How can we work to improve the analysis and practice of negotiation, especially in managerial settings? This is the central question that drives the work of the Negotiation Roundtable, a group of faculty, senior graduate students, and negotiation practitioners who meet regularly at the Harvard Business School jointly with colleagues from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and other institutions. Roundtable participants review management cases, books, and other materials focused on negotiation practice; undertake studies on particular aspects of negotiation; work to develop and advance the teaching of negotiation at the graduate school level; and provide negotiation advice on a variety of real-life cases. In 1999-2000, the Roundtable focused on issues of strategic alliances.

In the past, Roundtable collaborations have influenced a wide range of scholarly projects, including the writing of two well-known "classics" in the negotiation literature: Howard Raiffa's The Art and Science of Negotiation (Harvard University Press 1982), David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius's The Manager as Negotiator (The Free Press 1986) and, more recently, Richard J. Zeckhauser, Ralph L. Keeney, and James K. Sebenius' edited volume, Wise Choices: Decisions, Games, and Negotiations (Harvard Business School Press 1996).

Negotiation and the MBA

Some of the Roundtable's other activities have included a consideration of negotiation and the MBA. The Harvard Business School has become the first major business school in the nation to require the inclusion of a course in negotiation in the core curriculum for its master of business administration degree. The course was developed by a faculty team headed by Professor James K. Sebenius and many of his Negotiation Roundtable colleagues.

According to Sebenius, "Negotiation has always been understood to be important for making deals and handling disputes, and Howard Raiffa had been teaching negotiation to business students for years. But now there is a recognition that the mastery of negotiation must be truly frontal for managers." Students need to understand and be skilled in negotiation, bargaining, and conflict resolution in order to create agreements that are valuable for all concerned and truly sustainable. Among those who worked with Sebenius on the curriculum design and/or the actual teaching are: Marjorie Corman Aaron, Professors John Hammond, Howard Raiffa, Robert J. Robinson, Patrick Sileo, Gus Stuart, Kathleen Valley, Michael Wheeler, George Wu, and former Research Assistant Janet Martinez.

Addressing Questions of Fairness and Efficiency

Another recent initiative involved "Addressing Questions of Fairness and Efficiency." According to Howard Raiffa (Director Emeritus of the Roundtable), negotiators who strategically withhold information or misrepresent their interests frequently fail to find feasible solutions that meet each side's bottom line. In some cases, even if they do come up with a feasible solution, it may turn out to be inefficient -- that is, potential joint gains are left on the bargaining table. And in too many other cases, even if a solution is found that is both feasible and efficient, it may not be equitable. He believes that the key to overcoming such problems is an appreciation of negotiations analytics.

Professor Raiffa elucidated these points in a special three-part lecture series that took place in the spring of 1996 at Harvard University. Negotiation Roundtable co-sponsored the lectures, which attracted a large audience of students and faculty from graduate and professional schools at Harvard and other universities. Each lecture stimulated spirited debate over the pluses and minuses of negotiation under conditions in which full information, or, more realistically, partial information was exchanged by the parties. Professor James Sebenius and Research Assistant Janet Martinez assisted Raiffa in his presentations, which were compiled into a book, Lectures on Negotiation Analysis (PON Books 1998), available through the PON Clearinghouse to teachers and others.