During discussion, make a chart of points made by various roles

Role who made the point

Description of the argument Impact of argument on you

Plant worker We agree that conservation is very important, but job security is the basic of our life. We will not be able to appreciate the clean environment if we are starving

Chemical plant’s concerns need to be addressed – maybe I should compromise a little bit just to keep the chemical plant in town. That way, at least some people can remain employed

Xx Xx Xx

• How did the discussions unfold? As a group, did you establish ground rules and were these rules followed? – e.g., did each party present her/his concerns and

recommendations in an orderly and uninterrupted fashion?

Description of Group Process

• Review your chart of points made by various roles and select 5 arguments that created the most impact on you. Why did you choose these? What made them effective?

– E.g., was the “argumentor” forceful? Did s/he use empirical evidence? Was that evidence reliable?

Quality of Argument

• What is your group’s decision about the Parsons Chemical Company discharge permit? Describe

– The memorandum of agreement among the parties

– A proposal to the head of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) who decides how the permit should be written to argue your position on how the permit should be written.

Outcome of Decision

• What problems did your group face when reaching a decision? Describe them in terms of the concepts learned in the Bazerman et al., HBR readings

• How long did it take your group to reach the decision? Is the decision agreed upon among all members of the group?

• What will the long-term repercussions of the decision reached likely be for each of the parties?

Group Process Issues

• In view of how the discussions unfolded in your group and the end result, would the member of the DEC have been better off making the recommendation for the discharge permit without the input of the diverse interest groups? What are the implications of such a strategy?

Advantages of Group vs Individual Decision-making

• Define a leader. What do leaders do? What do they do differently than the rest of the group?

• List the roles of people who took leadership roles during the discussion. What did they do?

Did the leader(s) influence the result/ process? How? To what extent?

Leadership

• Describe how and why initial negotiation strategies, objectives and positions changed? Identify critical incidents or factors.– e.g., did you problem-solve, remain open minded etc.?

• What would you do differently? What surprised you?• What problems did your group face when reaching a

decision? – E.g., Any interpersonal communication problems prevalent

among your group members?

Questions to answer after reading negotiation module

• Reflect on your own performance during the role play. What have you done “correctly”? What are the things that you could have done to improve your performance?

• What would you do differently? What surprised you?

Personal Learning