Negotiation Defined: - Two or more parties, who have common and conflicting interests, interact with one another for the purpose of reaching a mutually beneficial agreement.
Effective Negotiations ( Achieving the intended result)
- Involves the more subtle art of persuasion, where all parties feel as though they have benefited
- Assess each situation, choose appropriate strategy
- Do homework, ask relevant questions and time requests.
Attributes of Skilled Negotiator
- Intelligent - having good understanding/quick to comprehend
- Well Prepared - suitably prepared in advance
- Flexible - adaptable
- Patient - annoyance with calmness/without complaining or losing self-control or refusing to be provoked or angered
- Problem Solver - the process of working through details of a problem to reach a solution. An individual seeking to solve a problem will have to identify the most important elements that influence the answer and then work through a series of operations to determine a logical solution.
- International Competency - "An appreciation of other cultures and the ability to interact with people from foreign lands. It is the ability to become familiar with an environment, not causing a rift while experiencing something new, and reflection upon the experience at its completion."
Nature of Cross Cultural Negotiations
- Cultural Differences
- Different and sometimes conflicting legal structures
- Influence or interference of bureaucracies
- Unpredictable Geo-politics.
Difficulties when operating abroad
- New Environment
- Jet Lag - a disruption of circadian rhythms, associated with high-speed travel by jet airplane to distant time zones.
- No control over setting in which discussion takes place
- Separated from support staff
- Under pressure to conclude and give result
Effective Strategies for International Negotiation
- Concentrate on Long term relationships and not long term contracts
- Focus on Interests behind the positions
- Avoid the over-reliance on Cultural Generalization
- Be sensitive to timing
- Remain flexible
- Prepare carefully
- Learn to listen, not just speak.
For successful cross-cultural negotiation it helps to have a logical mental process encompassing:
ReplyDelete1. A clear analytical model for interpreting cultural behavior and applying that model to manage cross-cultural interaction.
2. A sharpened understanding of your own personal cultural profile, and how that fits into the global context of the triangle, in areas such as attitudes to truth, risk, time, power, etc.
3. Adaptation of personal communication style to different cultures’ expectations in negotiation – e.g. in the use of logic, emotion, initiation versus reaction, simplicity versus complexity, optimism to create a positive climate or a frank investigation of problems at the outset.
4. An understanding of how trust is seen in different cultures, and using this as a means of building trust more effectively in negotiation.
5. Building time in your preparation to synthesize these elements into your overall strategy and tactics.