Course Descriptions
Required Courses for Certificate ProgramAdditional Required Courses for Master’s Degree
Electives by Area
Legal Concentration
Organizational Concentration
Social Service Concentration
Field & Clinical Experiences
Required Courses for Certificate Program
HDDR 6319 Psychology of Conflict
What happens when one party is a conflict wants something that another party resists doing or giving? Conflict can arise in groups, between individuals in many different settings. The focus of this course will be on the psychological context of negotiation, the personal and social influences on the parties in negotiation, and the impact of these conditions and behaviors on the outcome.
HDDR 6302 Negotiation & Dispute Resolution
This course is designed to provide theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential to being effective negotiators. Participants will learn successful strategies for negotiation, as well as have ample opportunity to practice their skills in simulation exercises. The program offers a systematic approach to mastering the fundamentals of making favorable agreements that minimize conflict and maximize results. Some specific benefits include: (1) learning how to maximize the potential of making an agreement on your terms; (2) learning how to avoid making an unfavorable agreement; (3) identifying strengths and weaknesses in personal negotiating style; (4) improving your ability to make good choices in negotiation strategy; and (5) understanding the role of relationships in making good agreements.
HDDR 6303 Mediation & Dispute Resolution
Mediation is a process that employs a neutral third party, the mediator, to help
disputing parties make decisions that concern the future of the dispute. This
course provides an overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of
mediation process. Participants will learn a step-by-step process to conduct
mediations, and practice fundamental dispute resolution skills, such as
listening, reframing, summarizing, problem-solving, and creating a safe,
non-threatening environment. Through lecture, discussion, video simulations and
interactive exercises and role plays, participants will gain a functional
knowledge of the power and practice of mediation. This course satisfies the
40-hour statutory requirement to serve as a mediator in Texas court-connected
programs.
Additional Required Courses for Master’s Degree
HDDR 6305 Foundations of American Legal Systems
The structure and procedures of the United States court system will be studied with a particular emphasis on how methods of alternative dispute resolution augment, coordinate and sometimes clash with the goals of traditional litigation. Students will learn legal concepts and terminology essential to successfully working within the field of dispute resolution and will be introduced to basic legal skills. These legal skills include legal reasoning , interpreting case law, statutes and administrative codes, as well as receiving a primer on research materials and tools used by judges and lawyers to evaluate the merits of a legal dispute.
HDDR 6307 Practicum
Supervised experience in the Center for Conflict Resolution clinic with required observations.
HDDR 6310 Research Methods
The focus will be to provide students with a fundamental understanding in research methods allowing them to be discerning consumers of literature in the dispute resolution field. Students will learn sound research design, inference from data to conclusions, and the assumptions underlying various methods. In this way, students will be empowered to judge for themselves the value, validity, and reliability of studies they read.
Electives by Area
General Application
HDDR 6108 Practicum II or III(1 credit hour)
Supervised experience in the Center for Conflict Resolution clinic, students will be co-mediating or mediating court disputes depending on the experience level and cases as well as participating in convening and other administrative functions in the SMU Mediation Center. Students must have taken 15 credit hours including the Mediation class and obtain pre-approval from instructor.
HDDR 6311 Section 775 Advanced Techniques & Skills in Mediation:
Spring Term 2012:
Transformation,
Transcendence, and the Crossroads of Conflict
confrontation, and bitterness, and draws us into quarrels over the past. A second leads us to empathy, acceptance, honesty, and mutual respect and draws us into negotiations over the future. Yet there is also a third road, largely hidden from view, that leads us to increased awareness, compassion, integrity, and heartfelt communications, and draws us into awareness of the present. It encourages openhearted relationships, forgiveness, reconciliation, and renewal. It wakes us up, makes us more mindful of ourselves and others, and nurtures our energies and spirits. This is the path of transformation and transcendence, of wisdom, spirit, and heart. This class will present techniques for transformation and transcendence, including encouraging openhearted communications, shifting attitudes and awareness, and reaching forgiveness and reconciliation. It will explore ways of increasing empathy in the midst of rage, togetherness in the midst of separation, and celebration in the midst of failure. It will investigate the limits and frontiers of conflict resolution, including the internal frontiers of spirituality, and the external frontiers of social, economic, political, and environmental conflict. It will support participants in using conflict as a catalyst for personal, family, organizational, and social change, and in changing the way we change.
