Newsletter No. 37

CUHK Newsletter No.37 December 1992 Harvard Professor Talks about Negotiation Skills Prof. Howard Raiffa, an expert in negotiation studies from Harvard University, gave a lecture on 'Preparing for Negotiations' on 10th November at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The lecture was sponsored by the ‘Li & Fung Lecture Programme' and organized by theMBA Programmes of the University. Currently Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Managerial Economics, Prof. Raiffa has been teaching at the Harvard Business School since 1957. A Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Institute for Decision Sciences and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Prof. Raiffa has received numerous awards and prizes for his outstanding contributions in the area of risk analysis, decision analysis and negotiation studies. In his lecture. Prof. Raiffa discussed how negotiators should prepare themselves for complex negotiations, and how the protagonists should constructively probe their joint interests in a pre-negotiation, brainstorming dialogue. Prof. Raiffa pointed out that how to balance creating and claiming activities while maintaining good relationships lay at the heart of negotiations, and inefficient agreements were frequently the result of the lack of good preparation for negotiations. The L i & Fung Lecture Programme was established in 1981 and has been financed by an endowment fund donated by the L i & Fung Group of Companies. Two Professors Give Inaugural Lectures Prof. John Masarei, professor of chemical pathology, gave his inaugural lecture entitled The Fifteenth Worst Human Fear — Sources of Variation in Plasma Cholesterol Levels' on 30th October. Prof. Masarei said that plasma cholesterol levels could be used to predict the likelihood of death caused by coronary artery diseases, but whether lowering plasma cholesterol concentrations could reduce death rate was still in dispute. He indicated that cholesterol levels might vary appreciably both within an individual and between individuals, and within and between populations. He went on to explain the important factors determining plasma cholesterol levels: age, gender, diet; alcohol, smoking, obesity, educational level and genetic traits, and described how populations in Western countries had been affected by these factors. Prof. Kenneth J. Sellick, professor of nursing, delivered his inaugural lecture on 20th November. In his lecture entitled ‘The Evo l u t i on of Nursing: from Handmaiden to Independent Practitioner', Prof. Sellick described the changing role and image of the nurse. The transition from a lay person who cares for the sick and infirm to a professional who provides comprehensive health services to both the healthy and the sick was influenced by many factors, he said. They included social attitudes, the changing role of women in society, advances in medical science and technology, changes in health needs and the delivery of health care, and the political activity of nurse leaders. The extent to which nursing had developed was, he added, reflected by changes of the image of the nurse, the nature of the nurse-patient relationship, and how nursing was defined. By now, Prof. Sellick concluded, the nurse had managed to shake off the image of the doctor's handmaiden, and assumed the role of an independent practitioner. 2