Japanese Culture and South African Culture - Essay Example

The following statement from the text, “.harangued the Japanese team about their hypocrisy.” referring to the British boss, clearly reveals the anger and disappointment that the boss had towards the Japanese negotiators. Additionally, the aspect of emotion also appears from this statement, “.offer you an additional fifty cents a tonne above the price that you originally asked for.”. This statement by the chief Japanese negotiator is a reflection of the Japanese feelings towards the proposal forwarded by the British negotiators.

Indeed, they had mixed feelings. The decision made by the Japanese negotiators triggered excitement though it was accompanied by a lot of surprises.What is the conflict-handling style chosen by each party? Give evidence from the case to support your answer?According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory, effective intercultural communication plays a very significant role in creating understanding among different cultures and therefore preventing any cultural difference. Miscommunication is caused by a lack of cultural understanding and poor communication skills, which can only trigger cultural conflicts.

Hofstede suggested some cultural dimensions like uncertainty avoidance, collectiveness, and individualism among others. Accordingly, Hofstede claims that these cultural dimensions, when put into use, assist in overcoming cultural differences.Arguably, the Japanese negotiators, listening to their counterparts and weighing the consequences of what they were about to do, enabled them to solve their cultural differences and stabilized the situation. Accordingly, the British negotiators were very much interested in the interest of the South African workers.

As such, they focused on their main reason for setting the prices and maintaining their position concerning the price.The British boss, having been disappointed by the Japanese negotiators, decided to be arrogant towards them and even ready to lose them as his long-term customers. Notably, all the agents were surprised when the Japanese decided to pay more without any regard for their arrogance. Lastly, we can as well argue that the aspect of arbitration has been incorporated to solve the cultural differences.

This is clearly seen when the two sides come into agreement and ending their differences. For any successful termination of the conflict, a solid agreement has to be reached. In this scenario, the Japanese negotiators played a leading role in the negotiation process.