In this course, we will explore negotiation from several points of view and approaches. We will also look at characteristics that impact the quality of our negotiations and the outcomes, such as the role of emotions, cultural considerations, effectiveness of our communication, and opportunities to seek out negotiation to transform relationships. The course will be a blend of concepts and skills, theory and practice. On some occasions, you will be introduced to a concept and then asked to apply those concepts in an experiential activity. At other times, you will be asked to engage the activity or simulation and then the concepts will be elicited based on your experience. You will have several opportunities to practice developing your skills throughout the course, in terms of enhancing your practice and honing your analytical and conceptual understanding.
Conflicts that arise in family businesses are informed by long family histories and patterns of behavior, multiple identities, and are often characterized by communication breakdowns and emotional upheaval. Conflicts in these contexts are costly emotionally, financially and relationally to family members and also to non-family employees and ultimately to the longevity of the business organization itself. When conflict arises within these contexts it can be difficult to separate the personal relationships from the business relationships. Because these types of business disputes can be especially emotional, how can we most effectively engage with this type of conflict?
This course builds theoretical knowledge by introducing some context specific theories, models, and frameworks. We will build on existing NECR coursework introducing the Three Circle Model of Family Business (Tagiuri and Davis); Founders’s Value Categories Framework (Liebowitz); Dynamical Systems Theory (Coleman, et.al.) as it applies to a family businesses; Family Systems Theory (Bowen; Minuchin) and family dynamics as a subsystem; Sustaining Cycles of Trust Model (Sundaramurthy) and communications in family businesses (Astrachan and McMillan); discuss EQi-2.0 360 version (MHS) and its usefulness in the family business workplace; introduce and administer the Neethling Brain Instrument (Dr. Kobus Neethling & Paul Torrance) (NBI) as a tool for understanding more about individual thinking styles and how this knowledge informs group dynamics.
Case studies will be a primary focus throughout the course, providing examples that address a spectrum of classic family business conflicts. We will use tools to analyze and develop intervention strategies in small and large group activities. This elective course is designed for NECR degree candidates, or any SPS graduate student with an interest in the topic, space permitting. If you are a student outside the NECR program, please contact instructors for additional readings to inform course materials. NECR students will be required to have taken Introduction to Mediation NECR PS5107, Understanding Conflict and Cooperation NECR PS5101, Skills Practicum: Self as Instrument NECR PS5880, Intrapersonal Dynamics NECR PS5124.
This course explores and applies insights from a variety of academic disciplines to social conflict in urban areas. In addition, in this course we will treat the urban experience as the stage where social conflicts (family, corporate, political, etc.) are experienced and transformed collectively.
Analyzing and Resolving Urban Conflict explores the contribution that the fields of conflict resolution, human geography, urban studies, and peace and conflict studies can offer to support efforts in lowering violence. This course also seeks to identify and resolve the underlying issues and patterns causing the outbreak and proliferation of violence in cities.
Specifically, the entire world is facing dramatic demographic changes due to the massive movement of people within and across national territories. According to the United Nations, by 2050, two out of every three people are likely to be living in cities or other urban centers. Domestically and internationally, cities are already becoming settings of new social and violent conflicts. We are already witnessing less rural insurgency and more urban insurgency, fewer guerrillas and more gangs and urban militias. In fact, urban areas are becoming the hubs of the transnational flow of commodities and people, of both licit and illicit markets. Cities around the world are increasingly stages where social problems, such as income inequality, racism, and gender-based violence are manifesting and being politically addressed via social movements.
The course will have an interdisciplinary approach and will draw especially from the fields of anthropology, human geography, and peace and conflict studies. Throughout the course, these disciplines will be in dialogue with systems thinking approaches to analyze and transform social conflicts. In particular, students will also have an opportunity to apply the concepts learned by mapping and analyzing a case study of urban conflict.
Furthermore, the instructor will provide insights, principles and notions he has gained over the years while working as both a practitioner and a scholar in challenging urban environments such as Medellin and Bogotá, Colombia.
This course explores the intersection of theory and practice in conflict resolution, giving students the opportunity to apply the models, frameworks, and theories they have studied in the NECR program to real-world scenarios. Students will analyze case studies, review current events, and bring to bear their own experiences in international, organizational, community, and interpersonal conflicts in an interactive setting as they continue to develop and hone their critical thinking skills.
Drawing from the disciplines of social psychology and clinical psychology, political science, international relations, and the latest advances in neuroscience, conflict resolution practitioners have at their disposal a wealth of research that can inform their analysis of how to assist parties to mitigate, de-escalate, and prevent conflict.
