Faculty
Professor Leonard Greenhalgh
Objectives
This course is designed for students who seek to learn a lot about themselves, what type of business relationships they tend to form, how they habitually handle strains in these relationships through negotiation, using power, or engaging in conflict resolution.
We know from the landmark study by the Center for Creative Leadership that success in a top management career depends less on technical skills-such as acumen in finance, operations or marketing and almost entirely on the aspiring manager's effectiveness in managing relationships. Therefore this course is not only a complement to negotiation training, it also covers an important dimension of leadership. It is highly personal and individualized, because each one of us has unique personality makeup, unique life experiences that have shaped us, and unique skills. The focus is on what works well for you, and how you could be approaching people and situations more effectively.
Because the course is largely experiential, perfect and on-time class attendance is a course requirement. In practice, this means there are no excused absences and there can be no section-switching. Less than perfect attendance can be expected to result in a failing course grade (unless, of course, there is a flu epidemic or an equally serious health issue). Note that the perfect attendance policy arose from student requests to make this a course requirement: if a student was scheduled to participate in a role play with another student who didn't show up on a particular class day, then the student who came to class but had nobody to work with learns nothing either.
Lateness is another form of absence: the class can't start on time if one of the people needed for a simulation is late. Thus, your enrollment in the course represents a commitment to show up on time for every class session. If you can't make this commitment, you should not enroll in the course. I can be flexible about everything else, but not attendance.
COURSE TOPICS COVERED
The following topics will be covered, but not in this sequence. The course operates on a discovery learning principle. You come to class, participate in a simulation, and handle it as best you can, then we talk about effective and ineffective approaches. You learn by experimenting in low-cost situations, so that you'll have a better idea of what to do in your subsequent managerial career in high-cost situations.
•Managing value chain relationships
•Negotiating in a relationship context
•Managing bosses and subordinates
•Reconciling the interests of multiple stakeholders
•Negotiating the employment relationship
•The use and misuse of power to achieve results
•Managing competitive relationships
•Dealing with difficult interpersonal situations
•Managing industry-level competitive dynamics
All materials will be distributed on a just-in-time basis.
Requirements
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
There are two written assignments in the course.
The first is due at the beginning of week two. It is an individual written assignment that traces your own history of dealing with difficult situations in your interpersonal relationships. You will receive confidential feedback on your responses, which may begin a private dialog between you and your instructor. What you write will be treated with the same level of confidentiality as would apply if you were talking with a clinical psychologist. The assignment is appended to this syllabus.
The second assignment is a final paper.
FINAL EXAM
This will be distributed via email; your exam will be submitted via email.
COURSE PAPER
See following for details:
Your Personal History of Relationship Management
A starting point for your learning in the course is an understanding of how you have approached difficulties in relationships thus far in your life. The general idea is that your current predispositions in strained relationships may well have their roots in early life experiences. To explore this possibility, you are to address the questions that follow. In doing so, you will need to think hard about each of the questions and then be candid and detailed in writing your responses. Your responses will be held in the strictest of confidence.
1. Briefly describe your household as you were growing up. What were your parents, brothers, and sisters like? Where do you fall in the age range of siblings? Then, describe the earliest conflict you can remember involving a member of your family, and how you fared in it. Be specific.
2. Describe the most serious interpersonal conflict you were ever involved in, and how you fared in it.
3. Describe the interpersonal conflict in which you were most satisfied with the way you handled it. Be sure to say what was satisfying about what you did in handling the conflict.
4. Describe the interpersonal conflict in which you were most dissatisfied with the way you handled it. Be sure to say what made it dissatisfying.
5. Who has been the most difficult person for you to deal with? What makes it so difficult to deal with this person?
6. What situations provoke the strongest anger/resentment reactions in you? Do you know why you react strongly to these situations?
7. For you, what constitutes success in dealing with a dispute?
8. If you were to create a composite profile of your nemesis (someone who from your perspective possessed the worst possible combination of traits), what characteristics would this person have?
9. What feelings do interpersonal conflicts typically generate in you?
10. How do you generally react to other people's attempts to control you (that is, to tell you what to do) in a work situation, at home, in social groups, etc.? What type of person is likely to provoke your strongest reaction to control? Do others experience you as trying to exert control over them?
11. Describe the situation in which you took the strongest stand in support of your value system. What specific values were violated? Who was the person you needed to confront? What were your feelings before, during, and after? What was at stake for you?
12. Comment on how easy it is for you to apologize, or to admit you were wrong.
13. What does it mean to you to be able to trust someone?
14. What is the longest grudge (festering resentment/desire for revenge) that you have held?
15. Do you approach disputes with women differently than those with men? What is the difference? With whom are you more effective? What would increase your effectiveness?
16. What is the most memorable occasion in which you were silent in a dispute-that is, when you had a strong reaction to the person(s) or situation but did not express what you were thinking and feeling. Describe the situation, your thoughts and feelings, what it was that inhibited you, and how the situation turned out. What, if anything, would you do differently? Why?
This assignment is due at the beginning of Week 2 (but you can take a few extra days to write the paper if this will give you a stronger learning experience; as I said, I can be flexible about everything except attendance). You will be writing your responses and sending them to me via email, to Len.Greenhalgh@Dartmouth.edu. I'll read your responses very carefully, and may write a response to you. If I raise a question, you are expected to think hard about it and turn in a reply, supplying further detail, within a few days. (This is very informal: you can write your response in the same file; just make it easily findable.) If you don't understand what I'm asking you to think further about, ask a follow up question, or come in and let's talk about it.
Finally, please note that I will be evaluating your writing in terms of relative overall effort, and I won't be making any evaluative judgments about the content. Note also that in the past, virtually everyone has preferred to have me write qualitative comments and to leave off an explicit grade, because it is such a highly personal document. If you have different preferences, let me know.
Materials
The text for the course is Managing Strategic Relationships (by Leonard Greenhalgh, Free Press, 2001). This book must be read in its entirety by the end of the course. You can read it before the course starts, or during the course, but it must be read from start to finish. We will not go over the individual chapters but will focus instead on application of the ideas to business situations that will increase in complexity as the course unfolds. Books are available at Wheelock Books.
THE TUCK HONOR PRINCIPLE
Individual papers are to be written by the student whose name is on it. However, this does not preclude discussing the assignment with someone who knows you well.
The individual papers are highly confidential. It would be a very serious violation of the Tuck Honor Principle to read another student’s individual paper without his or her permission.
Details of how the Tuck Honor principle applies to the final exam will be supplied with the paper assignments.
Grading
Your course grade will be a subjective global assessment of your overall performance in the course. It will reflect the apparent effort that went into your individual paper (but not the content of what you wrote), your apparent level of preparation for class, your participation in class, and your contribution to the learning of others. You should not expect to receive a passing grade in the course if you have not completed the course requirements, which include perfect class attendance.
Schedule
Course Dates
First Half Mini
The class will meet for four hours (I will give you a short “dinner break”) on the following dates:
January 6
January 12
January 20
January 26
Course Dates
Second Half Mini
February 2
February 9
February 16
February 23
