Different Paths but Same Results - Online versus Offline Negotiation Teaching

Abstract: Even though negotiation courses have mostly been taught face-to-face, not at least because of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital formats are on the rise. This raises the question whether courses taught online are as effective as those taught offline, especially for developing negotiation skills. Through adapting a natural use of digital technologies older research findings need to be re-assessed. While additionally research in this field is, so far, mostly based on rather small student samples, which do not represent homogeneous groups due to their different courses of study and background, we examine the differences based on experienced practitioner samples of significant magnitude, because trainings constitute a main element to enhance further education in companies and are therefore relevant for negotiation practice. To obtain answers to the research question, an experimental design and text-analysis were chosen.

Keywords: negotiation teaching, distance learning, online education, negotiation pedagogy