Culture and negotiation

THE TOP TEN WAYS CULTURE AFFECTS NEGOTIATING STYLE [1] Negotiating Goal: Contract or Relationship? American: contract Chinese, Japanese: relation [2] Negotiating Attitude: Win/Lose or Win/Win? [3] Personal Style: Informal or Formal? Germans have a more formal style than Americans. [4] Communication: Direct or Indirect? whereas Germans and Americans are direct, the French and the Japanese are indirect.

[5] Sensitivity to Time: High or Low? Germans are always punctual, Latins are habitually late, Japanese negotiate slowly, and Americans are quick to make a deal. [6] Emotionalism: High or Low? Latin Americans show their emotions at the negotiating table, while Japanese and many other Asians hide their feelings. [7] Form of Agreement: General or Specific? Generally, Americans prefer very detailed contracts that attempt to anticipate all possible circumstances and eventualities, no matter how unlikely. Other cultures, such as the Chinese, prefer a contract in the form of general principles rather than detailed rules.

[8] Building An Agreement: Bottom Up or Top Down? the French prefer to begin with agreement on general principles, while Americans tend to seek agreement first on specifics. [9] Team Organization: One Leader or Group Consensus? One extreme is the negotiating team with a supreme leader who has complete authority to decide all matters. Many American teams tend to follow this approach. [10] Risk Taking: High or Low? Research indicates that certain cultures are more risk averse than others.

U.S. Approaches to Negotiation be competitive in their approach to negotiations, including coming to the table with a fall-back position but beginning with an unrealistic offer; be energetic, confident, and persistent; they enjoy arguing their positions, and see things universally -- i.e., they like to talk about broad applications of ideas; concentrate on one problem at a time; focus on areas of disagreement, not areas of commonality or agreement; like closure and certainty rather than open-endedness or fuzziness.

German Approaches to Negotiation Known for thorough preparation Sticking steadfastly to their negotiating positions Getting into the point directly Unwilling to take risks

British Approaches to Negotiation Putting a wide margin in their opening position so as to leave room for substantial concession during bargaining process. Reserve rather than expressive or demonstrative in the way they communicate

Japanese Approaches to Negotiation Rarely come to the table in groups smaller than 3 Not discuss points not prearranged Ambiguous response to proposals Dress and behave formally Time-consuming

A typical Chinese negotiation style flowchart may look like this: if you are in China, chances are your first step will be to visit the company’s office.  Here, the company will show you many of their positive attributes and let you know many of the companies  accomplishments. When visiting the office the first time, you will notice that there is no specific mention of the business deal.  Instead, the owner in many cases will invite you for dinner that evening. When you arrive at dinner, you may be surprised when very little business will be discussed. Their most likely will be some small talk, a lot of drinking, smoking and discussion about China and your native country.  On the surface it may appear that nothing is getting done.

4. When it is time to pay the bill, it will be impossible for you to pay.  Although you should offer (more than once), it is best in the end to let the Chinese company pay the bill. 5. Don't be surprised if no specific time for your next meeting is set.  Chinese negotiation style attempts to leave the other party never in control.  Instead of setting a time, more likely, you may receive a call sometime the next day that you should come right over to their office. 6. When you arrive at their office again, now is the time to discuss business.  It is in this meeting that you will discuss your terms and conditions and what you hope to achieve from this partnership.

7. If the meeting goes well and both parties feel that they have accomplished their business goals, an agreement may be reached at that moment.  However, rarely will a contract be signed that day. 8. If this meeting has gone well, be prepared to go out that night for drinking and massages(按摩). 9. As for the contract, it is very difficult to predict when a contract will  be made.    So this process may be delayed longer than you may have thought.