with Howard Raiffa's description of formal analysis in his book, The Art and Science of Negotiation. See the chapter about quantifying preferences and priorities. You may also have students to use the Okhuysen and Pounds spreadsheet for this exercise.
Preparation: 120 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes
Alpha Beta
Author: Thomas Gladwin
Teaching Notes: Jeanne M. Brett
Source: Public Domain (no charge), DRRC version
DRRC's version of Alpha Beta is a cross-cultural, team-on-team negotiation of a potential alliance. The exercise requires the two parties to enact a cultural style during the negotiation.
Preparation: 30 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes
Brookside Hospital vs. Black Computer Systems, Inc.: Mediation Version
Authors: Stephen B. Goldberg & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC
This version of the dispute between Black Computers and Brookside Hospital is to be used to teach mediation. It can be used in a joint class of law and management students, just with law students (who then take the roles of advocates and principles) or just with management students playing the roles of the principles. There is no separate information for advocates; however, there is Information for the Mediator, Teaching Notes for the mediation version, and two suggested readings, one describing the mediation process and the other outlining the role of the advocate in mediation.
Preparation: 60 minutes or more
Negotiation: 75 – 90 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
Bullard Houses
Author: Ron Karp; revised by Mox Tan, David Gold, Andrew Clarkson, Paul Cramer, Douglas Stone & Bruce M. Patton
Source: Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON), DRRC version
DRRC's version of Bullard Houses is an excellent exercise for raising issues of ethics in negotiation. It is a one-on-one, qualitative negotiation between agents over a piece of prime real estate. It emphasizes the role of agents, lying, misrepresentation, and trust. The teaching notes have been updated and the confidential roles simplified.
Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes
Carter Racing
Authors: Jack Brittain & Sim Sitkin
Additional Teaching Notes: Margaret A. Neale
Source: DRRC
This exercise can be used to illustrate decision biases in negotiations. The exercise uses data from the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Students are asked to use those data to make a decision whether or not to enter an automobile race.
Preparation: 20 minutes
Negotiation: 30-50 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
Cobalt Systems
Author: Catherine Tinsley
Source: DRRC
Cobalt Systems is a joint venture negotiation between a U.S. and a Korean company. It is set up to teach Howard Raiffa's formal analysis technique for prioritizing issues (The Art and Science of Negotiation). It is also useful for teaching the concept that culture impacts parties' positions on the issues.
Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes
El-Tek
Authors: Max H. Bazerman & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC
This is a two-party, quantified negotiation between two divisions of a large, decentralized organization. The negotiation concerns the potential transfer of a product from the division that developed it, and plans to use it as a component in its own products, to the division that has lower cost manufacturing and the corporate charter to market such a product. The exercise is very good for helping students visualize a Pareto optimal frontier.
Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 90 minutes
Energetics Meets Generex
Author: W. Trexler Proffitt, Jr.
Source: DRRC
This is a two-party, distributive negotiation based on a real California wind energy farm transaction in 2002. It is good for illustrating biases including anchoring and availability. There is the option to provide an outside offer during the negotiation that illustrates the power of BATNA.
Preparation: 10 minutes
Negotiation: 30 minutes
Granite Corporation in Costa Rica
Authors: Adrianne Kardon & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC
This negotiation illustrates the situation when a U.S. company has a foreign government on the other side of the table and an activist environmental group demonstrating outside.
Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes
Moms.com
Authors: Ann E. Tenbrunsel & Max H. Bazerman
Source: DRRC
This exercise replaces the popular Working Women exercise. Please do not continue to use Working Women.
This is a two-party, quantified, deal making negotiation between a film company and a T.V. station over the syndication rights for a T.V. series, Moms.com. The exercise provides a good opportunity to introduce the concept of Pareto optimality. The teaching notes point out the slight differences between the numbers in the old Working Women exercise and this one.
Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 90 minutes
Mouse
Authors: Geoffrey Fink & Maria Baute Stewart; edited by Stephen B. Goldberg & Jeanne M. Brett
Source: Harvard Program on Negotiation (PON), DRRC version
Mouse is a six-party negotiation based loosely on EuroDisney's rocky start in France. At the table are four mayors of French communities, a representative of the Mouse Corporation, and an official of the French national government. Mouse teaches multiparty, multi-issue, and multi-cultural negotiation. Interesting teaching points regarding BATNA.
Preparation: 60 minutes
Negotiation: 90 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
Southern Electric
Author: Stephen B. Goldberg
Source: DRRC
This is a mediation of a labor grievance. The grievant has been discharged following three "preventable" accidents. The company has a rule that requires discharging any employee who, in the course of operating company vehicles, is involved in three preventable accidents in a three-year period. The use of information is an interesting issue in this exercise.
Preparation: 30 minutes
Negotiation: 60 minutes
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