Cultural Issues in Negotiations 1

Running Head: Cultural Issues in Negotiations

Cultural Issues in Negotiations

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 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 2

The world is changing politically, economically, technically, and collectively at a

previously unthinkable rate. Both new and skilled multinational firms are stumbling and

committing mistakes as they confront these recently emerging environmental forces.

What is desired now is a new way of viewing both the global and foreign operations of

multinational firms. To be as thriving as possible, these firms should be as culturally

attuned to the world and to every foreign society in which they seek to work as they are

to their own home society.

The Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1980) defines culture as "the

incorporated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and

artifacts and depends on man's competence for learning and transmitting knowledge to

succeeding generations" and "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material behavior

of a racial, religious, or social group." These definitions point to numerous important

aspects of culture. First, culture permeates all human behaviors and interactions. Second,

culture is shared by members of a group. And third, it is handed down to newcomers and

from one generation to the next. This description of culture is not aimed at organizations

but is very appropriate to them (AAhad M. Osman-Gani & Zidan, S.S. 2001, pp.452-

460).

As Globalization has evolved overall meaning of business. The set of market-

driven, financial and technical changes which, in the eighties, faced better-informed

consumers demanded the best and cheapest products accessible worldwide; producing

these goods requisite the assimilation of both resources and knowledge on a global scale;

at the same time, it became probable to transport information around the world at
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 3

immensely reduced costs. as multinational organizations had leaned to pursue one of the

three basic strategies attaining economies of scale through the centralized management of

resources, having a strong (decentralized) national presence, and sharing universal a

central pool of skills and experience the predicament for the new 'transnational'

corporations was to unite these three, often conflicting, approaches into a single strategy:

“To participate effectively, a company had to develop global competitiveness,

international flexibility, and worldwide learning competence simultaneously”. (Freivalds,

J. 1995)

All these changes need a consummate degree of negotiations and individual

communication something which the usual structure of a multinational (the head office

hub surrounded by satellite subsidiaries) is not intended to accommodate. Control has to

give way to synchronization, and corporate culture becomes an issue of central

significance.

But, so as to understand how negotiation functions in an organization, we require

going beyond the framework. We also require understanding the points at which

management myths stop working or cease to be useful; we require to look for

discontinuities and uncertainties (Halcrow, A. 1999). To turn negotiation into a really

competitive weapon in practical business, we require to start being more conscious of the

negotiation we do with the party, client etc and see it for what it actually is visionary

myths, power struggles, group limits, discontinuities, auguries of changes to come or

vestiges of changes past. And, when we recognize more about the limitations of

negotiations, we will be better located to develop its potential.

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A company might and most do have the corresponding of dialects, but a common

native language has significant implications which supersede 'regional' differences such

as these. To appreciate such implications, we require looking first at the role which

negotiation and language particularly, plays in an organization.

At the most simple level, negotiation provides two functions gathering and

disseminating information. As, the eventual purpose of both functions is to precipitate

action: a head office might act in response to feedback from customers channeled via its

field sales force; workers on an assembly line might transform their working practices in

accordance with new guiding principle from the operations management. Such actions

are not limited to those formally sanctioned by the organization: information, and the

actions which consequence from its transmission, can be official or unofficial. Indeed,

every organization consists of subgroups who have diverse information needs and

channels, and whose reactions to the similar set of stimuli differ.

Many negotiations do not fit efficiently into the win/win category. Far too many

of the negotiations we have with clients, customers, contractors, suppliers and others are

so complicated that we cannot always establish what is a fair result for both sides. In such

negotiations, there is always the feeling that one side has won more than the other, but we

can never be sure who has won the most.

Most competitive negotiations are win/perceived win negotiations where both

sides come away from the table feeling that they have won something. This is central if

the two parties are to continue with a relationship. The essence of most competitive

negotiations is to gain as much as possible, and to support the other party to feel that he

has won. It may be, of course, that a straight trade is probable without any Machiavellian
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 5

behavior, but it would be folly to presume that all negotiations involve open behavior and

complete trust.

