Negociación Como Aprendizaje

Negotiation as Learning: Pedagogy and Theory1
A paper in honor of Bill Zartman
Bertram I. Spector
Center for Negotiation Analysis
Potomac, MD
negotiation@negotiations.org
www.negotiations.org
Abstract. Experiential learning theory provides the conceptual underpinnings for effective
pedagogical techniques, such as simulations and games, to teach about negotiation
processes. Learningtheory also may offer a useful framework to integrate many
negotiation process concepts using a common paradigm. Bill Zartman’s use of roleplaying games and his many contributions to the negotiation field are applied to illustrate
the value of learning theory as an integrative framework.

A recurring theme in the negotiation research literature – sometimes explicit and often
implicit – is thatthe negotiation process can be characterized as a learning process. As
the engine by which expectations are adapted, learning drives changes in strategic choice,
modifications in payoffs that are perceived as acceptable, and ultimately, the ability to
achieve negotiated outcomes. Achieving outcomes in negotiation is possible only if the
protagonists come to think about the problem, thestrategies, the context, and “the way
out” differently than they did before the negotiation began. Viewing the situation with
new eyes, offering viable opportunities to resolve the problem, and motivating the parties
to accept altered conceptions of the situation, become the central purpose of the entire
negotiation enterprise. All of these adaptive cognitions and behaviors define what occursduring learning to cope with new situations (Myers 1996) and is central to the negotiation
experience.
This paper examines learning and negotiation processes from two perspectives. First, it
addresses learning about negotiations. Interactive pedagogical techniques have become
popular vehicles by which the negotiation process can be taught. There is basic consensus
that negotiation role-playingsimulations are effective teaching approaches. In this paper,
we examine the results of a particular negotiation simulation to determine what findings
might be extracted that enhance our understanding of the negotiation process. An
overarching finding – that the negotiation process itself is a learning system – leads us to
the second part of the paper: the negotiation process as a system oflearning.
The following proposition is examined:
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Presented at the Annual Conference of the International Studies Association, 2 March 2007, Chicago.

1

Not only does experiential learning provide the theoretical underpinnings for
role-playing simulations as appropriate pedagogical techniques to teach
negotiation processes, it also offers a useful conceptual framework to understandand explain how real negotiation processes work. Learning theory may provide
the most comprehensive paradigm available to integrate the many negotiation
concepts and relationships that have been identified to date.
Throughout the discussion, we employ I. William Zartman’s insightful and prolific
contributions, both to negotiation teaching and the negotiation research literature, as
examplesfor analysis and extrapolation.
PEDAGOGY
Negotiation is not something to be simply memorized and then applied. It is part art and
part science and needs to be experienced. Hence, teaching negotiation “by doing” has
become commonplace as one of the pedagogical approaches used in negotiation courses.
Experiential learning theory suggests that experience followed by reflection produces
learning.Drawing on theories of Dewey, Lewin and cognitive psychologists, experiential
learning theories suggest that useful learning occurs as a result of (a) interaction with the
social environment, (b) the continuous process of confronting and resolving conflicts
between expectations and actual experience, and (c) the testing of principles that emerge
from experience (Susskind and Coburn 1999)....