The Impact of Cultural Differences on the Negotiation Process - Essay Example

Name Lecturer Task Date The Impact of Cultural Differences on the Negotiation Process Negotiation process is usually influenced by the culture of the people involved. Culture is the socially transmitted norms, behaviour patterns, values and beliefs of a given society. It highly influences how people think, behave and communicate (Ndapwilapo, 2010). It is thus a big determinant on the negotiation process. In this essay, I am going to analyse how the culture of both the United States of America and China has influenced their negotiation processes. The US and China has difference approaches and styles of negotiation especially when it comes to business deals. This is attributable to their cultural differences. The Chinese culture is highly influenced by their traditional philosophies including Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. This philosophies places more importance on patience, relationships, harmonious and survival instinct. On the other side, the United States of America culture promotes individualism, networking and information in dealing with other people. China culture has also promoted agrarian mode of lifestyle where many people reside in rural areas whereas the American one is more of urbanisation culture. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CHINA CULTURES AND THEIR INFLUENCE TO NEGOTIATION PROCESS Education system There is big difference in the USA and China education systems thus greatly influencing the way people interact during negotiations (Culpepper and Stephen, 2012). The Chinese education system was formulated in such a way that it encourages direct instructions and students not asking many questions. This has made Chinese people to accept things without the need of asking many questions. During negotiations, the Chinese are thus not analytical and critical on views and opinions of the other negotiators. They belief and built trust on the opposite group of negotiators. The Americans on the other hand encourage the use of constructivist education approach where the critical questioning of things is highly encouraged. This culture enable American negotiators to highly question, analyse and be critical in whatever deals they are undertaking in the negotiation process. They believe that by doing so there will be no room for being short-changed. This difference in the education systems has made the Chinese to be overconfident in their negotiations and to draw hastly inferences in things said during the negotiation processes, which are not warranted (Li, Chen, & Yu, 2006). This explains the reason why the Chinese need to be careful not to read much implied meaning into written and spoken words making up negotiations and should instead rely more on literal interpretation. Other researchers like Ghauri & Fang (2001) are of the contrary opinion and argues that Chinese like asking many questions during negotiations as well as interrupting negotiations more frequently. Non-verbal communication and personal style Americans tend to rely more on the use of non-verbal communication styles during negotiations. For instance, during negotiations the Americans tend to use more eye contact. The American culture considers this as a way of showing interest and good will in the negotiation process. The Chinese on the other hand do the opposite to show respect by avoiding eye contact (Pye, 2002). They have the belief that using too much eye contact is taken as staring. This disparity among these countries in this minor area can cause major misreading of their attitudes and intentions of the other negotiating party when they are in the negotiation table. This may eventually injure trust necessary for the successful negotiation process. The Chinese culture prefers formal styles of address as a form of showing respect during negotiations. They also avoid discussion of personal matters like politics or family issues during negotiations. On the other hand, American culture encourages the use of informal approaches in creating friendship during negotiations. For instance, they may address each other by their first names unlike the Chinese who address each other in formal ways as assign of respect. This styles portrayed in negotiations are due to the historical and current cultures. Xenophobia and xenophilia Xenophobia involves a distrust of all things that are considered foreign to one’s own culture while Xenophilia is the lust to obtain things new or foreign to our culture or normal living style. The Chinese have grown to be xenophobia. This is highly contributed by their history of government seizures, changes and their history of violent revolutions. China has faced attacks from different parts of the world and within itself. This has made its people to be careful while dealing with other people. It is argued that Chinese people only trust themselves and their bank accounts. This hence has fostered them to keep within small, close-knit and familiar communities and friends. The mixed feelings the Chinese pass through as they cope with adoption of new technologies, new standards of living and western technologies has made them to be careful in their implementation. The Americans on the other hand are very xenophilia. They like to taste new technologies, ways of live, standards of living among other things. This has made them to be flexible in interacting and negotiating with people from different spheres of life. Philosophical foundations There are three main Chinese philosophical foundations, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism (Fang, 2006). The Chinese philosopher Confucius lived 2000 years ago and was instrumental in the teaching of the importance of human relationships and their hierarchy. This culture has remained of great importance in the Chinese community and they deeply rely on it during negotiations. They require the outcomes of the negotiations to