Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Examines the dispute resolution and communication tools necessary to create and maintain rewarding workplace and personal relationships. Focuses on straight talk, uncovering hidden agendas and resolving conflict in ways that maintain respectful relationships and support for professional success. Explores learning to disagree without being disagreeable, exploring rather than debating, building relationships, and fixing problems without fixing blame.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

• Identify and analyze different conflict styles and how these styles impact effective work relationships.  
• Utilize negotiation strategies to resolve conflicts in a diverse workplace environment. 

·        Various individual and/or group skill-building activities such as case studies, or other exercises geared toward critical analysis of course concepts.

·        Written assignments or oral reports designed to integrate course material into personal experience or experiences of others.

·        Exams comprised of essay and/or objective questions, or complete an individual and/or team project or paper, which requires integration, application, and critical examination of course concepts, issues, and themes.

COMPETENCIES/SKILLS:

Prepare problem statements

Recognize common causes of conflict

Principles of negotiation

Identifying hidden agendas

Building respectful relationships

Interest based negotiations

Collaboration

Compromise

Accommodation

Competition

Withdrawal

Disagree without being disagreeable

Explore rather than debate

Fix problems without fixing blame

Refocus discussions

Deal with confrontation

 
CONCEPTS, THEMES, ISSUES:

General Concepts: 

Dispute resolution

Hidden agendas

Respectful relationships

Learning to disagree

Building relationships

Confrontation

Interest-based negotiation

Soft, hard, and principled negotiation

Collaboration

Compromise

Accommodation

Competition

Withdrawal

Themes 

Skill based strategies help resolve conflicts

Principled negotiation builds positive relationships

Issues

Using an inappropriate conflict style can create more issues.

Relationships can deteriorate if problems are not resolved.