1. Intercultural communication in negotiations

2. When is someone a good intercultural negotiator?
List 5 characteristics of a good negotiator.
Can you learn to be a good negotiator or are you born one?
What elements of intercultural communication do you need to consider in intercultural negotiations?

3. Characteristics effective intercultural negotiators:
Observant
Patient
Adaptable
Good listeners
Keep their promises
Negotiate in good faith
Realise culture influences everything
Speak in a polite way
Use humour only when appropriate
Do their homework on the countries
Don’t critise the other’s country
…..?

4. Which characteristics do you think you have that would make you a good negotiator?

5. Fisher (1980) 5 elements in intercultural negotiations:
Players and the situation
Decision-making styles
National character
Culture noise
Interpreters and translators

6. What affects the outcome of intercultural negotiations?
Policy (concept, negotiators, role, protocol, significance)
Interaction (language,persuasive,time)
Deliberation (trust,risk-taking,internal decision-making systems)
Outcome (form of agreement)
(Moran and Stripp)

7. Protocol
3 classifications
Tribal
Collective
Pluralist

8. Person’s responsibility
Tribal:
Support family and follow rules of society
Collective:
Group contribution, honour, conformity
Pluralist:
Personal growth, achievement, independence

9. Interaction with strangers
Tribal:
With strangers, aloof & formal; with friends: warm, welcoming, trusting
Collective:
Does not stand out, friendly yet noncommittal to strangers
Pluralist:
Informal, direct communication

10. Life objective Tribal: Respect of group, contribute to family
Collective:
Succeed at work, to get opponent to concede something
Pluralist:
Success beyond goals

11. Business environment Tribal:
strong vertical hierarchy, leaders inaccessible
Collective:
Shared power, no one stands out, open offices
Pluralist:
Layered hierarchy, private spaces, best offices for top management

12. Conducts business Tribal:
Must control, manipulative, correspondence limited
Collective:
Divided responsibilities, strategy and ritual are important;
Pluralist: direct, formality with strangers, correspondence to may

13. Feedback Tribal: Avoids details, not accountable, subjective
Collective:
within the group consensus a must, nothing negative
Pluralist:
direct, specific, objective, impersonal

14. Decision-making Tribal: Decisions at the top, pride, emotion
Collective:
Consensus, final decisions from the top
Pluralist:
Independent, rational process, middle management approval

15. Problem solving Tribal: Blame assessment more important Collective:
Problems are evaded; someone loses face; conflict, no problem admitted
Pluralist:
Addressed quickly, rationally; analysis after the fact (Chaney & Martin,2004)

16. Intercultural negotiation models
Sociopsychological model
Principles model
Directional model
Interaction model
Package deal model

17. How important are the following things in intercultural negotiations and why?
Location of meeting
Time of meeting
Duration of meeting
Number and status of negotiators
Gender of negotiators
Social talk before the meeting
Making notes during the meeting
Making a report of the meeting
Negotiating over dinner
Talking about details
Reaching agreement very quickly

18. Cultural background
Understanding cultural background is vital to successful international business communication.
Basic cultural orientation centres around the following items:
Beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviour and norms (ethnocentrism)

19. Values Beliefs Assumptions about the world and how it works
Assumptions about right and wrong, preferability

20. Attitudes Behaviour Norms
Expressions of values, influences on thought and action
Behaviour
Human action
Norms
Expected or typical behaviour

21. Ethnocentrism An egocentric view is ‘I’ centered.
An ethnocentric view is ‘we’ centered. It is based on the social group. You judge all other groups according to your own standards, behaviours and customs and you see differences as inferior.
Ethnocentrism causes stereotyping and prejudice.

22. Recognizing cultural differences
The obvious differences:
Age
Language
Gender
Physical ability
Family status
Educational background

23. Less obvious cultural differences
Social values
Roles and status
Decision-making customs
Concepts of time
Concepts of personal space
Body language
Social behaviour and manners

24. Legal and ethical behaviour
Corporate cultural differences

25. Guidelines for good intercultural communication skills
Assume differences until similarity is proven
Take responsibility for communication
Withhold judgment
Show respect
Empathize
Tolerate ambiguity
Look beyond the superficial
Be patient and persistent

26. More guidelines Recognize your own cultural bias Be flexible
Emphasise common ground
Increase your cultural sensitivity
Send clear messages
Deal with the individual
Learn when to be direct
Treat your interpretation as a hypothesis

27. Negotiating across cultures
Personal relationship
Tolerance for open disagreement
Different problem-solving techniques

28. How to communicate successfully in international business
Realize and become aware of your own communication behaviour:
Always be open to new information
Realize there is more than 1 perspective
Forget about stereotypes and defined categories

29. When there is a conflict in intercultural communication
In intercultural conflicts the following can be of influence:
Thinking patterns
Language barriers
Cultural context

30. 1. Thinking patterns (Kaplan,1970)
English speakers: linear in language (inductive, deductive reasoning)
There is one central idea and all the other ideas are related to this central idea. To prove something, the relationship between these ideas is explained.

31. Thinking pattern Romance language speakers:
Although similar to the English they allow greater freedom for digression or introduction of other material into the conversation. The pattern shows that the Romance speakers are more inner-oriented and rely more on feelings and expectations in their behaviour and judgment.

32. Pribim (1949) thinking patterns
In the Western world
Universalistic
Nominalistic or hypothetical
Intuitional or organismic
dialectal

33. 1.1 Universalistic
Dominated by the principle of identity of thinking and being.
Hierarchical system of rigid concepts
Can be directly proved by human mind
French, Mediterraneans, Latin America

34. 1.2. Nominalistic/hypothetical
Puts emphasis on induction and empiricism. Thinking is dominated by hypothetical concepts.
Knowledge based on our sense perceptions and freely formed conceptions
Anglo-Saxon countries

35. 1.3. Intuitional/organismic
Mixture of universalistic and nominalistic.
It denies the existence of innate ideas but assumes that, with the assistance of the insight of the human mind, we are able to attribute knowledge to the general truth.
Intuition and unity of the whole
Germany, Slavic Central European countries

36. 1.4. Dialectical
Denies the principle of the existence of innate ideas. It assumes the mind can fully understand the universe and discover the general truth.
Explanations follow the evolutionary process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
Sub Sahara Africa

37. 2. Language Barriers 3 Major barriers in intercultural communication
Verbal communication styles
Variant meanings
Indirect verbal language

38. 2.1. Verbal communication styles
Direct: verbal messages used to show our intentions in the process of conversations.
Indirect: used to conceal or camouflage our true intentions.
(low context <-> high context cultures)

39. 2.2. Variant meanings Situational context is not emphasized
Important information usually occurs in explicit verbal messages
Self-expression, verbal fluency and eloquent speech are valued
Opinions and intentions used to persuade others are expressed directly.

40. 2.3. Indirect verbal messages
Explicit verbal messages are not emphasized
Important information is usually carried in contextual clues (place, time, situation, relationship)
Harmony is highly valued, using ambiguous language and keeping silent
People talk around the point, avoid saying ‘no’.

41. 3. Cultural context Determinants of conflict: Face Interrelation
Favour
Seniority
Status
Power
Credibility
Interest
Severity of conflict
Gender