May Term 2012: Section 776 Transformative Mediation:
Ideological Foundations and Practice
Transformative mediation is an approach to conflict intervention that is used in
a wide range of conflict intervention settings. It has been adopted in
organizational, court, community and governmental settings. And it has been
adapted for interventions that address team development and multi-party
disputes. This course provides an understanding of the core purpose and
foundational principles of transformative practice. In addition to exploring its
ideological foundations, and comparing it to other frameworks of practice, the
course provides training in the core transformative intervention skills. Through
readings, class discussions, video illustrations, and skill building exercises,
the course grounds students in an approach to mediation practice that is rooted
in the assumption that conflict is a crisis in human interaction.
HDDR 6304 Arbitration & Dispute Resolution
This course provides an introduction to Arbitration as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism. The student will be exposed to fundamental theoretical, legal and practical aspects of the discipline. Arbitration will be compared and contrasted to other forms of dispute resolution. The course will rely on labor arbitration and the resolution of disputes in the workplace as a centerpiece of instruction. However, the theory, principles and techniques of labor arbitration are equally applicable to commercial or international arbitration. Successful students will achieve a solid foundation in Arbitration that will round out their exposure to ADR and better prepare them, if they so choose, for a career in the discipline.
HDDR 6312 Advanced Negotiation
This course will examine the dynamics, constraints, and skills needed in the negotiation process. Theories of negotiation are studied through current literature and specific techniques are taught through simulated exercises. Participants will develop the skills needed to negotiate effectively for their vital interest and how to choose among a range of procedural options. Course content is drawn from fields of law, psychology, business and communication.
HDDR 6313 Advanced Mediation
Advanced mediation is a continuation of the basic mediation course focusing on the most prominent dispute resolution process, mediation. It assumes an understanding of the mediation process and provides in-depth examination of important issues in mediation practice such as convening, multi-party mediation, mediator bias, mediator ethics, and mediator qualifications. Highly interactive, the course moves far beyond introductory lectures and simple role plays. Participants must have successfully completed a basic mediation course and typically have some mediation experience.
HDDR 6315 Communication and Dispute Resolution
The course focuses on human communication in the context of conflict. It addresses the challenges of effective communication and its role in resolving conflict. Attention is paid to the most effective methods of communication used in dealing with differences particularly those used by dispute resolution professionals in the processes of negotiation and mediation.
HDDR 6317 Using On-Line Dispute Resolution Tools
Due to challenges of costs, speed, and jurisdiction, courts are not the best choice to handle online disputes. Rapidly expanding e-commerce, the growth in cross-boundary transactions, and the inability of traditional legal processes to deal with disputes arising over the web has created a need for redress options. ODR connects capable neutrals with parties in ways that bring efficiencies to inefficient online marketplaces. This course examines the development of ODR, the new challenges it poses to neutrals and systems designers, and looks at all the major providers, administrative agencies, and international organizations currently involved. This is accomplished with state-of-the-art ODR technologies through a series of simulations.
HDDR 6318 Finance & Property
An overview of the financial issues involved in dispute resolution. The current and historical structure of financial relationships and the financial interests among disputing parties are major issues in the dispute resolution areas. Attention will be given to preparing students in understanding various financial factors and developing skills and tools to assess, analyze, design and facilitate resolutions. The course is designed to be both a theoretical and practical course enabling the student to apply knowledge and skills directly. It is designed to be an interactive course to stretch the thinking of all students.
HDDR 6320 Selected Topics in Dispute Resolution
With variable course content, students will explore topics of interest as related to the general application of dispute resolution.
