Keywords: Coping strategies of cultural differences in business negotiations
1 Introduction
Although the financial crisis swept the world in 2009, it shows that the trend of economic globalization has been further strengthened and the contacts and cooperation between countries have become closer. International business negotiation is undoubtedly an important link in international business activities. International business negotiations are not so much exchanges and cooperation in the economic field as frictions and exchanges between cultures of various countries. The cultural collision between negotiating countries is mostly caused by the cultural differences between the two sides. Therefore, if we want to carry out business activities smoothly, we must understand the cultural background and differences of different countries, and then formulate reasonable negotiation strategies.
2 culture and cultural differences
Culture generally refers to the sum of spiritual wealth accumulated by human beings in the process of creating material wealth. However, there are huge differences between cultures. Cultural differences refer to the differences in people's values, beliefs and attitudes in different cultural environments. Culture directly affects and restricts people's desires and behaviors.
The purpose of business negotiation is to achieve their own negotiation goals, so to promote the smooth progress of international business negotiation, negotiators need to fully understand the cultural background of different countries, understand the differences between different cultures, enhance their sensitivity to cultural differences, and minimize the adverse effects brought by cultural differences.
3 the performance of cultural differences
3. 1 language
Language reflects the characteristics of a nation, including not only its historical and cultural background, but also its views on life, lifestyle and way of thinking. To understand language, we must understand culture, and to understand culture, we must understand language.
3.2 Body language
The means of communication are not limited to words, but expressions, eyes, gestures and movements of other parts of the body are all messages to people around. For example, Arabs think it is friendly to stand close according to their own national customs, while British people think it is appropriate to keep a proper distance.
3.3 Religion
Religion is the product of the development of human society to a certain stage. Different religions have different cultural tendencies and precepts, which affect people's ways of understanding things, codes of conduct and values.
3.4 Values
Values are people's evaluation criteria for objective things. Values are the fundamental starting point to determine people's views and actions, and affect the way people understand problems. People with different ideas will have different opinions and come to different conclusions about the same thing.
3.5 Customs and Etiquette
Every country has its own customs and national characteristics, so it is particularly important to be familiar with the contents and requirements of foreign etiquette. Fully master the etiquette knowledge before negotiation, especially strictly abide by the special customs and etiquette of the other party, otherwise it will bring unnecessary losses to the negotiation.
Culture has a wide and far-reaching influence on negotiation methods, which will affect the process and preference of negotiators in thinking, making plans, solving problems, making decisions and coping. 4 coping strategies
The author will analyze how a successful international business negotiator should deal with the objective cultural differences in international business negotiations, so as to achieve ideal results in international business negotiations.
4. 1 Be prepared for cultural differences.
Cross-cultural international business negotiators should be prepared to deal with cultural differences first. Negotiators should first have a sense of cross-cultural negotiation. This requires that negotiators cannot use their own value scale to measure the psychological tendency of others, and cannot use their own standards to explain and judge the culture of other nations in negotiations; Negotiators need to learn to understand, accept and respect each other's culture and customs, and adapt their negotiation styles and strategies to international negotiations of different cultural types. Only by paying full attention to the different customs and cultures of different countries and regions can we take effective countermeasures against their differences.
4.2 Prepare pre-negotiation analysis
Preparation and analysis before negotiation require negotiators to know as much as possible about possible cultural differences. In order to improve the efficiency of negotiation, it is necessary for business partners with different cultural backgrounds to understand the background of cultural differences. Analysis preparation mainly includes the analysis of negotiators and negotiation background.
For negotiators: (1) Negotiators' own analysis: Negotiators need to design different negotiating teams, for example, some negotiating teams focus on listening skills while the other team plays the role of high-level influence. The first task of the negotiator is to collect information, that is to say, to assign special members to listen and take notes, so as to know as much as possible about the preferences of the opponent. In the face of negotiators who pay attention to hierarchical culture, senior managers are invited to participate in the negotiations, so the position will play a very important role in persuading and conducting business smoothly.