be of importance to both parties in the process. Taoism philosophy deals with the need of life being in harmony with nature. Buddhism deals with the religious and immortal world of the Chinese culture. These three philosophies influence the relationships of the Chinese people within themselves and with external parties. For instance, the overconfidence of the Chinese people during negotiations is greatly contributed by the Confucianism philosophy. The Americans on the other hand have no binding philosophies but they are individualistic, egalitarian and sequential in their approach to negotiations, (Graham and Lam, 2003). Economic systems The Chinese and American or the western economic systems highly differ. The Chinese adopted the socialist system of governance that preferred the use f socialist economic system. This system focused more on the promotion of the well being and welfare of the people (Ralston, Holt, Terpstra, & Kai-Cheng, 2007). This initial economic system promoted the culture of state ownership and less competition in business activities. This hence made negotiation styles to be less competitive and to be promoting welfare. The Americans on the other side adopted the capitalist economic system. This encouraged numerous privately –owned businesses emergence and competition. This made the American people to be more competitive in approaching business matters. In general the socialists cultures has made their countries to tend to place high priority on cooperation while negotiating while the capitalist once tend to want improvement in their competitive nature of their business while negotiating. Negotiating Goal The purpose of negotiation varies across different cultures. For certain cultures the sole purpose of negotiations is to reach a deal and then sign a contract while for others is to create a long term relationship between the negotiating parties that will eventual lead to a contract (Salacuse, 2004). China believes in the creation of interpersonal relationships as the main priority over commercial transactions. Relationships are the heart of Confucianism. Among the eyes of the Chinese people, a relationship between businesses is built between the relationships in individuals involved. Trust must be thus built in the negotiation and pre-negotiation stage. The Americans on the other hand put much emphasis on signed contracts. They mainly go into the negotiation table with the main aim of getting a signed contract. They believed that all agreements resulting from the negotiation talks be documented and signed. Zhang (2008) argues that the westerners and Americans main aim while negotiating for business is to increase their own compensation at the expense of the other party. American culture has made them to prefer detailed contracts that have all possible eventualities and risks anticipated. They believe that they contracts must be governed by law. They put much value on short-term values of the negotiation rather than its long-term values. The Chinese culture fosters good relationships among parties and this has made them to prefer general agreements during negotiations. They see a detailed agreement as absence of trust between the negotiating parties. In case of occurrence of unforeseen circumstances, they would rather choose further negotiation or mediation as a means of solving the differences rather than sticking to the law. They believe in doing what they consider right and not blindly following legal requirements. America is a low context culture while china is a high context culture. According to Palich, Carini, & Livingstone, (2002) legal documents counts for low context culture while mutual and long term relationships exist in high context culture society. this is exactly what occurs in both China and America. Negotiation time and leadership The Chinese prefer slower negotiations while Americans believe time is money and thus a higher need for hurrying in the conclusion of negotiations and deals (Zhao, 2000). Americans try to reduce formalities and fastens signing of contracts while the Chinese invest more time in pre-negotiation stage to know more about the other partner in order to give room for development of long-term relationships. Attempts of shortening negotiations may be taken by the Chinese as means of hiding something and thus being a source of mistrust. Americans also prefer one-person leadership in negotiations; they appoint one leader in formal negotiation who in many occasions has full decision-making power. On the contrary, Chinese like a large team of negotiators with authority and decision making resting in the group members. This style of negotiating by the Chinese can be attributed to their socialist nature of approach to business and life deals. Conclusion Culture has high impact on the negotiation process of a given society. Different cultures within different countries make it hard to interact during negotiation. It is essential that people understand other peoples’ culture in order to aid interaction during negotiations since they will know their negotiation behaviours. The American and Chinese negotiation process varies greatly in the basic philosophies, deep- level assumptions, tactics, strategies and their operational styles. This differences stem from their different cultures. The Americans usually like quick, detailed, individualist and short-term oriented negotiations. This is attributable to their education system, individualist culture, capitalism and culture of being law-abiding. The Chinese prefer long courting process, promotion of relationships in negotiations, long-term interrelationships and slower negotiations. The Chinese negotiation process and styles have been influenced by their historical evolution, Confucianism, Taoism, education system, socialism among other cultures. Generally, culture is very deterministic factor to the negotiation process and style. 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