Influence Of Cultural Differences On International Business Negotiations Essay

My research is focused on the problems associated with cross-cultural communication and how awareness of culture, language, tradition, and business practices can increase the advantages to globalization. This report will be field specific in

Also some specific, and perhaps surprising, elements that affect business include nonverbal communication, forms of address, attitudes toward punctuality, religious celebrations and customs, business practices, and expectations regarding meals and gifts.

There are many cultural differences, however, in my opinion those that have the most importance attached while doing business, are the way they determine authority, the fact that negotiations are something they believe should be a hard fought battle, trust being something very important because reputation sells your products not how good a product you produce, and personal relationships are of major importance. When deciding who to put someone in charge you need to know

In a business perspective, the oriental and western cultures remain a huge difference. Low-context societies such as American egalitarian culture, they emphasize on logic and facts, verbal messages are more direct and concise, individualism and extremely tolerant to changes. However, high-context societies such as Chinese hierarchy culture, they prefer non-verbal methods to express meaningful communications, group-oriented, and pay more attention to interpersonal relationships during business interactions. For example, a successful business interaction will count on interpersonal relationships among businesses and government. On the other hand, business dealings can be completely transactional with Americans, without building relationships to do so.

Therefore, it is important to increase our knowledge of Asian cultures, languages, negotiation styles, and business practices to further develop business relations that are favorable to the continued growth and development of our own country and the global marketplace. The Asia countries make a massive impact on global economics and trade relations which also affects the political aspects related to international relationships.

North America’s culture certainly affect international business activities, the same happen among all countries and continents in the world. Culture and tradition have a particular role in person’s critical thinking, communication barriers and behavior. In the business environment negotiation is an important skill in where all parties needs to be pleased, at the end you have to give for you to be able to receive, either is entering into a contract or building a

In low-context cultures such as North American and Western European countries, communication usually takes place at face value whereas, in high-context cultures such as Asian and African countries, communication relies upon unspoken condition. They

Do you find one more or less helpful than the other?” To effectively participate in Solomon’s description of “guanxi,” apply Snow’s strategies to “Interpreting Cross-Cultural Encounters.” Snow’s first strategy, “Be aware of your expectations and feelings.” (Snow 20) In terms of “guanxi,” several Western business and political negotiators and travel to China to negotiate unprepared. They don’t consider the language barrier being as exhausting and frustrating as it is, or that the Chinese behave and react in completely different ways that both cultures will misunderstand and grow defensive adding to the already exhausting and frustrating factors. If foreign negotiators go in to China aware of what to expect and to adjust their feelings towards differences accordingly, then they will get along better with the Chinese and begin to earn their trust moving the negotiating process along. Snow’s second strategy, “Suspending or Delaying Judgement,” (Snow 21) would benefit in “guanxi” by keeping a friendship instead of making rash judgements and insulting the Chinese, losing their friendship, trust and whatever deal that was to be negotiated in the first place. Snow’s third strategy, “Empathy in interpretation,” (Snow 22) is

However, beneath the iceberg, we have value, beliefs, norms and assumptions. These are all important factors of the negotiator that a negotiator who is unfamiliar with the culture would not be aware of if they simply showed up to the negotiation without first conducting research (Thompson, 2014).

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.

The five weeks of the Cultural aspects of international business course have been a truly enriching life experience for me. I must admit that I was a little skeptical about the value proposition of the course as I thought this was going to be one of those purely theoretical pro-diversity lectures with no potential for practical application. However, the fact that Professor Lane co-authored the textbook intrigued me so much (I have never had a Professor who actually wrote the textbook for the course) that I decided to give it a chance and sign-up for the course.

Sometimes cultural difference between countries can cause a negative impact when conducting free market businesses. According to the textual evidence, economic advancement and globalization may be important factors in society change. The culture of societies may also change as they become richer because economic progress affects a number of other factors, which in turn influence culture.

Some cultures would not take some negotiating tactics well. Chinese, for example, value interpersonal relationships in any sort of deal, so threats and attempts at intimidation will most likely backfire with them (Chang, 2006).

Another element of the American culture is the egalitarianism. The high regard of equality can be seen in the pursuit of equal opportunities, in the refusal of authority and paternalism, the requirement of participation as well as in the preference of informal behavior. (Stahl/Langeloh/Kühlmann, 1999: 57)