Dispute Resolution Research Center (DRRC)

How do you lead a conversation when every stakeholder wants something different—and there isn't enough money to satisfy everyone?

That's the challenge at the heart of Anywhere UMC, a new healthcare leadership role-play co-authored by Dr. Sue Padernacht, PCC and Deborah 'Dee' Wing,

In this simulation, participants step into a high-stakes meeting between a medical school dean and a newly hired department chair. The department needs to grow, but leadership has also mandated a 5% budget reduction.

As the negotiation unfolds, participants must navigate competing priorities, uncover underlying interests, build influence, and identify opportunities to create value despite limited resources.

The exercise is especially useful for instructors looking to move beyond negotiation tactics and into the realities of leadership decision-making in complex organizations.

Ideal for courses in:
• Leadership
• Negotiation
• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Behavior
• Decision-Making

How would your students decide what to cut—and what to protect?

Explore the exercise: https://teachwithkellogg.com/product/anywhere-umc/

How do you lead a conversation when every stakeholder wants something different—and there isn't enough money to satisfy everyone?

That's the challenge at the heart of Anywhere UMC, a new healthcare leadership role-play co-authored by Dr. Sue Padernacht, PCC.

In this simulation, participants step into a high-stakes meeting between a medical school dean and a newly hired department chair. The department needs to grow, but leadership has also mandated a 5% budget reduction.

As the negotiation unfolds, participants must navigate competing priorities, uncover underlying interests, build influence, and identify opportunities to create value despite limited resources.

The exercise is especially useful for instructors looking to move beyond negotiation tactics and into the realities of leadership decision-making in complex organizations.

Ideal for courses in:
• Leadership
• Negotiation
• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Behavior
• Decision-Making

How would your students decide what to cut—and what to protect?

Explore the exercise: https://teachwithkellogg.com/product/anywhere-umc/

Our 40th anniversary celebrations continue with a feature on Geoff Leonardelli, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2002-2004). His research at the DRRC focused on MESO negotiation, leadership categorization, teams' impact on deception in negotiations, and intergroup relations.

What is one moment or project from your time at DRRC that stands out to you?

"I felt lucky to be mentored by Adam Galinsky, Jeanne Brett, and Leigh Thompson. They had different styles, and deepened my own expertise in different ways (Adam imparted writing development and raw inspiration; Jeanne imparted deep expertise in negotiations and dispute resolution; Leigh imparted wisdom on teams and research efficiency). I had such fun times with Adam, Cameron Anderson, and Kenya Thompson-Leonardelli (my wife). And the many former PhD students who I continue to respect and call friends are incredible."

How has your time at DRRC influenced your career path since then?

"I am a basic social psychologist by training. The post-doc helped me recognized how advances in basic social psychology can advance topics that management cares about (for example, intergroup relations, negotiations, social identity) by integrating these concepts with well-defined contexts that matter to management scholars. The post-doc also helped me realize that researchers improve their papers "research translation", by generating implications where research insights are translated into practices people can take to improve their world. Translation is not always obvious to the general public, and we do the world a service by identifying such practices."

In anticipation of the Dispute Resolution Research Center's 40th anniversary, we are spotlighting the bright minds that have been a part of our community. Today, we are featuring Daniel Effron, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2011-2013). During his time at the DRRC, he researched the psychological strategies people use to license themselves to act less ethically.

What is one project from your time at DRRC that stands out to you?

"My favorite project I worked on at DRRC was with Keith Murnighan and Chris Bryan on what we called the "Cheat at the End Effect." When people know they will have a fixed number of opportunities to get away with cheating for financial gain, they end up saving their cheating for the last opportunity. We published the results in this paper: Effron, D. A., Bryan, C. J., & Murnighan, J. K. (2015). Cheating at the end to avoid regret. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(3), 395."

How has your time at DRRC influenced your career path since then?

"The DRRC launched my career as a business school professor. The mentorship and support I received at DRRC taught me how to teach MBAs, strengthened my professional network, and helped me think about the contributions a social-psychology-trained researcher like me could make in a business school."

How do Asian-White biracial people see themselves?

New research co-authored by Nour Kteily, Co-Director of the Dispute Resolution Research Center, finds that most Asian-White biracial people feel stronger solidarity with Asian communities than white communities. And the more discrimination they perceive against Asians, the stronger that bond becomes.

For those working in dispute resolution and negotiation, this has real implications: assumptions about group membership and belonging can shape trust, inclusion, and conflict dynamics. People need to have deeper conversations to really understand each other. As Nour Kteily puts it: "You really got to dig beneath the surface to figure people out."

Read the full Kellogg Insight article at insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/how-do-asian-white-biracial-people-self-identify

How Do Asian–White Biracial People Self-Identify? New research shows that racial solidarity and discrimination help shape how people align.

Our 40th anniversary series continues, and we couldn't be more excited to feature Donna Shestowsky, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2003–2004).

What was the focus of your research during your time at DRRC?

"I had the great pleasure of working with the amazing Dr. Jeanne Brett. I had long been interested in examining how laypeople and litigants evaluate different alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation, negotiation, and arbitration, and I had been conducting that kind of work at Stanford in the Psychology Ph.D. program using the laboratory experiment model. Jeanne Brett taught me everything I needed to know to take that type of research into the field. I truly learned from the best! Under her mentorship, I was able to conduct a field study evaluating litigants’ procedural preferences in a court in Cook County. We keep in touch to this day."

What is one moment or project from your time at DRRC that stands out to you?

"I learned how to teach negotiation strategy from some of the leading researcher-teachers on the subject. It was an incredible experience to see how empirical findings from psychology and related fields could be incorporated directly into negotiation instruction. I continue to use that model in my teaching to this day."

