Negotiation Unit 2

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Negotiation Unit 2

Cross Cultural Negotiation

I. Comparing American and Chinese Negotiating Styles The first exercise in this course required you to write a definition of negotiation. The first out-ofclass assignment (‘blend’) involved reading an article on cultural awareness in international negotiations and subsequently reviewing the cultural determinants of Italian negotiation styles under headings such as ‘protocol’, ‘direct versus indirect communication’, ‘win-win versus win-lose’, etc. While there exists an abundance of online sources on negotiation on the web, few have been as well-received as Terry Hird’s “Comparing American and Chinese Negotiating Styles”, a lecture delivered on the Google campus in August 2006. A teacher of business negotiation to students of the University of Berkeley, California, Mr. Hird has experience of negotiation in over 50 countries and continues to advise top American companies on negotiation strategy. These impressive credentials are outlined as he is introduced to the Google audience before his lecture. Reviewing the lecture, one critic commented: It will probably help when dealing with other countries and cultures who share elements of culture with China. But even more important, it can be helpful in conceptualizing the differences between any two cultures since it contains some references to various sociological concepts. As we view selected excerpts from the lecture, we will extend the comparison in places to include the Italian negotiating style. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4634363396909200237 #

Excerpt (4.09-16.24) Listening for main ideas. Listen to the lecture and take notes on the following:

1. Why and how people negotiate:

2. A country’s cultural determinants:   2

Negotiation Unit 2   

 3. Two important systems which still impact the Chinese people:  

4. Core cultural values lead to__________; __________ lead to__________, which result in different negotiation behaviours and can cause confusion and conflict.

5. (7.46) What is a negotiation: 

American:

-

-



Chinese

- ‘Tan Pan’

-

Focussing on detail (07.32)

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Negotiation Unit 2 It would be difficult to conceive of a more telling and incisive example of the need for cultural awareness in negotiation than the impossibility of accurately translating the very word “negotiation” into another language.

6. Now listen again to the speaker talking about the differences between America and China with regard to negotiation and fill in the gaps.

Yet China is very very 1____________ in terms of how they approach business negotiations. Let’s, let’s 2 ____________an example. If we look at an American, we 3____________to an American : ”What is a 4____________?”, they’ll tell you that a negotiation is fundamentally a 5____________ to get a deal, to build value hopefully, and to, to sort of codify in a 6____________ or a written or a signed agreement. The word ‘Tan pan’ in Chinese does not 7__________ negotiation. In fact there is no 8____________ directly from Chinese that will come up negotiation. It tends to come up as a 9____________, a dialogue. As someone 10__________ it, it has a beginning, a middle and a seemingly 12____________ of an end. And so, one of the things that we need to 13____________is that the goal that we as an American 14____________ is not necessarily 15____________with the goal that the Chinese might pursue.

7. (8.55) Prof. Hird’s advice: ____________________________.

8. (9.30)

Avoid _______________, however, be aware of consistent

High context means: Low context means:

9. (10.10)

Americans are looking for: The Chinese are looking more for:

10.

The Chinese attitude toward a win-win negotiation style:

11. (10.43)

Important cultural elements showing the Confucian influence on the Chinese negotiating style:

 4

Negotiation Unit 2   

‘Manzi’ –



‘Guanxi’ –

12. (15.12)

Terry Hird’s opening remarks on the use of the word “no”:

“No” is a word I would encourage you to avoid when negotiating with them. There are ways to say no. There are ways to convey your inability to do something. But, I would encourage you to try to find ways to defer as opposed to actually flat out rejecting.

Mr. Hird continues: I put some phrases on the screen there for you to look at. But you can see the phraseology basically delivers the same message, but what we’re trying is, we’re trying to soften the message in the negotiation. You know, ”do you understand?” , that’s sort of a one-way question implying there is something wrong with the receiver of the message, as opposed to ”are we being clear?”, or “do we…?”, in other words, we are making it joint. Before looking at the phrases on the screen, try to soften the American messages, as in the example, to “phrase for success”. Then check the phrases on the screen to see if you are correct.

Phrasing for success American

Chinese

Do you understand?

Are we being clear?

What? We cannot do that What is the problem? You said you Fedex-ed us the papers but we did not get them.

In your opinion: 

How would a negotiator in your own culture phrase the American messages?

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Negotiation Unit 2 

In the context of your national culture, give examples of “ways to say no” without “flat out rejecting”.

Preparation for a Negotiation

What considerations are important in preparing to negotiate? In pairs, suggest as many as you can.

1. PREPARING FOR A NEGOTIATION 1) Listen to the recording (track 26) in which a Management Communications Consultant, Diana Ferry, talks about preparing for a negotiation. Mark the seven points below in the order in which she mentions them. The first is already marked as an example.

Identify your minimum requirements.

Prepare your opening statement.

Decide what concessions you could make.

Know your own strengths and weaknesses.

Know your role as part of a team. Prepare your negotiating position - know your aims and objectives.

