Framing Intra-Team Conflicts in a New Venture: The Interplay of Conflict Resolution Frames and Negotiation Strategies

Abstract

This experiential exercise introduces students to the role that frames play in conflict management and negotiation. Understanding frames is important because they serve as lenses through which negotiators define a conflict and select strategies to resolve it. Students will apply conflict resolution frames to a situation that occurred within an entrepreneurial team, but key details have been disguised and fictionalized. Engaging in this exercise allows students to experience how framing conflicts in terms of interests, rights, or power affects the process of negotiation, the choice of situationally appropriate strategies, and the outcomes for individuals and their organizations. Students will consider ways to reframe negotiations around shared interests to benefit the collective. The exercise can be used across management and entrepreneurship courses, but may fit best in negotiation and organizational behavior. It works well in any format, traditional and online, with graduate and undergraduate students.