跨文化商务谈判中的冲突管理

AbstractWith the development of globalization, there have been increasing business communications, which gives rise to more business negotiations in the intercultural context. In the intercultural business negotiations, it is important to deal with conflicts appropriately, and the success of which, to a large extent, depends on a good understanding of the cultural differences that may be involved in the negotiation processes.This thesis, based on a brief review on the concepts relating to conflicts in intercultural business negotiation, provides an insightful analysis of the impacts of cultural differences on international business negotiations, and suggests how to deal with these conflicts effectively to ensure the success of negotiations.Key words:business negotiation; conflict; intercultural; solutions摘要随着全球化的发展，商务往来日益频繁，从而导致了更多的跨文化商务谈判产生。

在跨文化商务谈判中，对于冲突的妥善处理非常重要。

在这一过程中，谈判的成功很大程度上有赖于对文化差异的充分了解。

本文基于对国际商务谈判冲突的相关概念的讨论，分析了文化差异对国际商务谈判的影响，并对如何应对冲突以确保谈判成功提出了解决的建议。

关键词：商务谈判冲突跨文化解决方案AcknowledgementsMy thesis “On Conflict Management in Intercultura l Business Negotiation” has drawn upon the advice, encouragement and support from my people.First and foremost, my sincere thanks should go to Xu Yuan, who has been providing me with technical guidance and assistance step by step throughout the whole process of thesis writing. The existence of this thesis owes much to Xu’s selflessness, wisdom, time and patience.I would also attribute the completion of this thesis to my teachers, colleagues and classmates, whose instructions on thesis writing has helped lay a good foundation for the construction of this thesis. I, too, owe my gratitude to my parents, who have contributed in some way to the refinement and accomplishment of this thesis.I also feel indebted to the authors listed in the References, from whose works I have drawn a great deal of inspiration and ideas.Finally, I would like to recognize the contributions of many people who have helped me but not been adequately acknowledged here.Contents Abstract (i)Acknowledgements (ii)Contents (iii)1Introduction (1)2Basic Concepts (2)2.1Conflict and Conflict Man agement Styles (2)2.2Conflict and Business Negotiation (3)2.3Conflict Management in the Intercultural Context (4)3Impacts of C ultural Differences on Intercultural Business Negotiation (4)3.1Relationships With People Fro m Other Cultures (4)3.2Communication Styles (5)3.3Decision Making Processes (5)4Suggestions for Conflict Management in Intercultural Business Negotiation (6)4.1Enhancing Intercultural Awareness (7)4.2Tolerating Cultural Differences (8)4.3Grasping Communication Skills (8)5Conclusion (10)References (11)On Conflict Management in Intercultural Business Negotiation1IntroductionWith the trend of globalization, businesses are inevitably involved into all kinds of business activities worldwide. As a result, such business activities as negotiation and marketing between companies from different cultures have become more and more frequent. Among all of those activities, business negotiation is undoubtedly the most essential one, from a trained negotiator acting on behalf of a particular organization or position in a formal setting, to an informal negotiation between friends.Just like any other situation, the rules for the polite way to handle problems are specific to a particular culture. The way that different cultures deal with conflict is largely based on the context of the culture. What a negotiation is designed to accomplish may be seen differently by different groups of people. Due to the cultural influences to the value, attitude and behavior of the negotiators, the intercultural business activities are usually more complex and difficult than the domestic ones. Intercultural negotiation involves discussions of common and conflicting interests between persons of different cultural backgrounds who work to reach an agreement of mutual benefit. That is to say, intercultural negotiations are negotiations where the negotiating parties belong to different cultures and do not share the same ways of thinking, speaking, feeling, and behavior. The negotiation process is generally more complex because cultural norms may undermine effective communication and even conflicts. Besides, with the process of economic globalization, especially the increasing of global trade, it is unavoidable that different cultures will meet, conflict, and blend together. Thus, how to make effective conflict management in intercultural business negotiation is a key point that managers all around the world care about.This thesis falls into three parts. Part One puts forward an overview of the basic concepts relating to conflicts in intercultural business negotiation. Part Two identifies the impacts of cultural differences on intercultural business negotiation. Part Three provides some suggestions on dealing with conflicts in intercultural business negotiation.2Basic Concepts2.1Conflict and Conflict Management StylesThe term “conflict”covers different situations from one culture to another. Pruitt defines it as a “perceived divergence of interest or a belief that the parties’current aspirations cannot be achieved simultaneously (1986, p.32).” This definition is labeled as “any situation in whic h one actor is perceived as being unable to reach his or her goals because of another (Chew, 2001, p.124).” The Chinese understanding of conflict conveys a high level of antagonism and thus is already quite far from a situation where there is only a “perceived divergence”. The most common acceptation is “fighting”or “struggling”. It is an encounter between contrary elements that strongly oppose each other.According to Ting Toomey (2001, p.126), conflict style refers to patterned responses to conflict in a variety of conflict situations. Findings in many previous studies indicate that people display consistent styles across a variety of conflict situations in different conditions and different cultures. Conflict style is learned within