May Term 2012: Neuroscience: The Role of the Brain in Emotion, Collaboration and Conflict
This course will provide insight into the critical role that
neuroscience plays in conflict, collaboration and emotion. In
addition, the relationship between the brain and decision making, cognition,
compassion, empathy, problem solving, behavior and risk will be
explored. Learn how instinctual responses can be tempered by connecting these
important elements with strategies which can be applied utilizing various
conflict resolution processes.
SUMMER Term 2012: Bridging Communication Gaps Between East Asians and North Americans
The economy of East Asia, China, Japan, and South Korea, is the home of some of the fastest and most prosperous regional economies in the world. With over 1.5 billion population and a very different cultural, economic and political environment, East Asia presents one of the most attractive and challenging markets for Westerners. By using a combination of lectures, videos, guest speakers, case studies and classroom discussions, this course is designed to provide insight to the commonalities and differences among the three East Asian cultures; to help students master the fine art of negotiation with the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans; and to build confidence in dispute resolution and negotiating a win-win relationship with East Asians. In addition, it will also help students to gain insight to understanding Asian Americans in North America.
Fall Term 2012: Advanced Engaging in Conflict: Studies Using Current Events
We live in a
complex world where conflict in unavoidable as well as an essential part of our
existence. This course will use
essential models of conflict applied specifically to current events that are
timely and coincident with or overlapping our time in the classroom.
Skills and techniques will be developed to understand and to learn how we
might engage in conflict in a more meaningful manner.
We will try to predict what will happen next in the conflicts studied and
to learn from whatever occurs as it actually unfolds and is reported in the
media.
Prerequisites
SPRING Term 2012: The Role of an Ombuds in Organizational Conflict
Organizations are increasingly implementing Ombuds programs to assist in addressing workplace conflict and concerns. This course will engage students in an exploration of the efficacy of utilizing an Ombuds program as an essential component of an integrated dispute resolution system. The course will cover history and development of the Ombuds profession, theoretical and practical concepts of the Ombuds function, professional standards of practice, ethical standards, legal and regulatory considerations, the need for an awareness of individual, group, and systemic issues that contribute to conflict and its potential impact on organizations. Students will learn practical skills and strategies that are unique to the Ombuds practice and review conflict management skills that are transferable to the Ombuds profession. Through lecture, discussion, interactive exercises, role plays, and case studies, participants will gain a functional knowledge of the Ombuds practice and profession.
HDDR 6331 Domestic Relations (Divorce & Child)
With a divorce rate of 50% for first marriages and a higher rate for subsequent marriages, domestic relations (family) issues abound and present interesting and challenging opportunities for third party neutrals. This course will provide the student with the basic skills and knowledge to help families resolve their disputes. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate knowledge and application of the fundamental legal concepts governing common domestic relations issues, fundamentals of the Texas Family Code, recognize common family law issues, the fundamentals of mediating domestic relations cases, the understanding and use of terminology relating to domestic relations law and the ethical obligations of a mediator in a domestic relations case. This course will fulfill the requirements of §154.052. (b) of the Texas ADR Act for qualification to mediate parent-child relationship issues
HDDR 6334 Personal Injury & Dispute Resolution
The application of dispute resolution to wrongs or damages done to another, either to his/her person, rights, reputation or property is the focus of analysis for this course.
HDDR 6336 Selected Topics in Dispute Resolution
May Term 2012 Conflict, Criticism and Contempt
Are negotiators and mediators risk-takers?
How does the intensity, use of dialogue and behavior influence the
process of understanding and resolution?
This course will explore high conflict case dynamics, destructive and
constructive conflict and the role of influence.
Interactive, the dynamics as well as the effect of high conflict
experiences will be addressed.
Students will develop an organic understanding, and the ability to manage and
neutralize the use of negative constructs, generalizations and the creation of
power imbalances. Strategies for addressing resistance, impasse, and the
development of rapport, trust and meaning in these unsettling conversations will
be taught. This course will provide
participants with the knowledge, skills and tools to maximize opportunity for
sustainable and true conflict resolution.
