Work in progress: Introducing negotiating skills in capstone course

Abstract

Employers of 21st century engineering and technical students are looking for individuals who in addition to their technical skills, also possess soft skills. Those soft skills include at a minimum communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills. Several studies have recommended revisions to existing engineering and technical curriculums to incorporate soft skills [1-3]. In addition to industry professionals indicating a desire for increased soft skills in graduates, students also see the need for additional exposure while in school [4]. Because there is no formal definition of soft skills, it is necessary to determine for each discipline what the skills needed for a successful employee are [5]. By allowing each discipline to determine what the necessary soft skills are, the academic programs have the opportunity to tailor the exposure for their students to the specific types of skills needed in their future career. At a Midwestern University the topic of soft skills was brought to the attention of the architectural engineering and construction management (AE/CM) program by their advisory council. During the annual meetings with the advisory council, a discussion developed regarding the lack of soft skills in recent graduates and how that could be addressed within the current curriculum. Among the soft skills that were mentioned were oral communication, written communication, dealing with people, flexibility and negotiating. In an attempt to address the concerns brought by the Advisory Council the senior capstone course, where contract negotiations are taught, was tagged to address incorporating negotiating skills into the course content. The existing research related to teaching negotiating skills is limited to primarily business and law programs. Although those fields do not directly relate back to engineering and technical programs, there is a significant amount of research available that could be tailored to this field. One traditional method for teaching negotiation is in the form of case studies. By presenting students with real world examples of negotiations and allowing them to discuss and evaluate the outcomes, negotiation skills can be learned [6]. Observational learning is one method that has been evaluated for use in the academic environment [7]. In this model students are shown live or recorded simulations that are examples of different negotiating styles and given the opportunity to discuss their observations. In order to develop a negotiating module for the senior capstone class elements of both of these methods were incorporated.