the primary socialization process of one’s own cultural or one’s own ethic group.In an attempt to better understand how people deal with conflict, Thomas and Kilmann developed the Conflict Mode Instrument in 1974. Their model details the five major ways individuals respond to conflict.Competing: Those who use a competing negotiation style are often assertive and unwilling to cooperate.Accommodating: Individuals who use an accommodating negotiation style tend to be passive as they seek cooperation.Avoiding: Avoiding is a kind of style in which neither assertiveness nor cooperation takes place.Collaborating: Those who collaborate are both assertive and cooperative; they are the exact opposite of avoiders.Compromising: Between competing and accommodating is the compromising style.Each of the five conflict styles produces different effects on the negotiation process and its outcomes. According to Bai Yuan (2002) who combines each of the five styles with a negotiation mode, competing style negotiators tend to use high-pressure method such as deadlines, ultimatums and sanctions. They show little concern to other’s interests and force the other party to surrender to their demands. As for those who use the collaborating method, cooperation is an outstanding feature in their negotiating activities. They show concerns and understandings to both parties’interests, difficulties and satisfactions, which explain the reason why they can share information, trust others and offer assistance to each other; seeking middle ground is the compromising style. Those who use this style cooperate with others on some items but refuse to collaborate on others. They treat assistance, information and trust as commodities; hence they look for compromise with others. “I won’t give you anything unless you can provide me with what I want” would be a typical statement if using a compromising style. Those who utilize the avoiding style are never willing to cooperate with others nor do they state their consent or objection openly. Instead they passively resist often by finding excuses, changing topics or leaving conflict unsolved. People who use the accommodating style are the opposite extreme of those who use the competing style. They habitually cater to other’s desires and requests. Harmony is their motto. They avoid hurting feelings, damaging relationships and disturbing a peaceful atmosphere, and they try to be very helpful and are concerned about the others’ ideas.2.2Conflict and Business NegotiationAccording to Bai Yuan in International Business Negotiation Theory and Case Simulation, the conception of conflict in the context of business negotiation consists of three points.First, parties in conflicts are interdependent, which means there is a relationship between the parties developed by interrelated interests and concerns. There would be no conflict if the parties were not interrelated and had nothing to do with each other.Second, both different and common interests coexist, because if there were only contradictions and no common interests, negotiations would be groundless and hopeless.Third, parties in a conflict will naturally fight for their own interests and make every effort to gain more from the other side; as a result it would block each other’s ability to satisfy their interests (2002, p.4).”2.3Conflict Management in the Intercultural ContextCulture usually is seen as manners, traditions and customs. Generalized speaking, culture is the total of both material wealth and mental wealth during the process of human society practice. While business culture emerges and formed from long time line operation practice, which admitted and complied by the whole staff, it is the soul of enterprise, push forward the enterprise continued developing.With the rapid development of economic globalization, the ability to communicate, negotiate and effectively work with people from other cultures is vital to intercultural business. Being an ideal intercultural business negotiator involves learning the norms, customs, values and beliefs of another culture.There is no one “right” culture and because of this there shouldn’t be expectations for one culture to completely conform to another. Different countries have different customs, values, beliefs and habits. Intercultural businesses is expanding, Many companies are going global. Employment, sales, management, marketing exploit and negotiate, at the same time it is unavoidable to contacting with various cultures and dealing with different problems across intercultural environment. Misunderstandings can occur when employees are not knowledgeable on intercultural differences. These misunderstandings can result in poor employee moral, low work efficiency and even bog down.3Impacts of Cultural Differences on Intercultural Business Negotiation3.1Relationships With People From Other CulturesRelationships are powerful. Our one-to-one connections with each other are the foundation for cooperation. Building relationships with people from different cultures is akey in building diverse communities that are powerful enough to achieve significant goals.Whether you want to bring quality health care into your communities or promote negotiation development, there is a good chance you will need to work with people from several different racial, language, ethnic, or economic groups. American scholar E B Tylor think, culture is a kind of complex integration. Intercultural differences are the key factor which influenced cultural communication. At the same time, as the intercultural communication barriers cause some conflicts; let more experts to pay attention to the study of cultural differences. Cultural differences mainly expressed in: Language; Thinking way; Values; Custom; Legal norms, etc. In order to work with people from different cultural groups effectively, you will need to build sturdy and caring relationships based on trust, understanding, and shared goals. Trusting relationships are the glue that holds people