Negotiation Mastery: Essential Strategies and Skills for International Negotiation

Introduction

(Max 30 students each semester)

This course focuses on cross-cultural negotiations, specifically within Norway and Japan, and will combine intercultural communication theory with integrative and distributive negotiation theories. Consequently, an interdisciplinary approach with perspectives from cultural studies combined with key international business and leadership issues will be applied. Classroom sessions will be based on international research discussions, group work simulations, and case studies. Empirical cross-cultural research and cases used in discussions will focus on issues related to international companies operating both in Scandinavia and Asia. This course will help prepare students to meet the challenges of international negotiations within multi-national business operations where different national contexts can impact the way we negotiate, lead and co-operate in everyday business dealings.

Course content

The course will be a joint project with a Japanese business school. The first part of the course will consist of teaching in Norway on intercultural communication and negotiation theory. During this time, the Norwegian student groups will make contact with similarly-sized student groups from the japanses university on Skype where they can discuss and compare cultural differences. The Norwegian students will prepare a PowerPoint presentation on how they see Norwegian business culture and use that as a point of departure. Upon arrival in Japan, Norwegian students will receive lectures on Japanese business culture plus a company visit while the students from Japan will be given tuition by the Norwegian professor(s) on what is deemed most relevant for them (intercultural communication theory, negotiation theory, English language etc.). The next two days will consist of negotiations among the students from BI and the japanese university. Two more days will focus on cultural exchange.