Linda and Craig Barkacs

Biography

Craig Barkacs is a Professor of Law, Ethics, Negotiation & International Studies at the University of San Diego. As an attorney litigating high-profile civil and business litigation cases, he and his law partner wife Linda Barkacs have negotiated opposite some of the largest and most powerful law firms in the country, along with their equally large and powerful clients from business and government. As an educator, he has designed and taught numerous courses on negotiation, law and ethics, and international business. Professor Barkacs is the Academic Director of USD`s Master of Science In Global Leadership, a program he helped design and create with military officers pursuant to a U.S. Department of Defense grant. Professor Barkacs has a B.A. in Philosophy from Kenyon College, and his M.B.A. and J.D. from the University of San Diego.

Linda Barkacs is a Professor of Law, Ethics & Negotiation at the University of San Diego. As an attorney litigating high-profile civil and business litigation cases, she and her law partner husband Craig Barkacs have negotiated opposite some of the largest and most powerful law firms in the country, along with their equally large and powerful clients from business and government. As an educator, she has designed and taught numerous courses on negotiation, law and ethics, and international business. Professor Barkacs teaches in USD`s undergraduate program, as well as the Master of Science in Global Leadership program and the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management program. Professor Barkacs has undergraduate degrees in Accounting and Political Science. She received her J.D. from the University of San Diego.

Titles

Ethics in the Workplace

Business ethics challenges businesses to attend to stakeholders while simultaneously pursuing economic goals. Stakeholders expect businesses to be socially responsible, but what this means is not always clear. Business ethics are much as Mark Twain said about the weather: "Everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it." This workshop on business ethics will 1) examine concepts and skills associated with promoting and reinforcing ethical behavior, and 2) identify mistakes and misperceptions that can lead to ethical lapses. In addition, we will examine the moral features of activities and decision-making within and among organizations.

Beginning with the premise that most people want to act ethically most of the time, individuals must also recognize that people and relationships are complex. Determining the proper course of action is at least as difficult as taking that action within an elaborate network of stakeholder relationships. Toward improving moral analysis in organizations, it is essential to consider such factors as the effects of time pressure, division of loyalties, conflicts of obligations, problem solving skills, critical thinking errors, and the nature of authority.

Teams and Leadership in the Workplace

This workshop explores the challenges of leading in a team-based organizational culture. Topics include the design, management, and leadership of teams in organizational settings. The focus is on the interpersonal processes and structural characteristics that influence the effectiveness of teams, the dynamics of intra-team relationships, and sharing of knowledge and information in teams. The purpose of this workshop is to understand the theory and processes of group and team behavior so that leaders can successfully work with teams. A basic premise is that a leader needs analytic skills as well as interpersonal skills to effectively manage groups. The workshop will allow participants the opportunity to develop these skills experientially and to understand team behavior in useful analytical frameworks.

Negotiation Workshop (Two Day Program)

This course examines the key features of integrative (i.e., pie expanding) and distributive (i.e., pie slicing) negotiations, such as BATNAs, target points, anchoring, resistance points, and creating options. It also explores critically important methods of persuasion, how to use such methods effectively, and how to defend against them. High-powered or multi-faceted negotiations require special attention to, or emphasis on, particular themes. This course also focuses on issues of leadership, ethics and trust, difficult people and circumstances, problem solving and creativity, multi-party negotiations, and team negotiations. The learning environment is interactive and experiential, and includes open discussion, negotiation simulations, the opportunity to analyze and evaluate disparate outcomes to the simulations, and direct feedback.

Power & Politics in Organizations

This workshop covers the analysis, explanation and evaluation of power and politics in organizations. It offers frameworks for assessing the sources of power in organizations, the conditions that lead to its attainment and its effective use from both a practical and an ethical perspective. The discussions and exercises (fishbowl, role-playing, etc.) will cover how people in organizations try to get what they want by influencing others, how their ability to do so is affected by power distributions and how people try to change power distributions in their favor. We will evaluate these behaviors and discuss how (if at all) we should participate in these behaviors.

Women and Negotiation

The research is in -- men and women often do negotiate differently, and some of those differences may result in women not always getting what they deserve. This workshop will combine experiential exercises and seminar-style presentation to teach 1) the basics of negotiation, 2) various gender-based features of negotiation that often work to the disadvantage women, and 3) strategies women can adopt to level the playing field.