For graduate or undergraduate upper-division courses in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, or Labor Relations, which can be found in various departments such as business, law, education, engineering, psychology, and public administration. With its unique and appealing student-centered focus , Carrell & Heavrin helps students of all disciplines master the concepts, skills, and practices of effective negotiations. How universal is the art of negotiation? How do you show students that becoming a successful negotiator will benefit them throughout their lives, no matter what the future holds for them? Appealing Student-Centered Focus- A major goal of the authors was to write a book that could be easily utilized in a variety of courses and would be universally appealing to students of all majors. To enhance the readability, they intentionally chose a "conversational writing style" rather than a traditional "textbook style" to engage students of various different backgrounds. The book has a lively and interesting approach and incorporates several unique features that focus on "real world" negotiation cases. These features include cartoons like the popular Zits series, offering the reader a humorous but realistic viewpoint as well as many practical bargaining tactics and tips. All chapters include many boxed items and discussions of actual negotiations to illustrate major concepts and make them more accessible to students. Zits Cartoon, page 59 Is negotiating a talent that comes naturally to people, or is it something one can master through study and practice? Negotiation Skills- Everyone has the opportunity to become an effective negotiator by mastering and routinely applying a certain set of concepts, skills, and practices, which are presented throughout the book.

Each chapter opens with the description of a set of Negotiation Skills which are presented three times in the chapter: defined at the beginning; explained and applied within the chapter; and applied to the Learning Exercise at the end of each chapter. Skills for Distributive Bargaining, page 55 OTHER POINTS OF DISTINCTION How do you show students examples of successful negotiations, as well as examples of negotiating tactics and situations to avoid? Tactics for Success and Traps to Avoid are practical, time-tested pointers that are presented in boxes throughout the book. These features provide students with many critical "tools" that can be applied during a negotiation. Tactics for Success: Silence is Golden, page 75 Traps to Avoid: How to Avoid Harming Future Relationships, page 66 How do you make sure your students have absorbed the skills presented in the chapter and are ready to apply them in real negotiating situations? Summing Up features, located at the end of every chapter, challenge the reader to apply each of the skills presented to a negotiation situation in their own professional or personal life. This immediate application of new skills cements students'' understanding and brings the concepts to life for students. Pages 79-80 Learning Exercise features conclude each chapter. These exercises enable the student to apply the negotiation skills presented in the chapter to an actual negotiation situation that they will most likely encounter in the future, either personally or professionally. Buying a House, page 80 Author Experience --This is the only textbook on the market written by a practicing negotiator, offering students an inside perspective of current knowledge and many applied skills and practices.

Coauthor Michael Carrell also provides many years of negotiation experience, in addition to a career in academia.