InterculturalBusinessNegotiation

1、Intercultural Business NegotiationAbstract: Nowadays, international business negotiation is playing a more andmoreimportant role in modem society. However, to reach a satisfactory agreementbetween negotiators is difficult. Many aspects should be taken into consideration. Forexample, cultural differe

2、nces, obstacles in intercultural communication, efficient teamwok and staff training. Whats more, negotiators should be patient, modest, considerateand confident in dealing with business. These are the key points in successfulnegotiation.Key words: cultural differences, obstacles in intercultural co

3、mmunication, efficientteam wok and staff training1. Cultural differencesIt is obvious that there are great differences in international business negotiation.Particularly, culture can influence negotiating styles in different ways, becausenegotiators who may come from another nation is different from

4、 us in language, beliefs,behaviors manners, privacy, food custom, time, thinking, value and attitudes and so on.Different cultures express different ways of doing business. Even though negotiators arewell prepared, it is not so easy to reach a satisfactory agreement between negotiatorsacross culture

5、s. Negotiations can be easily broken down due to a lack of mutualunderstanding of the cultures. Culture affects negotiation even before negotiators meetwith face toface. Therefore, learning the opponents culture and having a good understanding ofhow cultural differences affect negotiation will be cr

6、itically important if one wants tosucceed in cross-cultural negotiations.In this case,“Ellen had been told by several more internationallyexperienced co-workers that the Taiwanese would undoubtedly spend most of the timeestablishing a relationship, initiating culture-relate trips during her stay, an

7、d showingrespect for her and her company by providing entertainment.”,“the Taiwaneseclearly recognized thesuperiority of her firms product lines; they praised the reputation of her company and thequality of its products at some length. She was a little surprised when, in speaking abouttheir own firm

8、s qualifications, the Taiwanese were very modest.”and“She had thoughtthat the contract was virtually sewn up, but the Taiwanese were not treating it as such.This is an example of cultural differences. Taiwanese show Ellen their hospitality andrespect the same as the way they treat another client. Bu

9、t Ellen doesnt think so, shetakes it as an implication of successful negotiation. At last, the lack of mutualunderstanding of the cultures contributes to the failure of negotiation.As we all know, different countries have different cultures. According to the cultureof different countries, we should

10、adopt different strategies in the international businessnegotiations, in order to ensure that negotiations can be expected to achieve. Forexample, decision-making must based on cultural differences, learn some internationalbusiness etiquette and practices, respect each others cultural practices. The

11、nnegotiations will achieve a satisfactory outcome.How to negotiate and to deal with cultural differences in negotiation? From mypoint of view, it can be divided into three stages.a. Pre-negotiation: The pre-negotiation stage begins form the first contactbetween the two sides whose interest in doing

12、business with each other,we should keepan open mind to recognize and accept the difference, because information gathering willto some extent determine the success and failure of the negotiation.b. Face-to-Face Negotiation: In this stage, I think negotiators should adopt someproper communication skil

13、ls to reach an agreement. And we know conflict tend to bemore difficult and complex when involved negotiators with cultural differences. Butconflict is unavoidable during the process of negotiation. To make things worse, poorcommunication may kill deals. So we should try our best to overcome the cul

14、turaldifferences on negotiation, and utilize some effective communication to gain thecommon interest. In view of its significance in negotiation, communication is at the heartof the negotiating process.c. Post-negotiation: Finally the business negotiation is brought to the end stage.The contract is

15、being drawn up and to be signed. However, writing and wording of the contract in itself is a kind of negotiatingprocess. For word meaning and business value might differ due to the cultural factorsinvolved in the business negotiation, form of agreement is preferred differently fromculture to culture

16、.In a word, Cultural differences have great impact on negotiations on every aspect.To be successful in the commercial negotiation between different cultures, one muststrengthen trans-cultural consciousness, have a good understanding of thosedifferences, do some research in this field, try to reduce

17、and avoid the negative effectthat the cultural differences may bring and so on. There are much more we should do innegotiations.2. The obstacles in intercultural communicationLanguage, verbal and non-verbal, is a symbolic representation of reality, and thebasic form of communication between human be

18、ings. And com muni cati on follows thefive-step process of“the messagethesenders encoding-the channel - the receivers decoding-the message received”,and with or without a possible feedback, which may cause another round of interaction.So as to understand each other effectively and efficiently, both

19、the message sender andthe receiver are supposed to use the same set of codes-the same set of symbols,orin other words, the same language, utterance or gestures.In terms of intercultural communication, the different cultural backgrounds of thecommunicators may give a symbol a different meaning. One p

