The Influence of Culture on Negotiation

Company Observation Essay The Influence of Culture on Negotiations Negotiation Elements and Cultural Dimensions adopt a much less confrontational style in order to avoid direct, aggressive conflict. These cultures may adopt a more collaborative orientation toward the negotiations. In developing a strategy, it must also include levels of risk a party is willing to take for sharing the information, revealing positions, and general considerations on how to best approach a collaborative negotiation strategy. According to Hofstede, some cultures also tend to be fearful of unfamiliar risks. Hofstede’s four dimensions of culture reveal that cultural variation plays a role in negotiations. The next paragraph provides another view of how culture impacts the negotiation process by drawing from Jeswald Salacuse’s identification of ten factors in the negotiation. Cultural Affects on Negotiating Style In a survey of 310 persons from 12 countries and 8 occupations, Salacuse asked participants to rate their negotiating style covering ten negotiation factors. The points below lists the ten negotiation factors. The countries that were represented in the survey were Spain, France, Brazil, Japan, the U.S, Germany, the U.K., Nigeria, Argentina, China, Mexico and India. The jobs concerned were about law, military, engineering, public sector, students, accounting, teaching, and management/marketing. In this paragraph, I will demonstrate through Salacuse’s research, that culture does have an effect on negotiating styles. Although Salacuse’s research reveals many cultural effects. My paper will concentrate on 4 factors from his 10 original ones: negotiation goals, attitudes, agreement form, and risk taking. The 10 factors are : Goal, contract or relationship Attitudes, win/lose or win/win Personal Styles, informal or formal Communications, direct or indirect Time Sensitivity, high or low Emotionalism, high or low

References: Hofstede, Geert H, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. University of Limburg at Maastricht, The Netherlands: McGraw-Hill, 1997 http://www.springerlink.com/content/r2x64126572154t3/ Culture and Negotiation Strategy Wendi Adair; Jeanne Brett; Alain Lempereur; Tetsushi Okumura; Negotiation Journal; Jan 2004; 20, 1; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 87 Moore, Chris and Peter Woodrow, “Mapping Cultures – Strategies for Effective Intercultural Negotiations” (March 2004). http://www.mediate.com/articles/cdr1.cfm#