together as they work on a common problem. As people work on challenging problems, they will have to hang in there together when negotiation gets hard.3.2Communication StylesDifferent cultures have different norms about communication styles in negotiation. Broadly speaking, in some cultures the norms favor direct communication whereas in other cultures, people communicate in an indirect, discreet fashion. The indirect-direct communication dimension has a direct implication for how much people should rely on contextual cues.Cultures that value getting to the point quickly without mincing words are direct communicators. In this type of interaction, the truth is highly valued with a concern for people's feelings taking a backset to the conveyance of information. While indirect communicators value the idea of saving face and maintaining harmony, direct communicators are not afraid to use criticism and confrontational language. African Americans, Northern Europeans and European Americans are direct communicators. Indirect communicators rely on implication and suggestion to explain ideas, with an emphasis placed on saving face. In stark contrast to direct communicators, silence in aconversation is common and appreciated. Cultures that embrace indirect communication believe that interrupting another speaker should be avoided. Native Americans and Asian cultures consider a direct communication style inappropriate and even rude.3.3Decision Making ProcessesThere are many different ways in which individuals come to a decision, but there are also differences in decision styles between cultures. Companies, managerial systems and governments make decisions differently in different cultures. It is important to understand and respect these cultural differences in decision styles in order to foster positive cross-cultural communication.In the United States, people often make decisions by taking a vote, and the majority rules. On the smallest levels, American culture operates on debate and discussion between opposing parties that leads to democratic decision-making. Even school children are often asked to vote on an idea, making a decision by majority. Americans also tend to utilize a hierarchy, whereby someone in a management position can occasionally overrule the vote or make a decision without consulting a team.In China, managers tend to be more hierarchical in their decision-making processes. They tend not to ask employees for their ideas, but to make the decisions themselves. A study by Maris G. Martinsons (2007) showed that the power distance between employer and employee is significantly larger in China than it is in either American or Japanese managerial systems. The researchers found that Chinese managers value discretion and autonomy in decision making, choosing to disregard advice from others in light of their knowledge and personal experience. According to Martinsons and Davison (2007, p.291), “The Chinese typically seek to maintain social order through a harmony-within-hierarchy arrangement.”4Suggestions for Conflict Management in Intercultural Business Negotiation4.1Enhancing Intercultural AwarenessIntercultural awareness includes the knowledge of value, beliefs and worldviews of one’s own and other’s cultures. People understand not only the difference between one culture and another but also show the sincerity to acknowledge, respect, and accept discovered differences. Negotiators are easily led into attitudes of cultural bias. The only way to overcome that bias is to create awareness of one’s own cultural system by understanding how other people behave in another system. Remember: Members of collectivistic, high-context cultures have concerns for mutual face and inclusion that lead them to manage conflict with another person by avoiding, obliging, or compromising. Because of concerns for self-face and autonomy, people from individualistic, low-context cultures manages conflict by dominating or through problem solving.To become a qualified and effective intercultural negotiator, people may utilize books, newspapers, TV or internet to learn more about the other side’s culture. Movies and videos are also suitable media for them to accumulate more cultural knowledge.During a negotiating process, they should use flexible persuasion techniques. In a word, every intercultural negotiator should remember that having a fund of knowledge about another culture can help him or her better decide what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Just like Confucius says: “The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it”. The intercultural negotiators should do both: have accurate knowledge and apply it. Understanding Cultural DifferencesSince culture does matter much in intercultural negotiations, the first step is to have a good understanding of cultures, not only your own but also your opponent’s. Prepare that by studying your opponent’s culture, including history, politics, economic enviro nment, and custom or taboos. Recognize that cultural differences do exist and then learn to accept that. Different cultures employ different ways of doing business. From gift giving to lawyer used in negotiation, each culture has its unique measure that guides the negotiating process. Keep an open mind to it.Therefore, to be an effective negotiator, one should recognize and accept the differences, and respect the opponent’s culture. To know, beware of, respect and accept the culture of the other side will greatly contribute to a smooth negotiation process.4.2Tolerating Cultural DifferencesAs noted earlier, negotiating domestically is not easy, needless to say intercultural negotiation that involves people from different cultures. Being patient is one of the characteristics for a good negotiator. During the negotiation process, negotiators need to practice patience in many aspects. First of all, preparation before the face-to-face negotiation will be critical if one wants to go smoothly in negotiation.Good preparation may