Influences of Different Cultures on International Business Negotiation正文 英语专业 毕业论文.doc

Influences of Different Cultures on International Business NegotiationContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstract (English) iiAbstract (Chinese)iii1.Introduction.12.Different cultures.22.1Definition of culture.22.2Components of culture.23.International business negotiation.23.1Definition of international business negotiation23.2General process of negotiation.34.Influences of different cultures on international business negotiation34.1 High-context and Low-context communication.34.2Individualism versus collectivism.44.3Results versus relationships.54.4Time orientation.55.Achieving effective negotiations through effective negotiation strategies76.Conclusion.10Works Cited. 11AcknowledgementsFirst, I am mostly grateful to my supervisor, * Without his guidance, encouragement and help, this thesis would not even have got off the ground.My deepest gratitude also goes to all the teachers in college of Foreign Language Studies who have taught and helped me during my four-year study in this university. Besides, I am much obliged to my classmates and friends who have given me warm helps.Finally, Id like to show my great thanks to my dear parents for their generous love and support all these years.AbstractWith the constant development of the economic globalization, business cooperation between companies is dramatically increased. Negotiators from different countries come together and discuss their common and conflicting interests; meanwhile, they bring different cultures to the negotiating table. Culture is one of the factors that have important impacts on international business negotiation. Culture forges values and religious belief that define ones thinking and behavior. Therefore, negotiators with different cultural backgrounds employ different negotiating strategies. Cultural differences will certainly result in cultural conflicts. The negotiators from different cultures experience failure often due to the cultural factors. Thus, to negotiate effectively, negotiators should have a good understanding of culture and cultural differences. More importantly, they should know how negotiation is affected by culture. In doing so, negotiators can predict the process and adjust strategies in order to reach a satisfactory agreement. Therefore, the research on how culture influences negotiation is in the need of social developing, and is of practical significance.Key words: influences; different cultures; international business negotiation内容摘要随着经济全球化的不断发展，各公司之间的商业合作的机会急剧增加。不同国家的谈判者在同一张谈判桌上就共同和冲突的利益进行协商。同时，他们也带来了不同的文化。文化是影响国际商务谈判的重要因素之一。文化决定人的价值观、宗教信仰，从而影响人的思想和行为。因此，不同文化背景的谈判者运用不同的方式、策略进行谈判。文化的差异必然会引起文化冲突，谈判的成功与否大多可以用文化因素来解释。因此，要想取得有效的谈判，谈判者不仅要了解对手的文化及与己的文化差异，更重要的是应该了解文化因素如何影响谈判。这样，有助于谈判者预见谈判的进程，及时调整谈判策略，最终达成圆满的协议。可见，这一课题的研究顺应时代的发展，具有积极的现实意义。关键词：影响；不同文化；国际商务谈判1. IntroductionAs international negotiation increasingly involves cultural factors, the relationship between culture and negotiation has attracted more and more academic attention. Research on international negotiation concerning cultural variables has developed only several decades, and is still largely expected in the future. In 1976, scholars, like Deshler, Sato, Clapp carried out a research on the different outcomes of a series of the U.S-Japanese negotiations resulted from cultural differences. Then in 1980, it is Fisher who worked out the theory from practice. He argued, “The greater the cultural differences, the more likely barriers to communication and misunderstandings become.”(Hendon et al.x) After that, some scholars in 1990s made further exploration on the role of culture in international negotiations exclusively from the cross-cultural perspective. In this thesis, attention is focused on influences of different cultures on international business negotiations. And the Sino-American business negotiation cases are mainly selected. The negotiating styles of the United States and China, to a large extent, represent that of most negotiators from the world. Meanwhile, these two cultures are quite different, or even opposing. For example, Americans value individualism while Chinese emphasize collectivism. Americans negotiate a contract while the latter negotiate a relationship.Over two-thirds of U.S-Chinese negotiation efforts fail even though both sides want to reach a successful business agreement. In fact, the number holds true for most cross-cultural meetings. Often barriers to a successful agreement are of a cultural nature rather than an economical or legal nature. Besides, with Chinas entry into WTO, China is becoming more and more important in todays economic field. China is the country with a long history in which a very important religious belief Confucianism originated. It is typical representative of Oriental Culture.It is my intent, in this thesis, to present an exploration on the relationship between culture and negotiation, and to provide specific examples on how cultural differences affect international business negotiation across borders. In addition, I will give some recommendations to the negotiators who need to deal with people from other cultures. In todays global environment, only those negotiators who fully understand the opponents culture and cultural effects on negotiation can be successful in international negotiations.2.Different cultures2.1 Definition of CultureWhat is culture? The definition is not an easy one. Culture can be viewed as consisting of everything that is human made, a set of shared and enduring meanings, values, and beliefs that characterize national, ethnic, or other groups and orient their behavior. Thus, we can say that culture can include language, arts, morals, beliefs, custom and even everything in our life.In this thesis, culture is defined as a set of learned and enduring values, beliefs, knowledge, standards, laws and behaviors shared by a group of members and determines how the member acts, feels and views oneself and others.2.2 Components of CultureSome scholars say that culture has two major components: the material and the non-material. For the material part, it refers to tangible items such as computers, cars, air-conditioners and houses; and the non-material part refers to intangible items like language, values, norms, customs, religions and laws.