20、articular symbol mayarouse different decoding by the receiver that causes an understanding other than themessage senders encoding-thatis misunderstanding. We may find out how intercultural misunderstanding interferes withthe international contact between the Westerns and the Asian people, and even a

21、mongpeople speaking the same language, by studying the case.“As the meeting progressed, the Taiwanese kept averting eye contact, evenwhen she asked them direct questions.”and“She pointedout that the deal was very competitively priced, but her words were followed byuncomfortable silence.”Eye contact

22、here is a kind of nonverbal languages, Taiwanese avoid eye contact, because direct eye contact is impoliteto some extent and it may lead to their nervousness and anxiety, thus, it willhave a negative ef fect on successful negotiation. Whats more,while others speaking, they think they should keep sil

23、ence in order to show theirrespect and leave a good impression to others. However, Ellen feels uncomfortableand frustrated in this situation, she thinks that they dont pay much attention to herwords and they dont show respectto her.The following intercultural communication tips are provided to help

24、peopleworking in multicultural environments deal with intercultural business more effectivelywith people and not letting culture become a problem.a. Be patient: working in an intercultural environment can be a frustrating affair.Things may not be done as expected, communication can be tiresome and b

25、ehaviormay be inappropriate. Patience with yourself and others helps move beyond suchissues and avoid similar incidents in the future.b. Ask questions: when you dont understand something or want to know whysomeone has behaved in a certain way, you should simply ask rather than pretendunderstanding o

26、therswords. Asking questionsprevents you making assumptions, shows the questions you do notunderstand, helps widen your bank of intercultural knowledge by learning from others.c. Show respect: intercultural communication carries on the basis of respect.While showing respect to others, you earn respe

27、ct as well and it helps strengthenbusiness ties.d. Write words down: people who are not native speakers may not react asquickly as what others speak, it is a good idea to write things down. In this way, peoplecan not only have a better understanding of others but memorize things more exactly.e. Time

28、: n ot everyone in the world thinks“time is money”. Theconcept of time is different among different cultures .To Americans and mostEuropeans, punctuality is a way of showing respect for other peoples time. However,to us Chinese like Taiwanese, they will undoubtedly spend most of the timeestablishing

29、 a relationship and look forward to a long-lasting business relationship.Thus, we should manage time properly. In a word, working across cultures is a newexperience for many people. Intercultural communication can be a dynamic andcreative affair, but occasionally due to the inability to interpret pe

30、ople correctly, it canbe a challenge. Building an understanding of other peoples culture, theircommunication styles and behaviors can go a long way in improving relationships andbeing more successful in an intercultural environment.3. Efficient team wok and staff trainingTeamwork is the activity of

31、working well together as a team. We define it as a“cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of people acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause, peopleworking together for a selfless purpose and so on.Nowadays, there is no business or organization that does not

32、talk about the needand value of teamwork in the workplace. Many things cant be accomplished byworking individually. Team members play different roles in the team, makecontributions to the team and take responsibilities for the team. They can learn fromeach other and acquire much more working experie

33、nce. To the company, the successis largely dependent on the efficient teamwork which can bring the company manybenefits, especially high business returns.In this case,“there was also some confusion as to who exactly hadthe authority to the decision to sign the contact. She had previously thought tha

34、t ChenWu-Ping was the decision maker; however, this did not seem to be the case now. Heand his colleagues (all much older than she) did not seem to have an acknowledgedleader.”Many companies likeChens company dont have a good team and efficient teamwork, they just wait fordecisions on everything, ha

35、ve an ambiguous understanding of team leadership, andusually are not enthusiastic about work and shift responsibility. Thus, it is essential tobuild a team in a company or an organization and carry out staff training courses.Generally speaking, staff training types can fall into two main kinds. On o

36、ne hand,the company can bring in specialists out of the company. On the other hand, thecompany can also ask some senior employees to train new staff. Many companiesprefer the latter one.To the company, staff training can help accelerate the pace of development,avoid some unnecessary mistakes made by

37、 staff and make a high profit. To the staff,they can learn much from the training, widen their bank of knowledge, make plans forthe future and get a chance to promote.What makes a good team? In my opinion, there are three important factors.a.Team members trust each other. Trust is the most important point.It has the directinfluence on the success of a team. A good team is based on mutual trust withoutsuspicion.b.Members talk openly and honestly within the team. Different people havedifferentideas, everyone should speak them out and share them with other memberswi