Cross Cultural Negotiation

In China, they don’t believe time is a barrier and don’t put much into deadlines like the Americans. Chinese see the relationship building as their driver of time, rather then getting tasks accomplished in a short period of time. The Chinese people generally believe that a considerable amount of time should be invested in establishing a general climate of understanding, trust, and willingness to help, in matters quite apart from the specific business issues brought to the table. Producing a satisfactory agreement in as short a time as possible may be one of their least concerns. Therefore, the non-task sounding stage of negotiation often witnesses much time spending in establishing rapport and getting to know their partners. The Americans grew frustrated with this approach at the start of the negotiation as well as when Mr. Brickley

Knowledge of other cultures is one of the keys to being successful in business dealings. This paper reports on real experiences in cross-cultural business interactions from three different perspectives. I interviewed three successful businessmen, one who worked with Iranians, one with Chinese, and one with Indians. I interviewed them independently, and my questions covered four different elements: cultural behavior in business negotiations, management as symbol of high power distance in the companies, knowledge of high context or low context culture, and finally knowledge of each of culture to have better business negotiation in future.

Why is it important for you to increase your knowledge and skill in Asian cultures, languages, negotiation styles, and business practices?

Cultural Differences. Cultural differences affect the perceptions and behaviors of different parties in any international negotiation in different ways. These include the goal of the talks; different cultures view negotiations differently with some negotiators viewing them as an opportunity to get a signed contract between the involved parties. Others view negotiations as a start of a relationship between the two parties. The concept of win-lose or win-win scenarios deeply ingrained in different cultures and might affect the perceptions of the many negotiators. The time factor is also sensitive in negotiations with Europeans consider highly punctual while Latinos are usually late and the Americans are fast at cutting a deal (Craig et al., 1996). By reducing formalities, Americans maximize on time available which could be central to the Japanese. Display of emotions during negotiations varies from one culture to another with the Asians are hiding their feelings while the Latinos show how they feel. The cross-culture attributes and skills needed for successful negotiation International business refers to the performance of direct investment activities and trade across the national borders. Globalization has pushed firms to pursue markets across the national builders. The growing numbers of collaborations and transactions across

The conceptual framework of international joint venture negotiations created by Luo (1999) also includes the bargaining power as one of the organizational antecedents. For JVC partners, examining eight bargaining power sources including the availability of substitute partners, strategic importance, technology, management experience, global support, local knowledge, distribution channel and resource procurement are beneficial (Yan and Gary, 1994). Both parties could use listed sources to gain more bargaining power in order to better shape the initial distribution of control in the negotiation (Yan and Gray, 2001). For example, in the exercise, foreign parties could use the strategic importance, technology contribution, management expertise and global sales and market experience to enhance the bargaining power, while CNI could put more emphasis on the strategic importance, substitute partners, local know-how as well as low cost in labour and material. The availability of alternatives is also positively associated with the bargaining power. The more alternatives a bargaining party has to achieve the same goal, more power it has in the negotiation (Yan and Gary,

Global business environment has become more unstable, supplier negotiations have taken important new role on helping improve corporate competitiveness. The goal of most supplier negotiations today is no longer just to get the lowest price. It is also to find new and innovative ways to meet a wide variety of business challenges, often by tapping into the knowledge and expertise of the supplier community and a good relationship.

I chose this subject matter for my negotiation paper because I find myself constantly negotiating when to begin and complete a task. Although I spend a large amount of time organizing my calendar to accommodate the many tasks I have to complete, I still negotiate with time on getting them done. I wrestle with working eight hours on a regular job, devoting two to four hours per week to working and attending my church, allowing two to four hours for online school and study, saving time to spend with my sons, and oh my me time (can’t forget that…yeah right). Now it is a given that in most cases time will win due to the fact I am negotiation with basically 24 hours a day. When you take away time to sleep (approx six to eight hours) which only leave me with 16 hours a day to accomplish a daily task. So then you ask, why negotiate? Organize the calendar, prioritize the task, perform the duty and task is done. NO! You left off my negotiation period. The time when I sit and ponder over will I really have the time to complete the task at hand? The time when I convince myself that I will not get this all done today and may have to do some of this tomorrow. And what do you mean incidentals? Those are not on my schedule and when will I have time for them, I mean goodness, I just shifted a task today to tomorrow to free up time today, and the process starts all over again. This is what I call

Negotiation is viewed differently across various cultures. While many Americans view the process of negotiation as competitive, the Asian community is more likely to view negotiation as a means of information sharing (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). I have found that many Americans generally view the negotiation process as being a distributive process and can be assertive when it comes to negotiation. Some cultures view negotiation as either distributive or integrative. There are several different managerial perspectives in how culture can influence negotiation.

