Negotiation Exercises
Third Party

Amanda
Authors: Jeanne M. Brett & Rekha Karambayya
Source: DRRC

This is a manager-as-a-third-party exercise. There is a dispute between two managers and a third manager becomes involved as a dispute resolver. There are two versions of the exercise. In one version the third party manager is a peer of the disputants, in the other version the third party manager is their boss.

Preparation: 30 minutes
Negotiation: 45 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 principals), or just with management students playing the roles of the principals. 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

The Drug-Testing Program
Author: Leonard Greenhalgh
Source: Creative Consensus, Inc.

This three-party exercise involves a personnel manager, an employee assistance program coordinator, and an MBA-trained employee who has tested positive for marijuana. The personnel manager faces pressures to fire or rehabilitate the employee. The exercise introduces issues of coalition formation, responsibility to the corporation, precedent, evidence, and corporate policies.

Preparation: 40 minutes
Exercise: 30 minutes

Gold Card
Author: Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC

Gold Card is a three-party dispute resolution exercise. The dispute is between a bank and a financial services firm over aspects of their joint venture to provide a special feature credit card to the financial services firm's upscale clientele. When representatives of the two institutions cannot reach an agreement about implementation, they call in the financial services firm's manager who negotiated the original venture.

Preparation: 20 minutes
Negotiation: 45 minutes

Lending Limit
Author: Jeanne M. Brett
Source: DRRC

Lending Limit is a manager-as-a-third-party exercise. An account manager for a bank and the bank's manager for its South African branch are disputing about whether a client should be given a loan to build a plant in South Africa. The third party is the managers' mutual boss, the executive vice president for commercial lending. Teaching notes for Amanda may be used with this exercise.

Preparation: 15 minutes
Negotiation: 45 minutes

The Quickstop Mall
Author: Lynn P. Cohen
Source: DRRC

The Quickstop Mall is a mediation simulation that presents the challenge of a dispute that does not lend itself to an economic resolution. The mediator must focus on interest-based solutions and lead the parties to recognize and respect each other's interests. This exercise is ideal for the mediation or negotiation instructor trying to encourage students to acknowledge emotions and identify key needs and interests and to discourage them from quickly seeking a financial settlement.

Preparation: 15 minutes
Negotiation: 60-90 minutes
Debrief: 60 minutes

Santara vs. Kessel
Author: Stephen B. Goldberg
Source: DRRC

This is a dispute that has impassed. A third party mediator is at the table trying to facilitate a resolution.

Preparation: 30 minutes
Negotiation: 60 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

Squabbling Authors
Author: Katheryn M. Dutenhaver
Source: DRRC

Two anthropologists have finished a book manuscript and are having trouble deciding whose name should go first. Squabbling Authors can be used as a mediation exercise or it can be used to demonstrate the difference between mediation and arbitration.

Preparation: 5 minutes
Arbitration: 10-15 minutes
Mediation: 15-20 minutes

Telepro
Authors: Holly A. Schroth & Gary Riding
Source: DRRC

This is a dispute between a supervisor and an employee in which a third party, the supervisor's manager, becomes involved. The exercise can be used to teach mediation in the management context. It also illustrates how power and status differences between parties can be managed in a mediated context.

Preparation: 15-20 minute
Negotiation: 70 minutes