Organizational Concentration
HDDR 6340 Commercial Dispute Resolution
Focus is on business and corporate transactions for the use of varied dispute resolution procedures. Special attention is given to multi-party negotiation, contract disputes, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, and EEOC complaints..
HDDR 6341 Employment Law
The employer/employee relationship drives the economic engine of our society. In this relationship that engages so many significant interests, it is no surprise that serious conflicts occur. Through employment law, legislatures and judges attempt to regulate the complex competing interests of employers and employees. This course will cover the most significant statutes and cases that apply to the employment life cycle from recruitment through termination, with an emphasis on the rights and responsibilities of employers and individual employees. Areas covered will include, among others, at will employment, fair labor standards and pay, discrimination, work conditions, and disability and illness. Collective bargaining will not be included.
HDDR 6342 Human Resource Management
Human beings are complex, yet predictable. When we spend time assessing human resources within an organizational setting, we gain awareness for the importance of proper selection, training, engagement, and management of these resources relative to organizational success. This course will focus on recognizing and understanding how the application of knowledge-based and experiential techniques maximize opportunities for measurable and desirable outcomes. Class discussions and assignments will encompass multi-directional communication, benefits/compensation management, pluralism, training/professional development, succession planning, and multiple factors related to employee relations.
HDDR 6344 Organizational Change Management
Students are provided with a model for organizational change, conflict and change, leadership and change management. Students learn the sources of conflict and disruption that accompany organizational transitions. They discover how facilitation, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills can be adapted to meet the needs of large-scale organizational change projects, including social, economic and political change. They examine conflict resolution as a change process, the systemic sources of resistance to change and how to overcome them
HDDR 6345 Organizational Communication
Organizational communications focuses on the central role of human communication in creating, sustaining, managing and resolving conflicts in organizational contexts. Substantial attention will be paid to: 1) examining contemporary communication theories and social scientific approaches relevant to understanding the causes, effects, and effective management of conflict in organizations and 2) specific communication strategies, tactics, skills, and methods that are the most effective in managing conflicts. The graduate-level, seminar format provides advanced opportunities to analyze case studies and to role-play appropriate behavior in conflict scenarios. The student who completes the course will be competent to analyze problems and conflict situations in a complex and in-depth way and to demonstrate communication competence in conflict situations.
HDDR 6346 Organizational Consulting Skills
Students will apply dispute resolution skills as either external consultants or internal consultants and business partners. The class introduces the basic core elements of organizational consulting, including establishing trust with clients, establishing expectations of the consulting problems, planning a consulting intervention, and managing a consulting intervention.
HDDR 6347 Systems Design in Dispute Resolution
Executives in the new millennium are facing an ever increasing number of organizational disputes in the form of customer complaints, employee grievances, charges of discrimination, contractual disagreements, law suits, and unhealthy competition within and between work groups. Organizations are inclined to handle these conflicts on a case by case basis or use adversarial approaches that often escalate the situation and result in expensive solutions later on. An effective dispute resolution system can offer a constructive approach to managing a wide range of organizational conflicts. These systems provide an integrative and comprehensive way to minimize conflict and resolve disputes when they arise.
HDDR 6348 Team Building Theory and Practice
Team Building: Theory and Practice introduces students to factors that support or impede the performance of work teams, and helps students develop foundation skills in team building. Students learn the differences between meeting facilitation, team development, and team interventions. They are also given opportunities to self-assess their readiness for team building, by understanding the competencies required of effective team building consultants. Students are introduced to skills for identifying team performance issues, and for linking those issues to underlying dysfunctional team dynamics. Students are also introduced to a variety of skills for helping to expedite team problem solving, and for addressing performance challenges within and across work teams.
HDDR 6351 Workplace Conflict
This course provides an introduction to the sources and causes of conflict within business organizations, and explains some of the implementation issues, such as working with multiple and often polarized senior stakeholders, that must be addressed when implementing mediation and conflict resolution services within business settings. Exercises and case studies are used to help students assess workplace conflicts, and to determine the most effective processes for applying dispute resolution support to business clients.