How has your time at DRRC influenced your career path since then?

"My postdoctoral experience at the DRRC profoundly shaped the course of my career. I have continued to conduct large-scale field studies investigating litigants’ procedural preferences. The study I conducted in Cook County as part of my postdoctoral fellowship ultimately served as the pilot study for a multi-court longitudinal project funded by the National Science Foundation. More recently, I served as Principal Investigator for the nation’s first neutral evaluation of online dispute resolution (ODR) in family law courts.

My interest in teaching negotiation from an empirical perspective deepened significantly as a result of my time at Kellogg. On a related note, shortly after beginning my tenure-track career at UC Davis, two students and I co-founded the school’s negotiation team. Drawing on empirical findings from psychology to shape our approach, our teams routinely place first or second in negotiation competitions across the country, and one team ultimately won the International Law Student Negotiation Competition World Championship. All of these accomplishments trace back to my postdoctoral fellowship with Jeanne Brett. I am very, very grateful for my time at the DRRC."

This interview has been lightly edited and shortened for clarity.

Want students to see how negotiations actually evolve?

Aussie Air is a quantifiable, dynamic negotiation exercise based on the Macquarie Bank-led consortium’s takeover attempt of Qantas Airlines. It helps students experience how negotiations change over time as new information emerges, interests shift, and coalitions form.

We discussed with case author Catherine Tinsley the inspiration behind the case and key takeaways:

What inspired you to create this case?

"A former student was studying abroad when this scenario played out in Australia. He saw the potential and helped us develop it."

What’s one key takeaway you hope students remember long after the discussion?

"As much as you prepare for a negotiation, you also need to anticipate that key facts or assumptions or alliances can change, and you have to be prepared mentally and emotionally to adapt. Coalitions are hard and inherently unstable, and when the environment changes (as it does in most real world negotiations), you need to have a plan—and a back-up plan."

A webinar with insights from the authors is also available.

👉 Buy the exercise now at teachwithkellogg.com/teaching-catalog/?s=aussie

"This is going to change the trajectory of your entire career, and your life." That's what Taya Cohen's mentor told her when she received the job offer for the DRRC postdoc.

As we look ahead to our 40th anniversary, we're celebrating the remarkable people who have been part of our story. Taya Cohen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2008–2010), is one of them. Read on as she reflects on her time at the DRRC, the journey that followed, and why that mentor was right.

What is one moment from your time at DRRC that stands out to you?

"What comes to mind is not one moment per se, but several memories with different sets of collaborators and friends that are emblematic of how special the opportunity of the DRRC postdoc was. It was sitting in offices at Kellogg discussing ideas in unstructured and wide-ranging conversations. Some of these conversations were scheduled, many were spontaneous; some led to study ideas and research papers, others led to lifelong friendships, and some gave rise to both."

How has your time at DRRC influenced your career path since then?

"While at Kellogg, I formed new collaborations and developed friendships with many Kellogg faculty, postdocs, doctoral students, and visiting scholars. It was an extraordinarily generative and productive time in my career. It is easy to see how strong the Kellogg influence has been on my research, with co-authored papers with faculty members (Leigh Thompson, Keith Murnighan, Robert Livingston), post-docs (Nir Halevy, Hal Hershfield, Evan Apfelbaum, Jennifer Jordan), and doctoral students (Brian Gunia, Sunny Kim, Eileen Chou). My time at the DRRC was short, but the relationships, collaborations, and programs of research that began those years ago continue on today, and I am immensely grateful for it."

This interview has been lightly edited and shortened for clarity.

DRRC-affiliated faculty William Brady and Maryam Kouchaki were recently featured in a Kellogg Insight article on how social media features reflect and shape the real world.

William Brady found that outrage fuels misinformation's spread: even engaging with misinformation in disagreement signals to the algorithm that it's worth promoting. Maryam Kouchaki discovered that racial bias affects follow-back behavior regardless of political leaning.

Read the full article at insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/take-5-social-media-irl

Take 5: Social Media … IRL? Kellogg faculty shed light on how social-media features such as influencer marketing, reposting, and “follow-backs” reflect and shape our offline lives.

Our seventh feature leading up to our 40th anniversary is Chris Bauman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2006-2008).

What was the focus of your research during your time at DRRC?

"When I started the DRRC postdoc, my research focused on the intersection between justice and ethics. The field of behavioral ethics was really starting to take off at the time, and being a part of the DRRC connected me to a whole new network of scholars in business schools whose interests closely fit my own. The breadth and depth of my understanding grew very quickly as a result."

What is one moment from your time at DRRC that stands out to you?

"What stands out more than anything is the people I was lucky enough to get to know. On the faculty side, Adam Galinsky, Jeanne Brett, Leigh Thompson, Keith Murnighan, Kathy Philips, Amy Cuddy, and many others. All were so open and generous with their time, and Adam’s energy and enthusiasm was particularly inspiring. Also, there were so many PhD students and other postdocs who contributed to the amazing culture of intellectual curiosity, including Niro Sivanathan, Roderick Swaab, Zoe Kinias, Robert Lount, Li Huang. These lists just scratch the surface. I’m sure I’m forgetting some key people, so apologies in advance!"

How has your time at DRRC influenced your career path since then?

"There really isn’t any aspect of my career path that wasn’t influenced by the DRRC. My time at the DRRC allowed me to transition from social psychology to business, and that was exactly the right move for me. Being a part of the DRRC network still makes attending conferences more useful and so much more fun. I love reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones at each meeting. Also, negotiations remains my favorite course to teach."