be half done. Thus, being patient is needed even before the real negotiation starts. Besides, people from different cultures conduct business at different pace. For instance, Americans always seem to be in a hurry in the eyes of foreigners. They prefer to get down to business directly at the beginning of negotiation.Some cultures, like Japanese and Chinese, rely more on harmonious relationship, so considerable time is spent in building relationships with the opponent, not discussing business at first. It is not surprised that Japanese flexibly use stalling strategies, such as silence, long pause and little response.Do not try to reach an agreement regardless of the value of concessions. Do not create any self-imposed deadlines only to take home a signed contract. Furthermore, some cultures regard singing a contract as not the termination of negotiation but a beginning of a long-term business relationship. They do not mind resuming the negotiation if any problems occur after a contract is signed. In any case, negotiation should not be rushed, anything that reflects impatience, like loss of temper, expressing criticism in public will likely to be a source of trouble. Therefore, try to be tolerant for a long-term, painstaking negotiation when meeting people from different cultures.4.3Grasping Communication SkillsEnglish is the language of intercultural business negotiation. An excellent negotiator should have a good master of English, expressing himself well and doing well in listening to others. If English is your second language, you can ask you negotiating partner to speak slowly and repeat the points you want to know clearly. When communicating with people from another culture, make sure that your message is well understood by avoidingcolloquial expressions, slang and idioms. On the other hand, negotiators should be sensitive to non-verbal behaviors that play an important role in sending message. In Some cultures, such as Chinese and Japanese put a lot of weight on silence, long pause, facial expressions, eye contact and the like. Learning these behaviors will help you read between the lines and catch what your opponent implies. Finally, a good negotiator needs to tolerate direct or indirect communication. Knowing how to adjust to the difference can be productive to a successful negotiation.Successful intercultural negotiators are always cognizant of the fact that people do, indeed, feel, think and behave differently, while at the same time, they are equally logical and rational. Stated differently, competent intercultural negotiators recognize the differences between people while simultaneously appreciating the intrinsic rationality behind such divergent feelings thoughts and behaviors. That is to say, individuals, groups, communities, organizations and even nation states possess diverse values, beliefs and assumptions that make sense from their own perspective. Thus, effective intercultural negotiators are sensitive to the fact that each person perceives, discovers, and constructs reality—the internal and external world—in varied yet meaningful ways. They understand that difference is not threatening; indeed, it is positive, so long as the differences are managed properly.For negotiators engaged in intercultural negotiations, five skills are expected as follows.1. Empathy. To be able to see the world as other people see it. To understand the behavior of others from their perspectives.2. Ability to demonstrate advantages of what one proposes so that counterparts in the negotiation will be willing to change their positions.3. Ability to manage stress and cope with ambiguity as well as unpredictable demands.4. A bility to express one’s own ideas in ways that the people with whom one negotiates will be able to objectively and fully understand the objectives and intentions at stake.5. S ensitivity to the cultural background of others along with an ability to adjust one’s objectives and intentions in accordance with existing constraints and limitations.5ConclusionConflict is unavoidable in our daily life. Through communicating with each other that conflict occurs and gets solved. With the ever-growing economic globalization, intercultural business negotiation has become unprecedentedly important and frequent. Because of the different cultural backgrounds, misunderstanding toward the different cultural heritages would accelerate the conflict. Since conflicts are inevitable, how to manage them in a constructive way has become a growing concern in international companies. It is necessary to understand how members from different cultures behave during conflict interaction process and why they behave in such a manner.Intercultural contacts and communications between different nations frequently happen every day. The intercultural negotiation skills will be of increasing relevance and importance for intercultural management and cross-cultural interactions. Negotiators from different countries have different intercultural backgrounds may have different behaviors in negotiating process. Negotiators should cultivating the intercultural awareness and sensitivity, enhancing the intercultural communication ability when resolving conflicts, and offer a new angle for studying conflict resolution styles in intercultural business negotiation.ReferencesBai, Yuan., 2002. International business negotiation theory cases simulation. Beijing: Beijing Renmin University Press.Chew, P. K, 2001. The conflict and culture reader. New York: New York University Press. Davison, R. M. & Martinsons, M. G., 2007. Strategic decision making and support systems: comparing American, Japanese and Chinese management. Decision Support Systems, 43(1), pp.284-300.Pruitt, D. G., 1986. Social conflict: escalation, stalemate, and settlement. New York: Random House.Thomas, K. W., et al., 1974. Conflict mode instrument. New York: Xincom Inc. Toomey, Ting., 2001. Managing intercultural conflict effectively. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.。