Thus, it is also extremely necessary to know the language to carry on proper

negotiations. Language is not just the means by which people converse (that is, the

medium in which items of information are spoken); it is also the purveyor of meaning.

Data is simply information while it has meaning, and data without meaning cannot

impetuous action. Language therefore provides a means by which we understand the

relative implication of any information and decide how we will respond. Within an

organization, the role of language is consequently analogous to other and more well-

known aspects of cultural behavior such as myths, practices and stories. They all offer a

context from which we can conjecture meaning; they therefore mainly determine how we

interpret information, and this in turn determines how we act. Take for instance the

manager who comes in and strangely closes his or her office door. How people interpret

this will depend on, amongst other factors, the representation of a closed door in that

particular environment (problems? privacy?) and myths ('Smith did that just after being

fired'). Just as with myths and stories, individuals in an organization (or organizations as

a whole) might seek to persuade the way in which both conversion processes take place

by managing the meaning of the language used: the greater the vagueness of the

language, the less convenient or conventional the resulting action (Korn, L. B. 1990, May

22).

Starting with the similar basis of meaning which sharing a common language

gives is obviously fundamental to this process, though the success with which this can be

attained also depends on many other factors. Anthropologists and philosophers have
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 6

argued that a national language characterized a 'contract' within society which underpins

its common culture.

Though, some countries are reluctant to have contact with other cultures due to

cultural and religious conflicts. It is the lack of understanding that is at the root of all

exclusiveness or prejudice, distrust or hatred (Allan, G. 1993).

There are many examples of countries that are unenthusiastic to have contact with

other cultures. For instance, relationship between Israel and Islamic countries, Pakistan

and India etc

The disparity between the diverse cultures in the world today on reflection is seen

to be one of language or appearance more than anything else. The entire of mankind

forms a single species; and external diversities of feature and color, stature and

deportment, behavior and customs notwithstanding, man ubiquitously is but man, a

certain human quality supplying the relation of unity in the middle of all diversity.

Humanity is one, and human culture as the appearance of an aspiration, an Endeavour

and an attainment, is also one.

The countries that are unwilling to contact with other cultures are losing

permutations and combinations of the same or similar basic elements of human culture.

Basically, the physical urge for getting and begetting, for living and spreading, is

everywhere present, as also is the aspiration for a state of permanent happiness for "all

this, and heaven too". This desire, which is roughly as forceful as the physical urge, is

shared by the entire of mankind and has raised men above the level of the simply animal.

Religion, with its Janus-face of fear and hope, attempts to untangle the mystery of life

and being. These attempts, leading to science and philosophy and nurturing of the
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 7

emotions (opening up the limitless joys of art and mysticism), are general to mankind in

all ages and climes, and they spring all over from the pursuit of what the sages of India

regarded as the only end for which man is actually striving cessation of suffering and

achievement of an definitive and abiding happiness. And in this common striving, there

has never been any segregation of a particular people or group of men from other peoples

or groups, whenever contact between them either direct or indirect was made probable

(Lane, H. W., DiStephano, J. J., & Maznevski, M. L. 1997).

The mainsprings of human culture are thus the same, they are common; and

assured ideals, values, attitudes or behaviors, whether good or bad from absolute or

relative points of view, have constantly been found to be transmissible. These ideals,

values, attitudes or behaviors form patterns comparable to languages. All provide to meet

the minimum needs of man, but those which state most adequately and most skillfully the

aspirations, the endeavors and the achievements of man naturally have a predominant

place in the affairs of men. Certain patterns of culture thus stand out pre-eminent; and,

becoming feeders and sustainers of weaker or less complete ones, they attain an

international and comprehensive status (Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. 1995).

This play of action and communication in the cultural sphere is going on for ever.

The opposing forces of centrifuge and centripetence are also constantly operating and

strife with infrequent violent modification of one pattern by another, or harmony

deliberately or instinctively brought about is also in evidence (Allan, G. 1998).