Building especially on the material covered in Understanding Conflict and Cooperation (PS5101), the participants in this class will engage with the course readings, instructors, and each other to critically analyze and deconstruct complex conflicts in a variety of contexts. A focus on the actors, issues, structures, strategies, and processes inherent in a conflict will be used in the effort to identify opportunities to change conflict dynamics. Multiculturalism, negotiation and mediation frameworks, accounting for bias, interdependency, intergroup conflict, social identity, peacebuilding, and power dynamics are among the key learnings integrated into the course.
The competencies advanced in this class are intended to be applicable beyond the program into other areas of life. Students will be empowered to reflect critically on a text, select relevant data, understand the applicability of a theory, and offer results-based recommendations in contexts ranging from global to personal.
Conflict and communications technologies are inextricably connected and this relationship is increasingly mediated by social networks. Individuals and organizations face many challenges in using online technology for collaboration and conflict mediation purposes. Recent software innovations can facilitate knowledge acquisition, network building, and the analysis and presentation of conflict-related data. For professionals working in the field of conflict resolution, it is imperative to understand the role developments in communications technologies has played in exacerbating and/or resolving conflicts.
This course will analyze the relationship between conflict and communications technologies. It will explore the challenges that individuals and networks face in using online technology for collaboration and conflict mediation purposes. It will demonstrate how recent software and social media innovations can facilitate knowledge acquisition, network building, and the analysis and presentation of conflict-related data. Finally, it will analyze contemporary cases where developments in communications technologies have played a critical role in exacerbating and/or resolving conflicts.
The course focuses on international peacebuilding and business and human rights cases. The former cases include Israel-Palestine, refugees, African peacebuilding, genocide prevention, and election violence monitoring. The latter cases include online harassment, cross-national email conflicts, sex trafficking, new business models such as Uber and AirBnB, and extractive resource conflicts.
The course will also instruct students in the use of social software (such as blogs, social media curation, and networking/visual mapping) and improve their “digital literacy” on a range of technologies. The course will provide practical (and often provocative) examples and challenge students to reflect on how these experiences and tools will be useful in their professional development and work environments.
Interpersonal Dynamics: Collaboration, Facilitation and Reflective Practice
develops students’ capacity to act as reflective practitioners of
collaborative conflict resolution. Building on theories presented in
Introduction to Negotiation, the course provides students with many
opportunities to understand the interpersonal dynamics of conflict and to
practice the skills of negotiation, mediation, and facilitation.
To intervene as skilled practitioners, conflict-resolution professionals
need to understand how their worldview shapes the lens through which they
view and respond to conflict. Likewise, they need to grasp their
counterpart’s worldview and understand how the dynamics of these differing
narratives influence both sides’ perception, emotions, and responses. As a
result of their reflective practice, students can learn to make more
strategic choices as negotiators, mediators, and facilitators.
Students bring their own unique experiences, insights, and communicative
strengths to the learning process. This course seeks to build on these
contributions, providing (1) tools for deepening self-awareness as a means
of advancing connection to others, (2) opportunities for strengthening
their face-to-face communication skills as negotiators and as mediators,
and (3) techniques for developing their skills as third-party facilitators.
Conflict analysis is central to understanding the context and content of any conflict. It is also critical for the person doing the conflict analysis to have a good understanding of who they are as a conflict resolution practitioner, including the frames with which they view the conflict analysis. Our worldviews, assumptions, values, and beliefs shape how we frame and create meaning from conflicts that we choose to examine, and how we understand the dynamics of those conflicts. Therefore, to conduct an impartial analysis of any conflict, and add value for the stakeholders involved, self-awareness is crucial.
This course is the foundation for developing the necessary mindset for conflict analysis. We want you to be able to enter any situation and ask the question, “What is really going on here?” and to use that inquiry to uncover underlying needs, issues, and assumptions. In this course, in addition to increasing your self-awareness as a conflict resolution practitioner, you will explore and become familiar with diverse conflict analysis approaches and tools, beginning with creating a conflict map to identify the actors, dynamics, and structures that are creating, escalating, and perpetuating the conflict. You will work with a variety of conflict analysis tools to examine the stakeholder perspectives and will be asked to identify issues that surfaced as a result of this analysis. You will define goals for your inquiry that correspond to the conflict issues you have identified and coalesce thematically around a specific purpose of appropriate scope for your capstone study. You will utilize the Coordinated Management of Meaning and Case Study frameworks to engage in desk-based qualitative inquiry using secondary sources. You will put theory into practice by interpreting the secondary data through the lens of applicable theory. The data will be further analyzed using CMM models and conflict analysis tools as a means of surfacing several needs to be addressed in your intervention design (in the next capstone course).
This course is the first of three (3) required courses of the capstone sequence.
In 6050, students will complete conflict analysis for their capstone case study.
In 6250, students will design an intervention that addresses the needs identified in their earlier analysis. In 6350, students will consider sustainability, as well as monitoring and evaluation strategies for their proposed intervention.