(赵艳萍、李洁连,1999) Both of them play a most important role in shaping peoples perception of nature, reality and peoples behaviors. For the purpose of this thesis, non-material components of culture attract more intention, which are closely related to the business negotiation.3. International Business Negotiation3.1 Definition of International Business NegotiationNegotiation can be considered a special case of communication in which information is shared and common and complementary goals acceptable to both sides are searched. Parties at the negotiating table are highly interdependent. Their common interests are locked together. A buyer cannot survive without a seller. Namely, a win-win transaction is more related to negotiation of modern society. International business negotiation is a behavioral process by which the parties from different countries or regions negotiate in order to achieve a certain economic goal and to clear up the relations between each others rights and obligations.3.2 General process of negotiationNegotiation process addresses how negotiation behavior changes over time as parties interact. In the international business negotiation studies, many scholars have defined the negotiation process model. On the basis of previous research, the negotiation process presented in this thesis is divided into five different stages: preparation before negotiation, non-task sounding, task-related exchange of information, persuasion, concession and agreement.4. Influences of Different Cultures on International Business Negotiation4.1 High-context and Low-context communication In high-context cultures (Chinese), people prefer to communicate allusively rather than directly. Meaning is embedded in the message and must be inferred to be understood. Directness and blunt expressions are much disliked. Truth is not needed when a lie can avoid unpleasantness.In low-context communication, people tend to speak directly and explicitly. Everything is needed to state and meaning is on the surface of the message. Information is explicit while indirectness is not welcomed.Difference between high-context and low-context communication styles can produce difficulty and misunderstanding when negotiators are from these two kinds of cultures. For example:George Hall，an American businessman in Beijing attending a trade fair was looking for all opportunity to do business in ChinaHis first day was going wellOn the second day he approached the company which he felt would be most responsive to his productsHe introduced himself to the general manager, Mr. Li. Since he had read that Chinese find getting down to business immediately is too abrupt and impossible，he began a casual conversation，eventually leading up to the topic of products and suggesting how Mr. Lis company might benefit from using themGeorge then suggested that he could arrange to get together with Mr. Li and provide more specifics and documentation on his productsMr. Li responded in fairly good English，“That would be interesting，”Knowing that he had only a few days left in Beijing，George wanted to nail down a time “When can we meet?” asked George. “Ah，this week is very busy,” replied Mr. Li. “It sure is，”said George，“How about 1 0 oclock? Meet you here” “Tomorrow at l0 oclock?” asked Mr. Li thoughtfully“Right. ” said George“Ill see you then? HmmYes, why dont you come by tomorrow.” was the reply“OK”Responded George，“It was nice meeting you”The next day at 1 0 oclock he approached Mr. Lis companys exhibit only to find that Mr. Li had some important business and was not able to meet with GeorgeHe called back later in the day and was told that Mr. Li was not available4.2 Individualism versus CollectivismIn individualistic culture, individuals are expected to take care of themselves and to value their needs over that of the collective-the group, community and society. Rights and duties are defined by laws. Society regards individual achievements and legal institutions protect individual rights. Task is put before relationship.Individualistic culture, such as USA, is more self-centered and emphasize mostly on their individual goals. People from individual cultures prefer clarity in their communication and they tend to communicate efficiently in a direct way. In business communication, they try to improve strengthen the connection with their counterparts not for establishing a long-term relationship but to gain more benefits.Collectivism emphasizes common interests, cooperation and interdependence. The duty to ones family, company, society is paramount. Relationships are based on mutual self-interests. Maintaining harmony within groups is obtained at all cost.Collectivist cultures in Asia like China, regard other companies with less collectivistic philosophy as cold and not sustainable. Collectivistic cultures have a great emphasis on groups and take the terms of we. In a company of collectivistic culture, harmony and loyalty is regarded important and thought to be maintained. Besides, confrontation is considered to be avoided. It is regarded as impolite to disagree with somebody in public in China. If you dont agree with someone, you should choose a more personal atmosphere to do it for saving his face. Instead of saying no, some implicit