With the hope of one world, one mankind and one happiness for all inspiring our

men of learning and wisdom to find a path that can be followed by all, this contemplative

readiness for a single world culture was never greater than now. We leave aside, of
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 8

course, men of narrow viewpoint whose intransigent support of one particular prototype

is merely an unconscious expression of a blind selfishness which has its roots in both

ignorance and a yearning for domination. The time is certainly ripe, and the stage is set,

for a correct understanding of the diverse patterns of culture and for exploring the

methods for their harmonizing, taking our stand on the essentials and not on the

accidentals, on the agreements and not on the divergences. While this is achieved, and

mankind everywhere is trained to recognize the fundamental agreement based on the

The richest sources of negotiations frequently lie within an organization, but

among those people hardly ever asked to put in to its strategy, such as people on the

customer front line, new recruits, and many more. Who these people are specifically

varies from organization to organization and is a function of the way in which an

individual organization manages language. Thus, to recognize ways in which you can

incorporate a new language into your own organization’s strategy, you first require

understanding how language is managed across your organization as a whole.

In negotiation process we think of an organization, the model we tend to have in

our minds is one in which those at the top talk, as those at the bottom do. Flatter

organizations and the empowerment of those who work in them can mean that the sharing

of talking and doing has changed, but I think most of us would still have difficulties in

finding a company where this division has totally disappeared, particularly when it is

applied to internal processes such as developing a strategy (Nurden, R. 1997).

Taking the words from the bottom of your organization, rather than from the top,

reverses this state: it means that the doers start talking. The effect is less suspicion about

language (from the doers) and a diverse way of using language (for the talkers): both
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 9

ways, it moves the goalposts in terms of what the strategy sounds like, making it more

likely that the organization as a whole will listen more efficiently.

Many management scholars have focused on the thought of adapting national

culture in international business. It is usually defined as a series of basic assumptions that

an organization has developed in learning to handle with its external environment and its

internal functioning. These assumptions have been found to be effectual and valid and are

therefore communicated to new employees. Adapting foreign culture makes every

international organization unique and bonds members of an organization together. The

culture in the organization verifies what behaviors and ideas are acceptable and

appropriate.

Culture is the yardstick used to assess many behaviors and ideas, and it provides a

foundation for the development of goals and strategies. For instance, an organization

where one of the basic postulations is that people perform best under minimal control and

supervision and need independence to excel would consider heavy-handed management

techniques used by one of their new deplorable managers. Furthermore, such an

organization would be more expected to select a training program for developing

participative management skills more than one focusing on processes for developing

power.

A case in point is the much-publicized W. L. Gore and Associates, with

headquarters in Newark, Delaware, that makes wire and cable, medical products, Gore-

tex fibers and fabrics, and industrial filter bags. One of the distinctive characteristics of

the firm is its casualness and the absence of hierarchy and status symbols. Employees and

managers do not have prescribed titles, and creative problem solving is extremely
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 10

encouraged. As a result, the use of status symbols that would designate a hierarchy is

considered highly inappropriate. This instance demonstrates how a basic cultural

assumption concerning factors that leads to effectiveness is used to find out which

behaviors are acceptable (Jimmieson, Nerina L., Katherine M. White, and Megan Peach,

2004, C1).

Culture and business structure and strategy are inseparable, since structure is one

of the major manifestations of culture. The culture is one of the factors that determine the

relationship between employees and managers. As with the other elements, however, the

culture may also be the result of structure. For example, in a highly centralized

organization, the implementation of participative management and employee

empowerment will be impossible without a change in the structure. Thus, the two

elements are totally intertwined (Skinner, Denise 1. 2004, 5).

Both company culture and national culture recount to a persons’ effectual

behavior (Fisher, Glen 1990, 98).

Working in national culture means working in a different cultural environment.

As one national culture might interpret eye contact, smiling, happy, individual space,

touching, punctuality, and arousing responses in a certain way, another culture might

infer a totally opposite meaning from the similar behavior (Moran, Robert T. and Stripp,

William G., 1991). The deepest level of a culture is the least visible part, its value system.

It becomes apparent indirectly, while working with foreigners.

Basically, national culture inspires every feature of social behavior and

manipulates communication style, personality, character, inspiration, knowledge and

cognition. There is a widespread body of work on cultural differences in communication

 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 11

styles in the linguistics and cultural anthropology literature (Reine, P.P.V. &

Trompenaars, F, 2000, 237-243).

