Abstract:

Negotiation is a typically human activity across several areas (labor, family, economic, etc.). The conflict of interests is an inherent part of interpersonal relationships. Individuals and groups often have competing interests and negotiation represents a particular mode of conflict management, characterized by an exchange of offers and counteroffers as a means of achieving a satisfactory conflict situation resolution. Competent negotiators are viewed as valuable assets as they can improve organizational functioning and employee relations. Higher educational environments play an essential role in the development of such competence of bargaining among university students of numerous degrees (e.g., law, labor relations, psychology, etc.). It is thus essential to advance in how to train such competence in such environments, favoring its transferability to the subsequent professional practice of such students. Frequently, negotiation in the labor context does not take place individually, but as a team, so that each of the parties in the negotiation process is made up of several people who have to work effectively and efficiently as a team in order to achieve a satisfactory agreement. This is how the development and strengthening of teamwork capacity among university students also has considerable relevance regard to conflict resolution and negotiation.

In general terms, gamification implies the use and application of game dynamics in non-ludic contexts, involving its users in performing various tasks or solving problems. A growing body of empirical evidence have showed that the acquisition and generalization of important key skills among university students can be favored through the use of games. In this sense, it has been highlighted that the game used will be more effective and efficient if its content is of quality and helps students to learn. Likewise, it is important to combine collaboration (e.g., playing the game in teams) and competition (for example, the winning team is getting an award) in playing such games.

In this context, and on one hand, the main aim of this paper is the development of a proposal of a game-based learning experience, or in other words a serious negotiation game called “The House of Lost Hill”. In the other hand, we conducted a pilot study testing its effects on Psychology undergraduates´ own competence perceptions for teamworking. Our results, obtained from a sample made up of a third of the students taking the optional course Conflicts and Negotiation in Organizations who voluntarelly played it in teams, showed that after playing the game they had a higher perception of their competence for working effectively in teams. These results are useful for improving training in conflict and negotiation in organizations, as well as for developing teamwork skills.

Keywords:

Game-Base Learning, conflict resolution, negotiation, Psychology undergraduates, teamwork skills.