HDDR 6352 Selected Organizational Topics
With variable course content, students will explore topics of interest as related to the organizational concentration of dispute resolution.
FALL TERM 2012: Integrating Conflict Resolution Theory
This course is designed as a capstone class for Dispute Resolution students. The purpose is to help students learn methods of integrating multiple approaches, stakeholders, and methods into practical conflict analysis and resolution work.The course will begin with a consideration of the nature of the “third party” in conflict intervention, the basic goals involved in conflict intervention, and the basic framework in which conflict system design occurs. Discussions and work in the course will be structured around Roles interveners can play, Goals interveners have for their work, and Proposals for concrete action based on the perceived roles and goals.
Spring Term 2012:
Women Leaders:
Successful Mediators, Negotiators and Conflict Coaches
Women
bring special abilities, talents and skills to their work as conflict resolvers,
collaborative negotiators and transformational coaches.
Participants in this course begin by
assessing their leadership competencies, communication skills and thinking
styles when responding to conflict.
Each woman analyzes her results and develops a strategic plan for her career to
become a master mediator capable of handling complex conflicts, an effective
collaborative negotiator of agreements that are at impasse, and a
transformational coach of those seeking
to resolve conflicts.
This approach to leadership development, collaborative negotiation and conflict
resolution skill enhancement is based on the theoretical frameworks, analysis
and case studies presented in Joan’s books:
Learning to Lead: A Workbook
on Becoming a Leader and Resolving
Conflicts at Work: Ten Strategies
for Everyone on the Job. Participants
develop strategies for addressing practical problems in their personal lives,
workplaces and communities. Each
woman expands her professional role to include being a transformational conflict
coach, a valued organizational resource, a mentor, and an effective developer of
leadership skills in others. The process
of this course is be highly interactive and offers many opportunities for
reflection, self-assessment and personal transformation.
SUMMER TERM
2012: International Organizational Consulting
This course introduces
participants to the processes and approaches that have been successfully used by
both consultants and organizations to build and sustain organizational
collaboration. The course is unique in providing students with access both to
US-based approaches to collaboration and consulting, and approaches that work
within international settings. This approach is based on the
assumption that while many national cultures share a common interest in building
collaborative work environments, the approaches and techniques that are used to
build collaboration vary greatly by country and national culture. Simply put,
what works for US domestic organizations is not always applicable to
international organizations, or those based in other countries.
Accordingly, the course is
designed to provide students with maximum exposure to international best
practices.
HDDR 6370 Assessment and Interviewing
This course serves
as the foundation for the three-course executive coaching series and
certification program in executive coaching. Students obtain a basic
introduction to coaching, including its purpose, applications, and how coaching
differs from counseling or mediation. Students learn how to make certain that
all parties (the coachee, coachee’s manager, and sponsoring organization) share
the same expectations of the coaching process. Students also learn how to
conduct in-depth assessment interviews with their coachees, and with other
organizational stakeholders. The course also introduces students to the use of
360o tools, and shows them how to integrate 360o and interview data into a
consolidated assessment report. Finally, students learn how to develop a
coaching contract and conduct an initial post-contracting interview.
HDDR 6371 Transitional and Developmental
Coaching
This is the second
course in the executive coaching series and focuses on learning to provide
coaching to leaders who are making transitions into new work settings
(transitional coaching), or who are preparing to take on broader organizational
roles (developmental coaching). Students will learn to identify underlying
organizational and leadership factors that could contribute to a
transitional leader's success or failure in a new work setting. Assessing
the leadership style, experience and communication factors that have been shown
to be associated with a leader's potential to succeed within high-level job
assignments. Coursework will also involve comparing and contrasting
development hurdles leaders must overcome as they prepare for different
organizational levels and identifying behaviors and learning approaches that
have been demonstrated by leaders who have performed well.
