Međunarodna naučna konferencija Synthesis 2015 International Business: raising cultural awareness in Global Negotiating Msr. Jovana Gardašević Prof. dr Jelena Vapa – Tankosić

1.T HE PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This work helps understand the process of negotiations: it defines the negotiation process, identifies the issues that are subjects to negotiation and also gives the stages of negotiation. It discusses the importance of developing cultural awareness before negotiating internationally through descriptive overview of the all aspects of culture. It gives the examples of differences in global negotiating and generally in doing business around the world. The purpose of this work is to show theoretically the connection between these terms and to give information that will assist businesspeople in avoiding mistakes and pitfalls in international negotiating.

2. UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEGOTIATION Negotiation is conceived as a process in which at least one individual tries to persuade another individual to change his or her ideas or behavior and it often involves one person attempting to get another to sign a particular contract or make a particular decision. Negotiation becomes cross-cultural when the parties involved belong to different cultures and therefore do not share the same ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

2. UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEGOTIATION There are only a few main issues you can negotiate about: (1) Territory; (2) Exclusive or nonexclusive; (3) Performance; (4) Products ; (5) Price and payment; (6) Shipping terms, risk of loss; (7) Restrictions on carrying competitive products; (8) Governing law and languages; (9) Provision for settlement of disputes ; (10) Lenght and termination of the contract. International negotiations proceed through six stages: Research. Build a relationship. Exchange infortmation and make the first offer. Persuade. Make concessions. Come to an agreement.

3. DEVELOPING CULTURAL AWARENESS BEFORE NEGOTIATING In this paper we examine the traditional elements of culture crucial for global negotiating: religion, language and material culture. Religion is one of the most important aspects of culture that differs around the World. The awareness of some of the basic beliefs and attitudes in the world main religions helps better understanding why the attitudes differ from country to country, from region to region. The religion establishes moral codex, ethics, the behavior of people and their working habits.

3. DEVELOPING CULTURAL AWARENESS BEFORE NEGOTIATING The knowledge of foreign language helps businesspeople to communicate successfully and to understand correctly what other part want to say or demand. Communication can be verbal or nonverbal. Today exist more than 200 different languages around the world and over 3000 different language variants. One of the most important problems of global negotiating is breaking the language barriers. Material Culture is everything that human being creates and sharps with his hands that is totally different from spiritual culture - made of his mind. Material Culture is consisted of technology (how people make things) and economics (who, how and why make). Some cultures prefer holding the material goods like the U.S. while other cultures prefer family relationships and friendships like The Republic of Serbia.

4.THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL NEGOTIATING IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS High – context culture. In high – context culture, information is included in the context of the message, with little communicated in the explicit words of the message. The following countries are examples of higher – context culture: African, Arab, Brazilian, Chinese, Filipino, Finnish, French, French – Canadian, Greek, Hungarian, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish. Low – context culture. The words the sender uses explicitly convey the message to the receiver. Here are some low – context cultures like: American, Australian, English, English – Canadian, German, Irish, New Zealand, Scandinavian.

4.THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL NEGOTIATING IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Non-verbal behavior subsumes tone of voice, facial expressions, body distance, dress, gestures, timings, silences and symbols. Gestures. For example, Americans and most Europeans understand the thumbs – up gesture to mean “all right”, but in southern Italy and Greece, it transmits message for which we reserve the middle finger. General appearance and dress. In the U.S. the naked eye could see their carelessness and neglect about this matter. They are traditionally not interested in how they look and, from a cultural point of view, are generally not considered a very stylish nation. On the other hand, the French or the Italians have that status and etiquette.

4.THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL NEGOTIATING IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Posture. Cultures interpret body posture in different ways like bowing is an indicator of rank in Japan, while slouching is considered extremely rude in most Northern European countries. Having your hands in your pockets is disrespectful in Turkey. Sitting with legs crossed is considered offensive in Ghana and Turkey, while it is characteristic of femininity and grace in the most Southeastern countries like Serbia or Croatia. Time. Americans, Australians, Germans, and the Swiss are usually fast – paced and extremely punctual, with no space for delay. In Latin American, starting a negotiating an hour late may be considered normal and in some cases expected.

4.THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL NEGOTIATING IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Individualism or collectivism. Americans build their successes on talking directly to the decision – maker. The negotiator usually talks to the top person who represents the company or belongs to the top of management. As he is a decision – maker he has the power to negotiate with other negotiator and make the deal. Negotiators from Canada, Germany, Swiss, and the U.S. place a greater emphasis on the content of the negotiations than on the procedure.

5. CONCLUSION International business in general, especially the international negotiating represents not just economic but also cultural and social phenomenon. The purpose of this work is to show theoretically the all aspects of culture that are essentially important for business people and companies in their international approach to negotiating, starting from language and understanding, attitudes and beliefs, religion to the elements of material culture. The impact of the culture on international negotiating and decision – making is rapidly growing, especially in the time we are living in, which is characterized by the high level of trade liberalization, market expansions, globalization, economics integration, international business and marketing – oriented companies that their decisions coordinate with the requirements of the business partners or last consumers.

5. CONCLUSION Cultural awareness will assist businesspeople in predicting how people in certain culture will act, negotiate, and make decisions. Therefore, there is a tremendous connection between global negotiating, international business and culture.

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