SPÅ 2902 Business Communication in English - Effective Negotiations and Presentations (Oral)
SPÅ 2902 Business Communication in English - Effective Negotiations and Presentations (Oral)
The course is relevant for students who believe that their bachelor programme selection may be preparing them for a future in an international business environment. It will enable them to strengthen their skills in two important areas of business communication that must often be carried out in English: (1) negotiations and (2) presentations.
The overall objective of this course, in common with the other English course (see SPÅ 2901), is that students develop skills which will enable them to communicate effectively in an international business environment. By the end of the course students will first have developed their competence as negotiators and will be able to reason and reflect orally in English on both the theoretical aspects of negotiation strategy and on their experience from negotiation practice. Second, they will also have developed their skill in preparing and making an effective business presentation in English.
Students will acquire a thorough theoretical knowledge of the two major approaches to negotiation theory: principled negotiating and distributive negotiating, and be able to explain them in their own words. Students will also acquire an appreciation of business presentations as a communicative exchange.
Students will develop the formal language skills necessary for negotiating in English. In addition, they will test their acquired theoretical knowledge of negotiation strategies by trying to apply it in the practice of several negotiation cases. Students will acquire the skills necessary for preparing and delivering a persuasive business presentation in English.
Students should be able to reflect over the appropriateness of particular negotiation strategies in specific negotiating situations and to evaluate their usefulness so that they can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of them. They should also be able to reflect over the communicative context in which a particular business presentation is delivered and how that ought to affect the content of the presentation they deliver.
- Business cases and negotiation techniques.
- Introduction to negotiating
- Distributive bargaining
- Principled negotiating
- Criticism of the negotiating theories
- Four business cases requiring students to negotiate. Each process concluded with discussion/reflection over the negotiation process.
- Presentation
- Introduction to presentations.
- What makes a presentation effective?
- All students develop their own presentation with advice and guidance.
- Dress rehearsal presentation in front of teacher and other students.
Students should start the course by learning what will be required of them in the oral exam. They can do this by reading carefully the document which describes the procedure for the oral exam. They can test how well they have understood its contents by taking a multiple choice test on It’s Learning. The questions for the test will be generated randomly from a larger list of questions all of which are based on the procedure for the SPÅ 2902 exam.
- Business cases and negotiation techniques. Students must be active from the start in acquiring knowledge of two alternative negotiation strategies provided in the compulsory literature. Time is also allotted for classroom teaching to help in this process. The course provides students with four business cases in which they can try to implement these theoretical negotiating ideas in practice. One of the negotiations may be carried out on It’s Learning. This process requires students to reflect over both their own negotiating experience as well as providing a peer-review of another student team’s negotiating. It is completed with a review session with the class teacher in which students must reflect over how well they managed to apply a negotiation strategy to the particular case.
- Presentation
Students are themselves responsible for identifying a suitable topic for their presentation, constructing a suitable context within which their presentation could be delivered and then developing it, practicing it and, ultimately delivering it at the oral exam. Class teachers provide advice and guidance to students during this process.
Workload for the students. According to ECTS norms a student should work 200 hours including lectures and exams to obtain 7.5 credits. The following allocation of time is provided for students as a guide.
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Higher Education Entrance Qualification.
English from upper secondary school or equivalent.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Oral examination Weight: 100 Grouping: Individual Duration: 20 Minute(s) Exam code: SPÅ29021 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination every semester |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 42 Hour(s) | - Presentation – rehearsals - Participation on negotiation theories - Negotiation of four business cases |
Student's own work with learning resources | 157 Hour(s) | - Presentation - development of presentation - Negotiating - reading the course literature thoroughly/carefully - Preparation for four classroom negotiations - Post-negotiation evaluation of the four cases |
Examination | 1 Hour(s) | Oral exam (20 minutes) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 7,5 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 200 hours.
1) A 6 to 7 minute presentation in a business/professional/organizational context which occupies one third of the examination time and counts for one third of the overall grade. The student, in his/her role of presenter, must make an explicit attempt to persuade the audience that they should either do something or think something which they otherwise would not.
2) A 12-13 minute ‘negotiations’ discussion, which, occupying two thirds of the available examination time, counts for two thirds of the overall grade. The business case selected for discussion is chosen at random. No second choice is permitted. The discussion is led by the examiner and is based on the negotiation theory which is studied during the course and the experience of the candidate in attempting to use the theory in the negotiation of the business cases that they attempt to solve during the course
NB. The exam can either be taken individually or with one other course participant. For those opting for a pair evaluation the times indicated above should be doubled. Candidates receive an individual grade.
Examination support materials:
Powerpoint slides for the business presentation. You may take notes into the exam room to help you with your presentation. They must be in the form of bullet points with a maximum of three words per bullet point. You must NOT have any full English sentences in your notes.
For the second half of the exam in which you discuss one of the negotiations, notes are NOT permitted.