HDDR 6372
Performance Coaching
This is the third course in the executive coaching
track, which leads to the Certificate in Executive Coaching. Performance
coaching helps managers address significant behavioral problems or leadership
style issues that are adversely impacting their work performance. This
course introduces students to research on interpersonal and leadership style
issues that have been shown to play key roles in leadership success or failure.
Students are also introduced to research related to leadership "derailment", or
failure patterns observed in managers who have been previously assessed as being
high-potential leaders. Within this course, students learn about the most
common performance coaching challenges that are likely to be encountered in
performance coaching. They learn how to meet and address resistance to
coaching and learn the intricacies of client contracting, with particular
attention to establishing clear and detailed expectations for performance
improvement. Students will also engage in practice conducting performance
coaching sessions.
Social Service Concentration
HDDR 6361 Cross Cultural & Gender Negotiation
Students examine the relationship of identity, gender, culture and ethnicity to conflict dynamics in the negotiation process. Individual and collective oriented cultures will be compared. The use of body language and physical spacing in negotiation will be explored. Students will discuss the use of language, narratives, and metaphors and how the concept of apology and forgiveness is a culture and gender dependent issue. The focus is to increase the student’s sensitivity and awareness to these issues and to practice skills that will make them more effective conflict resolvers.
HDDR 6362 Education & Dispute Resolution
This course is designed to provide participants with knowledge, skills and strategies essential to apply the best theory and practices of conflict resolution, peacemaking, and restorative justice in school settings, kindergarten through college. The assumptions, principles and practices of "Discipline That Restores" are examined and compared to alternative paradigms. Case studies are utilized to explore the range of restorative programs and practices and their effectiveness. Participants are also introduced to the underlying models and practical skills and strategies essential to implement a restorative discipline model. Through lecture, stories, internet, videos, discussion, and role plays, participants will gain a functional knowledge of the power, practice and potential of discipline that restores.
HDDR 6363 Health Care & Dispute Resolution
A survey of situations and issues where conflict commonly develops in the health care field with it’s unique culture and systems. Focus includes quality review standards, malpractice, and bio-ethical disputes.
HDDR 6364 International Conflict Management
This course will discuss the provocative topic of international relations and dispute resolution. The world is rapidly changing, and these changes are opening the door for the application of negotiation and mediation as well as other dispute resolution mechanisms. Students will also probe national and international human rights in the coming global and politically re-aligned world.
HDDR 6364 Section 776 Summer Term 2011: Sec. 776 Conflict and Trauma in Israel and the Palestinian Authority
This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to study the nexus between trauma and ongoing conflict through interaction with local experts from Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This ten-day program combines classroom study, site visits, and direct contact with various Israeli and Palestinian organizations. Students will have the option of taking a stand-alone three credit course studying the interplay between trauma and conflict resolution, or combining the three credit course with a one credit practicum in Israel or the Palestinian Authority working with trauma or conflict resolution specialists. The three credit course will feature a study of trauma and a study of conflict theory as it is used to analyze the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict, with sessions in or near Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Bethlehem. The one credit practicum in conflict resolution will be conducted in a mediation center in Bethlehem or Tel Aviv. Because it is impossible to understand the nature of the traumatic environment or the nature of the ongoing conflict in the region without putting the conflict in geographic, social, political, and religious context, lectures and discussions will be combined with site visits to historic and religious sites central to the conflict.
HDDR 6365 Public Policy & Dispute Resolution
Beyond The Town Hall: Raising The Bar In Public Dispute
Resolution
Think mediating a two-party dispute is challenging and
compelling? Try a conflict with
dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of stakeholders whose relationship will
almost certainly outlast the conflict.
In this course, you will examine the distinctive art and science behind
dispute resolution in the public sector, exploring a myriad of methods,
techniques, and strategies to address conflicts that need more than a day to
resolve. You will analyze
contemporary public conflicts, try your hand at mediating them, and develop the
skills needed to manage the plethora of moving pieces at play in a civic
dispute. Completion of this class
and implementation of its lessons will, in fact, revolutionize civic discourse
and help produce more sustainable resolutions to public conflicts.