expressions or phrases are used to describe a disagreement or negative statement. Saying no is not good for the harmony of a group. The relationships between employees and employers are based on trust and harmony. The wealth of the company and the group are more important than the individual one.4.3 Results versus RelationshipsNegotiators from relationship-oriented culture place high value on friendly relationships and are not comfortable with a strong result-driven negotiation process. Business in China is not about doing business between organizations, but about doing business between people. You have business when you have established an interpersonal relationship. Chinese negotiators will naturally take a people-oriented approach toward negotiations; they do business with you, not with your company. Results, rather than relationships are paramount. American negotiators concern about the price, quality and guarantees of the product or service. A sale can be closed on the first meeting. They spend five or ten minutes introducing each other and then are eager to get down to the issue under negotiation directly. Lets look at a real story:An American team called Canwall, which is a wallpaper printing equipment manufacturer, went to Jiangsu to negotiate a sale with a new Chinese wallpaper production company. In the first two days when the representatives from the American company arrived in China, they were showed around some places for relaxation by the representatives from the Chinese company. In the third day, the negotiation meetings began. But actually, the Chinese company spent a lot of time talking about some issues unrelated to the sale. The American representatives didnt know why the Chinese company talked about so many things unrelated to business.This case is an example of communication failure. The Chinese company preferred to spend much time on establishing of relationship, whereas the American company tended to discuss the sale issues at the beginning of a negotiation. The Chinese were relationship oriented, while the Americans were result oriented. In the negotiation, the Chinese company tended to establish a good relationship at the cost of time. The American company tended to achieve the goal of a task despite rather than spent a long time establishing relationship.4.4 Time OrientationMany in the West, especially Americans are driven by the clock. They live by schedules and deadlines and thrive on being punctual for meeting and efficient in doing business. American negotiators are known for their speed and strive for getting through the content of the negotiation as efficiently as possible. Americans usually arrive five minutes earlier for a business negotiation and begin their business at the appointed time. They always seem to be in a hurry and under pressure for results. Due to the deadlines set by their leader, American negotiators tend to give away more than it should be just in order to finish the task on time and move on to the next item. So, it is easy for them to make concession when compared to Asian counterparts. Americans are of monochromic time perceptions in nature.In the Asian countries, like China, people have different view on time from that of the United States. Time is not money but a weapon. To many Asian negotiators, how much time is required to close a task is not as important as the job itself. Producing an agreement in a short time may be one of the least concerns in negotiation. The Chinese generally believe that enough time should be invested into building warm relationship before really starting the issue under negotiation. They view time as endless and they are long-term oriented. They are patient and do not run for the deadlines. So, Chinese negotiators seldom make concession until the last minute of negotiation. Very often, it takes more time to close a negotiation in Asian countries than that is done in the West. There is an example:The sales manager of WCG, an American high-technology service company was in China to present new process-control software to an electronics company in Tianjin and conveys some particulars of the “new product options” to his potential customer. Introductions were made. The talk began with the usual “How do you like Tianjin?” questions. They also talked about the flight from the U. S. After about five minutes of this chatting, the American quite conspicuously looked at his watch, and then asked the Chinese manager of the Tianjin Company what he knew about the companys new service. “A little,” answered the Chinese. The American quickly took out a brochure from his briefcase, opened it on the desk in front of the client, and began his sales pitch. Armed with charts and figures, the American tried to illustrate how the introduction of WCGs process-control software would reduce the maintenance budget of the Chinese company. After several minutes of this introduction, the Chinese jumped back in, Yes, that should make us more efficient and competitive. and competition is important here in China. in fact, have you been following the Women World Cup football matches recently? That one between the Chinese team and the American team was really a bitter battle.” Therefore, they talked for a few minutes on the World Cup, why football was not popular in the U.S., and how the Chinese team could be improved. Then the American tried to change the subject back to WCGs software. The first signal was a long look at his watch, then the interruption, “maybe we can get back to the new software we have developed” The Chinese did get back to the software for a few minutes, but then he went from the advantages of advanced process-control technology to the current state of Chinas electronics industry to the changes the open-door policy has brought about in Chinas e