(2) Analysis of the negotiators: First, fully collect the relevant information of the negotiators, including who is the other party, their identity, status, personality and hobbies, who is the chief representative, their ability, authority, advantages and disadvantages, and their attitudes and opinions in the negotiations. Then, analyze the needs of negotiators and understand each other's needs as widely as possible. Try to understand the intention of the other party to cooperate with yourself, how urgent the other party is for this cooperation, and how much leeway the other party has left for the partner.
In view of the negotiation background: including the negotiation place, venue layout, number of participants, communication channels and negotiation time limit.
All these preparations must take into account possible cultural differences. For example, in hierarchical culture, if rooms are not arranged properly, it may cause anxiety of the other party. Because different cultures have different concepts of time, it is necessary to grasp the negotiation time limit. For example, North American culture has a strong sense of time, while Middle Eastern and Latin American cultures have a weak sense of time.
4.3 Correctly handle cultural differences in the negotiation process
In order to correctly handle the cultural differences in the negotiation process, we should properly grasp them from the four stages of the negotiation process.
The first stage: the purpose of greeting before negotiation is to understand the background and interest of the negotiating opponent, thus providing important clues for choosing appropriate follow-up communication methods. For example, American culture emphasizes the separation of people and things, and they are mainly interested in substantive issues, so American businessmen spend less time on conversations unrelated to work. On the contrary, Japanese culture attaches great importance to the relationship between them and often invests a lot of time and energy at this stage.
The second stage: the main purpose of exchanging work information is to correctly handle the information understanding errors caused by language differences and behavior differences. Generally speaking, 10%-20% information will be misunderstood in the same cultural background. When a person speaks a second language, the percentage of misunderstanding will rise sharply. Cultural differences in behavior are hard to realize. When foreign negotiators send different nonverbal signals, negotiators with different cultural backgrounds can easily misunderstand these signals.
The third stage: handling objections. The way people deal with dissent varies from culture to culture. For example, those who tend to spend more time and energy exchanging pleasantries and work information usually choose an implicit way to deal with their objections. In the face of Japanese culture, tough negotiation strategies may destroy important interpersonal relationships. But for those who believe in the values of competition and equality, we should deal with these problems quickly.
The fourth stage: reaching an agreement. Negotiators of different cultures have different performances in decision-making. Western culture adopts sequential decision-making method, that is, the big task is decomposed into a series of small tasks, and the final agreement is the sum of a series of small agreements. Eastern culture, on the other hand, adopts the overall decision-making method.
4.4 Fully master the negotiation style of the negotiating partner country.
Negotiation style means that negotiators from different cultural backgrounds have different behaviors, ways and methods to control the negotiation process. The differences of national culture and customs not only affect the negotiators' behavior, but also affect their thinking mode and values. Therefore, understanding the negotiation styles of people from different countries and nationalities will help us achieve the expected negotiation results. In business negotiation, it is of great significance to know and be familiar with the negotiation style of the negotiating opponent for grasping the direction and progress of the negotiation and using the negotiation strategy in a targeted manner.
4.5 Simulated negotiation training
Simulated negotiation refers to organizing relevant personnel to rehearse the negotiation before the negotiation begins, with the purpose of testing the possible effects of the established negotiation plan by simulating the performance and reaction of the opponent on a given occasion, so as to correct and improve it in time. When conducting simulated negotiations, we should scientifically put forward various possible assumptions and then formulate a series of corresponding strategies for these assumptions. When negotiating, we should try to find out the possible behavior patterns of the other party in their respective cultural backgrounds, so as to make an objective and practical decision.
5 concluding remarks
In a word, cultural tradition is a national custom, which should be mastered and distinguished on the basis of respecting different national cultures. In order to properly handle the objective cultural differences in international business negotiations, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the influence of culture on international business negotiations. In order to achieve ideal results in international business negotiations, negotiators should make full psychological preparations for cross-cultural negotiations, do a good job in analyzing cultural differences before negotiations, correctly handle cultural differences during negotiations, and grasp the negotiating style of negotiating countries. It is also very important to conduct necessary simulated negotiation training before formal negotiations.
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