HDDR 6366 Religion & Dispute Resolution
When the usually peaceful ambiance of a church becomes embroiled in conflict and controversy involving parishioners, constituent groups, employees, governing bodies or even outside organizations, conflict resolution and mediation become the focus. Particular emphasis will be placed on equipping students in skills for mediating interpersonal and group conflict in churches, employing a transformational model of mediation placed within the context of family systems theory. Active and practical in focus, the course emphasizes hands-on skills training and real-life roleplays based on the types of conflict typically found in churches. Although focused primarily on the church setting, the skills learned are directly transferable to other settings. This course also satisfies the Texas State Requirement for basic mediation training.
HDDR 6367 Selected Topics in Social Service Dispute Resolution
Fall Term 2011: Restorative Justice
This course is designed to provide participants with theoretical knowledge and practical skills and strategies essential to restorative justice. Participants examine assumptions about crime and justice. The principles and practices of restorative justice are examined and compared to alternative paradigms. Historical and theological perspectives are studied. Case studies are utilized to examine the range of restorative justice programs and practices and their effectiveness. Participants are also introduced to the the underlying models and practical skills and strategies essential to be effective as a mediator in a criminal case. Through lecture, stories, internet, videos, discussion, and role plays, participants will gain a functional knowledge of the power, practice and potential of restorative justice theory and practice.JAN Term 2012: Media Wars: Managing Conflict Created by Inaccurate or Inflammatory Content in Traditional and New Media Inaccurate or inflammatory content and prematurely released or unverified information in today’s many media outlets can easily cause internal conflict and reputational harm for any organization. This course examines the role that traditional print and broadcast media as well as new media such as internet sites, blogs, Twitter and email play in creating and amplifying organizational conflict. Through case studies, readings, class discussions, skill-building exercises and damage-control planning, the course will give students hands-on experience and tools to help reduce so-called “viral” harm set in motion by bad headlines, mistaken “buzz,” deliberate misinformation, and erroneous media reports.
May Term 2012: Engaging in Conflict:
A challenge for conflict specialists is to address people and situations as they are experienced realistically by the people involved, and to subsequently help them deal with each other in a constructive manner. This course prepares students to identify constructive and destructive conflict, how to skillfully engage conflict, and how to use specific methods to work toward conflict resolution. If you find the engagement in conflict to be intriguing and rewarding, this course will offer you techniques to improve your abilities. If you find engagement in conflict frightening, this course will give you insight and strength to challenge yourself and to face conflict when it arises. Numerous case examples will be used to highlight and expand on the readings.Summer Term 2012: Generational Conflict
An extensive study of the concepts of conflict management directly addressing generationally generated conflict. this course will pay particular attention to generational theory and systems theory, applying dispute resolution skills and principles to this common problem. This course introduces the participants to the culture of conflict that has developed between employees of different generations in the workplace. Additionally, the process approaches to managing these difficult moments will be introduced in such a way that a collaborative environment will be established.
Optional Field & Clinical Experiences
HDDR 6108 Practicum II
Continued exposure to actual court-annexed mediation referrals from area courts. Students will do a minimum of two mediations.
HDDR 6121 Independent Study
HDDR 6122 Professional Seminar I
HDDR 6123 Professional Seminar II
HDDR 6124 Professional Seminar III
HDDR 6221 EEOC – Internship
HDDR 6222 Independent Study
HDDR 6223 School Internship
HDDR 6322 Independent Study/Corporate Internships
Masters students may apply for these 3 credit Practicum
positions after they reach a minimum of 21 hours of completed coursework.
Internships will
be coordinated through sponsoring private and public sector organizations in the
DFW Metroplex. This program has been specifically designed to support the
career goals of those graduate students who are interested in securing valuable
organizational contacts, demonstrating their capabilities to potential
employers, and applying their skill sets within large organizational settings.