Culturally Based Value Systems

Essay by AmBeddUniversity, Bachelor's July 2004

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1) Discuss the stages in the negotiation process and how culturally based value systems influence these stages. Specifically,

Explain the role and relative importance of relationship building in different countries

Discuss the various styles and tactics that can be involved in exchanging task-related information

Describe differences in culturally based styles of persuasion

Discuss the kinds of concession strategies a negotiator might anticipate in various countries

There are five stages in the negotiation process:

a) preparation- Research must be done to develop a profile of the other collaborator in order to understand their culture and to also allow for any variables that might be encountered such as the other side's conception of risk-taking and decision making. Such information as the demands being made as well as the composition of the other team have to be ascertained beforehand.

b) relationship building- Americans don't place the great importance as do other cultures, particularly Asian ones, on the building of relationships in the negotiating process.

Other cultures value trust whereas Americans value time and money. Other nations such as China and Mexico place more value than do Americans on personal rather than contractual ties. It is recommended that managers learn patience in the negotiating process, which may involve much ceremony and socializing before real negotiating can begin. Intermediaries familiar to and trusted by the foreign contingent may be necessary to facilitate meetings. Our culture has to learn that terms such as compromise have different connotations in other nations. Posturing, or setting the tone of negotiations is important in other cultures.

c) the exchange of task-related information- The process of negotiating where exchange of information takes place is situational from culture to culture. Americans have come to realize that their straightforward, pragmatic approach is not necessarily the one favored by other nations. Indirect, ambiguous, protocol-conscious,