Cross-Cultural Negotiation: Values and Tactics
Conceptualizing Culture and Negotiation
Culture can be understood in several ways:
- Culture as Learned Behavior: Different cultures have distinct learned behaviors.
- Culture as Shared Values: Understanding central values and norms is crucial.
- Culture as Dialectic: Acknowledging variations within cultures.
- Culture in Context: Cultural values are context-dependent.
Schwartz’s 10 Cultural Values
- Self-Direction: The freedom to choose, create, and explore.
- Stimulation: Excitement, novelty, and challenge in life.
- Hedonism: Pleasure or sensuous gratification for oneself.
- Achievement: Personal success demonstrated through competence according to social standards.
- Power: Control or dominance over people and resources.
- Security: Safety, harmony, and stability of society, relationships, and self.
- Conformity: Restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others.
- Tradition: Respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas of one’s culture.
- Benevolence: Preserving and enhancing the welfare of those with whom one is in frequent personal contact.
- Universalism: Understanding, appreciation, and tolerance for all people and nature.
Steps of International Negotiation
- Preparation:
- Define your goals and your counterpart’s potential goals.
- Identify potential compromises.
- Determine your negotiation attitude (win-lose or win-win).
- Assemble your team and create an agenda.
- Plan for a potentially long negotiation.
- Consider the environment.
- Develop a strategy.
- Choose a communication style (formal/informal, direct/indirect).
- Decide on the form of agreement (specific or general).
- Determine team organization (team or leader).
- Relationship Building:
- This is the first stage in a real negotiation.
- The focus is not on business.
- Get to know the culture.
- Partners get to know each other.
- Engage in social and interpersonal exchange.
- Exchanging Information and the First Offer:
- Exchange information.
- Exchange task-related details.
- Present the first offer (expectations from the agreement).
- Consider the opening offer and potential give-and-take.
- Persuasion:
- Make your counterpart accept your position and agreement.
- Tactics: Verbal negotiation, non-verbal communication, “dirty tricks” (pressure tactics), and ploys and responses, including stalling.
- Concession:
- Each side relaxes some of its demands.
- Styles: Sequential (exchanging concessions) or holistic (few concessions).
- Strategies:
- Win-win: Each side seeks mutually beneficial ground.
- Win-lose: Each party tries to concede as little as possible.
- Agreement:
- The final agreement is signed (the contract).
- Ensure clarity, specificity, and detail.
- Anticipate contingencies and setbacks.
- Establish procedures to resolve problems.
- Address confidentiality or publicity.
- Post-Agreement:
- Conduct an evaluation.
- Gather ideas for future negotiations.
Negotiation Tactics
Verbal Tactics
- Promises
- Threats
- Recommendations
- Warnings
- Rewards
- Punishments
- Normative appeals
- Commitments
- Logical levels
- Pragmatic level
- Self-disclosure
- Questions
- Commands
Types of Questions
- Attention: “May I ask you a question?”
- Information: “How much will this cost?”
- Generating Thoughts: “Do you have any suggestions for improving this?”
- Highlighting Difficulty: “Where did you get that dumb idea?”
- Giving Information: “Didn’t you know we couldn’t afford this?”
- Bringing the Discussion to a False Conclusion: “Don’t you think we have talked about this enough?”
Non-Verbal Tactics
- Tone of voice
- Facial expressions
- Body distance
- Dress
- Gestures
- Timing
- Silences
- Symbols
- Multiple messages (often at a subconscious level)
Listening Skills
- Passive acknowledgment
- Active listening
- Reactive listening
Perception
Perceptual Distortion
Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal Styles:
- Idea Expressive
- Driver Action
- Amiable People
- Analytical Process