In this negotiation, we learned that it is important to research your opponent, to understand their culture, not only of their country or backgrounds, but also their company culture. When we are able to understand our opponent’s way of thinking about business and doing business we can then understand how to approach a negotiation situation with them. In this exercise, we learned that it is difficult for us to adjust when it involves breaking or acting in a way opposite of what we are accustomed to. We also learned that although my classmates live in the same country as we do, their upbringings may have similarities to their origin country and will therefore help them to communicate and adjust to that country’s norms and standards. We were surprised how we were able to stay in character although it was hard and it was surprising how people responded when they were unaware of your intentions and strategies. If we had to do this exercise again, what we can do is do more research on our opponents so that we would have an idea of what to expect in the negotiation table.

When Anne Burns, an American expatriate, moved to Jordan with her husband to promote female entrepreneurship through the non-profit organization ExportJordan, she had no idea that her American style of communication and negotiation would clash so severely with the Jordanian culture. As she settled into her new office aided by a western educated female employee named Hayat, she quickly ran into a number of minor differences such as men not shaking her hand. Major issues soon started happening, as evidenced by her less than warm welcome by Jafar, a male employee who warned her about her attitude and actions with cryptic phrases and obvious disapproval.

This section is an excerpt from the book “Negotiating International Business - The Negotiator’s Reference Guide to 50 Countries Around the World” by Lothar Katz. It has been updated with inputs from readers and others, most recently in March 2008.

Cross cultural negotiation can be a trick business. Fisher (1980) writes “it is naïve indeed to venture into international negotiation with the untempered self-assurance that ‘after all, people are pretty much alike everywhere’” (p.7). As similar as people are, culture can influence very different world views and customs, both of which will impact negotiation. A brief warning before we start: creating stereotypes based on research will not be helpful in learning how to negotiate with other cultures. These data only provide a starting point, a hint at what can be done to smooth the process.

How does culture affect behaviour during negotiation in general and the different stages involved? Critically evaluate this link and assess its importance for international managers. Throughout your answer, refer to at least two contrasting cultures of your choice, and cite relevant theories and examples from international contexts.

Contract comes in a distinctive way like shapes & sizes or bond needs to set up by an individual who is making the agreement and should be recognized by the person who is marking the agreement and he/she needs to verify that a person who signed the agreement fulfills the conditions. It can isolate into two sorts, which are lawful or unlawful & oral or reported. In like manner law legitimate frameworks, an agreement (or casually known as an assertion in a few words) is an understanding having a legal item gone into intentionally by two or more gatherings, each of whom expects to make one or more lawful commitments between them.

"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." How ever true this might be, it is human nature to feel fear, and more importantly fear of the unknown. Often fear leads to mistrust, which can finish a negotiation before it has even begun. IN today’s increasingly globalised world, being culturally prepared and culturally aware allows negations to at least commence smoothly and efficiently. Globalisation has brought everyone on earth closer together, we can be chatting to someone in Argentine, and emailing someone in Shanghai. Organisations have tapped into the global work force and cross-cultural negotiation is by-product of this. How ever when negotiating across culture, negotiators must always remember that the cross cultural differences are not the issue up for debate, and through many social cues we can see how different cultures and behaviours different to our own can insight fear, and fear of the unknown, nearly hijacking the negotiations. This is evident through many things, whether it is almost superficial concepts, such as language, gestures and eye contact. It is also evident through more profound explanations such as time orientation. Despite the overwhelming amount of literature asserting the major differences in cross-cultural negotiation, there are many experts in the field who disagree. We contrast the pre-discussed notions and can see that cross-cultural differences are also a smokescreen for many negotiators to hide behind for many reasons. This contrast to the