Nora-Sakari Case Analysis

As a result, there is huge cultural variation between the two

Eye contact is important in America and Europe, but it can be rude in most of Asian countries and in Africa. Closing your

• Cultural differences – when the same thing means different things in two cultures, communication can be difficult. For example, it is seen as polite and respectful to make eye contact when speaking to someone in Western culture but in other cultures, for example in East Asia, it can be seen as rude and defiant.

The Nora-Sakari: A proposed JV in Malaysia set in 2003, focuses on the possible joint venture

After conducting this substantial research, I believe that I have gained a lot of knowledge between the eastern and western cultures. I gathered information not only from the class module, but books and online articles as well. These references helped me realize how self-oriented the eastern culture is without being selfish. However, the information gathered also taught me how social and exclusive western cultures tend to be.

We are comfortable near friends and relatives, but maintain some distance when interacting with strangers. However, we are brought up to consider strangers as friends until the evidence indicates otherwise (Cramer, & Cramer, 2010). This explains our custom of immediate and beyond-the-surface communication with strangers and our willingness to bond with them. We also favor direct eye contact over indirect. We use direct eye contact during conversations as a sign of trust, respect and interest towards the speaker. However, we avoid eye contact with people in authority to show respect and attentiveness. Our personal relationships with people of the same age group are very informal, but we are very respectful to foreigners. A strong emphasis is placed on family, which is the source of identity, emotional and physical support and protection against life challenges. This is the intense sense of family belonging that is limited to family and close friends. Therefore, people that don’t belong to our family or circle of close friends are slow to be

Usually you use eye contact with your parents if you are in trouble to show respect (rez, 1999). If you are just having a normal conversation you do not need to use eye contact. If you are speaking to a stranger especially two males, eye contact can be interpreted into a challenge or to intimidate. With younger people you also do not need to use eye contact. Facial expressions are also use to show special meaning. When you are sad, angry or happy your facial expressions will show others what you feel. The acceptable way of greeting people is by giving a hand shake that ends with a hug if you are a male greeting another male. And if you are a female, you usually give kisses on the cheek to greet another female or

According to Liu, there is much difference in nonverbal communication and their meanings among China and the United States. In Chinese culture for example, direct eye contact and staring is uncommon and is considered disrespectful to stare into another person's eyes. Even in crowded situations Chinese people avoid eye contact to give others and them privacy. But here in the US we consider eye contact to be a form of attentiveness, listening, honesty, and directness. When it comes to body language we usually see it as a way of expressing feeling, exchanging ideas, and conveying messages. Many people feel that with body

In some ATSI group culture avoiding eye contact while talking is a sign of respect. Whereas in most of the other culture avoiding eye contact while talking is a sign of disrespect. Silence,

Being an active listener all of my life, I realized that the two things I always do when I sit down and talk with a person I care about are to lean forward and look at him straight to the eyes. Surprisingly, when I disengage with someone, I stop looking at him. That made me also think of some people that are normal, but when they talk to you, they look between your eyebrows. I was always finding it annoying, but now I can see that it is something they may need to do to avoid the distress and the overstimulation of an eye contact. However, some cultures such as the Japanese and Navajo forbid the eye contact with elder or strangers. As Kate Shela - a shamanic healer – states, looking at someone’s eyes is an active deep intimacy that frightens us, but at the same time liberates us.

There are cultural differences in each culture, such as the eastern verses the western. There are other cultures as well as their own by understanding the norms and values of each culture to see how each are different and similar to one another. Eastern culture tends to be more traditional, orthodox because of the Asian culture and way of life. They have different norms and values; at a young age they are taught to respect elders and put honor, religion, integrity, and respect before themselves. Western culture is a bit more modern; they are not that strict on following the same way of life as the eastern culture. Both are different because they were both from different eras. Their cultures are different,

Since Europeans and Americans often associate eye contact with honesty and respect, it is easy to misjudge others for whom steady eye contact would be a sign of disrespect. There have been cases where attempts by Puerto Ricans and Native Americans to show respect to persons in authority by not looking at them have been interpreted as dishonesty or disrespect by those accustomed to greater eye contact. Traditionally, Hopi and Navajo people generally avoid steady eye contact, as it is considered offensive, disrespectful, and rude. Racially, blacks tend to make less eye contact than whites (Adler, Elmhorst, & Lucas,

Chinese workers believe that close personal relationships are imperative to effective communication. American companies don’t share the same views and some organizations have even related this to workplace fraternization, which can result in disciplinary action. Since we don’t believe that these relationships are necessary, or even appropriate, we don’t form them and this could affect a bi-national workplace and possibly even carry over to business dealings outside of the company. The Chinese believe that, when conducting business with other people, a relationship must first be formed to gain the trust of business partners.

Take the typical division of the east and the west. Research has shown that people from western cultures think differently from people in the eastern cultures. Westerners tend to see themselves as individuals.

There are mutual benefits for a cooperative effort. The main benefit for Sakari would be to meet its strategy of expanding R&D centres in to South-east Asia which is a market of unexploited potential. They would be to meet this strategy if they gained access through Malaysia. Nora’s main benefit would be able to fulfill its TMB contract since its bid was reliant on providing “Sakari’s 4G LTE technology” (XX). Despite the benefits that would occur due to the agreement the negotiation efforts failed to reach a JV agreement between the two entities. Some of the major reasons for negotiation failure were due to difference in goals, negotiation and interaction styles, cultural differences and behaviors, and lack of trust.