CYGNA: Negotiation workshop

Reports on our 30th CYGNA meeting dealing with negotiation styles

The name CYGNA comes from the female version of the Greek word for SWAN (Supporting Women in Academia Network). For a full description of our network see: Celebrating CYGNA: Supporting women in academia. If you are interested in being on the mailing list and/or attending our events please contact Anne-Wil Harzing (anne@harzing.com).

30th meeting, 31 Jan 2020: London School of Economics

Organised by Hyun-Jung Lee  London School of Economics

In January 2020, we were celebrating our 30th meeting of the CYGNA network. We have certainly come far since our humble beginnings in 2014. Interestingly, only three of the participants (founding member Argyro Avgoustaki, 2nd time attendee Ilenia Bregoli and myself) had attended the November meeting on Work intensification, well-being and career advancement. In fact, in the first three meetings of this academic year, we have had nearly 50 different SWANS attending the meetings.

As a result, there were plenty of SWANS who had never met each other leading to animated discussions. First-time attendees for this meeting were Julie Davies [1st on the left] from Manchester Metropolitan University, Neha Pathak [2nd from left] from Hult International Business School, Ece Algan [1st on the right, standing] from Loughborough University, Emily Yarrow [2nd from right, standing] from Portsmouth Business School and Wioletta Nawrot [2nd from right, kneeling] from ESCP London.

Negotiation workshop

The theme of this meeting was "How Swans negotiate and how to negotiate better". Daniela Lup (ESCP, London campus) presented us with an excellent introduction into research on the topic [presentation slides can be downloaded here].

As you can see the audience was captivated. We could easily have filled another two hours with our discussions! It didn't take long for all of us to realise that - even without consciously being aware of it - much of our life involves negotiation. We particularly enjoyed finding out more about our personal negotiation styles.

As in the November meeting on Work intensification, well-being and career advancement, the discussion drew in many topics we have touched upon in earlier CYGNA meetings or in my Middlesex staff development meetings: saying no (see also When to say no?) and the related posts: How to prevent burn-out? About staying sane in academia and Be proactive, resilient & realistic!, Would you ask a male academic the same question?Female academics: Wives of the organization?

Related blogposts