Business Negotiation Styles - Essay Example

Negotiation Styles Introduction The advancement of virtual communications has turned the world into a global village. It has enabled an easy transfer of goods and services and has thus opened new opportunities for people to expand their businesses (Gesteland, 2005). The Adams family, inhabitants of rural Australia, have been involved in processing yabbies and supplying them to the urban market in Australia. Peter Adams plans to expand his family business internationally, by exporting his products to the Canadian market andhas authorised this report. The report will identify the ways in which Mr Adams can expand his business through successful negotiations with his Canadian business partners. An initial understanding of the GLOBE is essential in identifying basic differences and similarities in both cultures, in order to minimise any areas of potential miscommunication; the negotiation styles of Canadians will also form the scope of this report. 2. Framework of GLOBE Study The globe study is based upon the data, collected data from 62 countries and spanned a period of eleven years. (Eunson, 2008). The detailed research involving 170 researchers from countries across the globe identified the diversity of prevailing cultural norms across various nations and their influence on business and leadership styles. The study has developed a useful framework for understanding the differences and hence bringing people closer. The criteria for undertaking this research was based upon 9 variables called cultural dimensions. These nine dimensions are Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Humane Orientation, Collectivism I (Institutional), Collectivism II (In-Group), Assertiveness, Gender Egalitarianism, Performance Orientation and Future orientation (Requejo and Graham, 2008). The research delineated the total of 62 countries into 3 clusters; namely the Anglo culture, which comprises of English speaking countries like Canada, USA, Australia, the Southern Asian Cluster comprising of developing countries like Indonesia, India, Philippines etc. and the Confucian Asia culture comprising Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, etc (Javidan, and Dastmalchian, 2009). Since both Canada and Australia belong to the Anglo cultural cluster of the GLOBE study, they share many similarities. The countries in this cluster scored very high on power distance, i.e. an extent to which a community accepts and expects power discriminations. Also the score for performance orientation, described as the level of encouragement people of group displays for upgrading performance (Javidan, and Dastmalchian, 2009), is comparatively higher. This implies that in an organization the manager or a leader will appreciate team-oriented behaviour and the individuals will be respected for participating in the group effort. But at the same time emphasis on power distance implies the preference for strict hierarchy in an organization, instead of strong democratic values. These factors can significantly affect the negotiations between Mr. Adams and his Canadian partners. He can develop his mark in Canadian market, by accepting their task-oriented behavior and significance on the entire group’s participation in the organizations’ benefit (Javidan, and Dastmalchian, 2009). Moreover the preference for a higher power distance makes it obvious that it will be important for Mr. Adams to respect the manager’s dominant role in making decisions. Another important conclusion can be derived from their emphasis on uncertainty avoidance. This implies that the level to which a community or society, depends on social norms and measures to diminish the randomness of future events (Javidan, and Dastmalchian, 2009) is higher. Hence it will be important for Mr. Adams to maintain order and professionalism and to communicate correct information about his products at any cost. Also it will be important to avoid demanding too high in the initial stage to avoid the need of bargaining as much as possible, as Canadians do not appreciate slow and tedious negotiations. 3. Business Negotiation Styles of Canada In order to develop an understanding of Canadian style of negotiation it is important to look into the culture from which it is derived. The people and government of Canada has always accepted and tolerated diversity. Throughout history, it has welcomed people from different parts of world and has always maintained cordial international relations. Over the time, it has become a melting pot for the world’s best brands and trades and a hub of business activities. This has been made possible by eagerly adhering to the low power distance and appreciating the human orientation (Drake, 1995). These people value truth and sincerity over ambiguity and artificiality. They are enormously straight forward and powerfully condemn indirect communication, considering it as a mere wastage of time. For them it is more important to adhere to the established formal behaviours in business then mixing it with personal relations. While negotiating, they immediately get down to business instead of undertaking informalities. They don’t avoid conflicts just because the other person will get hurt. This straightforwardness does not prevent them from saying ‘no’ out rightly to their counterparts in business (Paul, 2008). Their business-oriented style of negotiations allows them to make bold confrontations. Hence they like short and snappy negotiations and appreciate concise and effective decision making skills. 4. Adjustments for Successful Negotiations Having been discussed the negotiation style of Canadians, as well as identified the similarities the Australian and Canadian cultures share as a result of belonging to the Anglo cluster(Fletcher and Fang, 2006); there are very less chances of potential sources of cross-cultural miscommunication in negotiations. However, these may arise if Peter will not ensure uncertainty avoidance and generate any ambiguities or irrational communication from his part. He should make sure to provide them an updated and detailed information regarding orders to prevent any possible miscommunication. For a successful business negotiation with his Canadian counterparts, Peter should try to be as reserved and formal as possible. He should present himself as a well-established yabbies’ supplier and should try to convince them about the good things he can offer. He can gain their interest by organizing the details in a statistical manner and hence developing himself as a performance oriented person. The Canadian partners will appreciate the presentation of facts and figures emphasizing the benefits of Australian yabbies to a large number of people. By enlightening about the positive impact and goodness these giant renewable crustaceans can bring, in terms of good taste as well as the nutritional value to diet (De Nys, 2005), he can surely gain their interest. They will surely appreciate his future orientation, if he will be able to negotiate his ideas in this manner. 5. Conclusion The present global economy demands people and countries to understand other cultures in order to build bridges of trust. Cross-cultural business activities can bring a lot of people closer, but it needs effort from every leader and nation. No negotiation can be successful without an effective communication, which is itself dependent upon accepting the individual differences and valuing the diversity of social practices. The art of negotiation can enable any nation in building healthy relations, and hence surviving in the global market. 6. Recommendations This report provided many recommendations that will help Mr Adams to negotiate successfully with his Canadian business partners. These include: Setting lower demands in the initianl stages of the negotiation Focussing discussion on how to achieve tasks and objectives Presenting a positive image of himself at all times Focusing their attention on the benefits of Australian yabbies. Organizing the details in a statistical manner References Journals: Brewer, Paul, 2008. Cross-cultural transfer of knowledge: a special case anomaly, Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal (vol.15, issue 2), pp.131-143 Drake, Laura E. 1995. Negotiation Styles in Intercultural Communication, International Journal of Conflict Management, vol.6, pp 72-90 De Nys, Rocky 2005. The development of yabby aquaculture in Australia, in Biotechnology and the future of Australian agriculture”, Proceedings of the High Flyers Think Tank held at the Shine Dome, Canberra. Eunson, B, 2008. Communicating in the 21st Century. 2nd ed. Milton: John Wiley & Sons, Australia Fletcher, Richard and Fang, Tony Fang, 2006. Assessing the impact of culture on relationship creation and network formation in emerging Asian markets. European Journal of Marketing, 40 pp. 430-446 Gannon, Martin J., 2009. The Cultural Metaphoric Method: Description, Analysis, and Critique, International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, Vol. 9, No. 3, 275-287 Gesteland, R. 2005. Cross cultural business behavior: negotiating, selling, sourcing and managing across cultures. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School. Javidan, Mansour and Dastmalchian, Ali, 2009. Managerial implications of the GLOBE project: A study of 62 societies, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp.41-58 Requejo, W.H. and J Graham, 2008. Global negotiations: The new rules, New York: Palgrave THIS IS NOT FORMATTED CORRECTLY. DO NOT DIVIDE THEM INTO SECTIONS, PLEASE PUT THEM IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF AUTHORS LAST NAMES. Read More