6.1: Cross-Cultural Communications in International Business Negotiations
Read this chapter for an overview of how cultural understanding applies to business negotiations. For example, you will learn how a message is communicated in high- and low-context cultures. In high-context cultures, body language is as important and sometimes more important than actual words spoken. In low-context cultures, people tend to be explicit and direct in their communications. Verbal language and body language can impact our chances of understanding and being understood in a positive or negative way.
Read about the role of ethics when negotiating with others and how national culture plays a role in negotiations. This section gives an example of the need to understand differences in cultures. In China, companies and workers do not like to say no. A question that asks for a yes or no answer, therefore, may put a Chinese official in an uncomfortable position of saying no, which they likely would not do. To accommodate this way of thinking, the author suggests that we might rephrase the question to open-ended questions, like "how will you do this for us, and will it be done?"