Devoid of knowledge of the dissimilarities in national culture and mentality,

without knowing how your colleague thinks, believe and proceed, or which

communications and conflict-solving patterns these pertain, you run the risk of

misunderstanding your business partners, and thus of jeopardizing your achievement both

abroad as well as in locally-based inter cultural teams (Fisher, Glen 1990).

It is simply through the cultural, personal and communication understanding of

the responsible persons that international assignments and company start-ups abroad can

be prohibited from becoming failures.

Cultures give people with ways of judgment, ways of considering, investigation,

and interpreting the world. Thus the similar words can mean dissimilar things to people

from different cultures, even when they talk the same language. When the languages are

dissimilar, and translation has to be used to communicate, the prospective for

misunderstandings increase (Fisher, Glen 1990).

"Communication is effectual when the person interpreting the message attaches a

meaning to the message comparable to what was intended by the person transmitting it."

(Fisher, Glen 1990).

The national culture in an international organization endures gradual change as

the organization adapts to diverse environmental and internal events. This gradual change

is incremental and rarely entails significant deviation from established patterns. Effecting

massive organizational change is therefore very strenuous. Changing the culture of an

organization is as hard as changing an individual's personality. Moreover, strong cultures

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will be more defiant to change than weak ones (Tony Proctor, and Ioanna Doukakis.,

2003, 268).
 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 13

Reference:

• AAhad M. Osman-Gani & Zidan, S.S. "Cross-Cultural Implications of Planned

on-the- job Training. Advances in Develpoing Human Resources, vol.3, no.4,

pp.452-460. November, 2001.

• Allan, G. (1993). ‘Social structure and relationships’, in S.W. Duck (ed.), Social

Contexts and Relationships (pp. 1-25). Newbury Park: Sage.

• Allan, G. (1998). ‘Friendship, sociology and social structure’, Journal of Social

and Personal Relationships, 15:685-702.

• Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (1995). The normal chaos of love. Cambridge:

Polity Press.

• Callahan Madelyn R. 1989. "Preparing the New Global Manager". Training &

Development Journal, March, pp. 28-32.

• Clarke, W. M. (1999). An assessment of foreign language training for English-

speaking exporters. Journal of European Industrial Training, 23(1): 9-16.

• Fisher, Glen (1990), International Negotiation: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.

Intercultural Press, Yartmouth, ME.

• Freivalds, J. (1995). Learning languages. Communication World, 12(11): 24-28.

• Halcrow, A. (1999). Expats: The squandered resource. Workforce, 78(4): 42-47.

• Hays, R. D. (1974). Expatriate selection: Insuring success and avoiding failure,

Journal of International Business Studies, 5; 25-37.

 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 14

• Holstein William J., et al. 1989. "Going Global". Business Week, October 20, pp.

9-18.

• Janet Morrison, Global and Local Marketplace in a Changing World, International

Business Environment, Second Edition, Palgrave Macmillan, Apr 2006

• Jimmieson, Nerina L., Katherine M. White, and Megan Peach. "Employee

readiness for change: utilizing the theory of planned behavior to inform change

management." Academy of Management Proceedings (2004): C1.

• Korn, L. B. (1990, May 22). How the next CEO will be different. Fortune, 157-

161.

• Lane, H. W., DiStephano, J. J., & Maznevski, M. L. (1997). International

management behavior. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

• Lester, T. (1994). Pulling down the language barrier. International Management,

49(6): 42-45.

• Moran, Robert T. and Stripp, William G., 1991. Dynamics of Successful

International Business Negotiations, Gulf Publishing, Houston, Texas.

• Nurden, R. (1997, October 30). Teaching tailored for business people's every

demand. The European, 39.

• Reine, P.P.V. & Trompenaars, F. "Invited Reaction: Developing Expatriates for

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Human Resource Management Journal 14.3 (2004): 5.

 Cultural Issues in Negotiations 15

• Tony Proctor and Ioanna Doukakis. "Change management: the role of internal

communication and employee development." Corporate Communications: An

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