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Prepare any figures, any calculations and any support materials you may need.

2) Match each of the four aspects of good preparation on the left with why they are important on 6

Negotiation Unit 2 the right. If in doubt, check your answer by listening again to the recording. i) means you can support your argument. a) Knowing your aims and objectives b) Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses

c) Preparing any figures, calculations and other materials

d) Preparing an opening statement

ii) helps clear thinking and purpose.

iii) creates reasonable expectations.

iv) helps you to know the situation or context in which you want to work.

Source: English for Business Communication, S. Sweeney, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

2. NEGOTIATIONS CHECKLIST A negotiation is a meeting or a series of meetings in which the parties need each other's agreement to reach a specific objective. It is important to discuss strategies beforehand and to decide on the approach your team is going to take. Members of the team need to be clear about the objectives of the negotiation and what role they are expected to play in achieving those objectives. Objectives - What's the best we can get? - What's the worst we can get? - What is our bottom line? (Should we have one?) Strategies - What are the main areas of negotiation? -What are likely to be sticking points? - What is the best order to discuss these points? -What concessions can we give to achieve our main aim? Roles - Who is responsible for different stages of the negotiation? - What special skills/knowledge do individual members of the team have? - What do we know about the other team?

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Negotiation Unit 2

Communication -How are we going to maintain positive communication? - Who is taking notes or minutes? - Who is going to ask questions?

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Language for Starting a Negotiation

1. Watch the video "What's your proposal?". Where does the negotiation take place? What kind of negotiation is it? How many parties are represented? How realistic do you think it is? Why or why not? What is the purpose of this video? What can you say about how well each team has prepared for the meeting and how well the two team members work together? What special skills does each team member have?

Source: Episode 14, The Business of English http://australianetwork.com/businessenglish/stories/ep12.htm

2. Language focus. Run through the language menu below and discuss the different options for each function or phase of the negotiation:

Welcoming

Greetings

Formal

Formal

On behalf of.... I'm very glad to welcome you ...

How do you do.

It's a pleasure to see you here.

Nice/Pleased to meet you.

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Negotiation Unit 2

Less formal

Less formal

Welcome to ...

How are you?(if you have met before)

Thank you for coming all this way.

Good to see you (again). It's nice to be here.

Introductions

Small talk

This is ... She's in charge of...

Did you have a good journey?

He looks after ...

How was your flight?

She's our... Director/Manager. Let me introduce you to ...

Is this your first visit to ...? Will you be staying long? Is your hotel comfortable?

Have you met….? He’s just taken over as Head of …

Starting the negotiation

Making an opening statement

I wondered if I could start by saying...

From our point of view we see it as an exploratory talk.

We're short of time, so let's get started ... From our perspective... We've got a very full agenda, so perhaps we'd better get down to business.

Shall we get down to business?

Our position is that... As far as we're concerned we don't intend to...

Sour ce: Adapted fr om Effective Negoti ati ng, J. Comfort, Oxford University Press, 1998 and The Business of English http://australianetwork.com/businessenglish/stories/ep12.htm .

Source: Episode 14, The Business of English http://australianetwork.com/businessenglish/stories/ep12.htm

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Negotiation Unit 2

Blend two: Preparing for the Unions negotiation simulation Part one Read the text below which defines the concept of Social Partnership with particular reference to Ireland and addresses the practice of negotiated national agreements between unions and employers with the government as facilitator and participant.

Social Partnership Social Partnership came into being in Ireland as a response to the increasingly evident deficiencies of the traditional decentralised and fragmented system of wage bargaining between employers and unions. In these negotiations each side tried to extract the maximum without any consideration for the broader national interest. A style of negotiation where each side tried to hold the other to ransom with threats of strikes and layoffs was mutually damaging and clearly no longer viable in the depressed economic conditions of the time. The advocate of Social Partnership aspired to harmonise interests which previously were seen as opposing. They spoke of a “national family” and the need to plan for and protect the interests of all its members. The participation of the government in national negotiations greatly expanded the scope for tradeoffs and agreements. For example, a union might reject a proposed wage increase as insufficient. But combined with a government commitment to tax cuts or increased public services, it could prove acceptable. Social partnership has been a great success in Ireland. It created a climate of stability where all partners could plan for the long-term with security. The levels of employment and wealth attained are a testament to its success. * Now, to practice research skills and obtain useful information for our next simulation, go to the web sites indicated below and do numbers one and two. Make clear notes of all relevant data to share with others in the class and with the course professor.

1. Go to http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home , the home page of Eurostat, the Statistics Office of the European Union. Identify the area of the site dealing with unemployment statistics and find the data under the following headings:

-the current unemployment rate for Italy:

-how it compares with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland:

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Negotiation Unit 2 -the country with the highest/ lowest unemployment rate:

-the average rate of unemployment:

2. Access http://www.fedee.com/tradeunions.html and research this area to compare Italy with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland, completing the table below with respect to the following industrial relations criteria: COUNTRY

France

Germany

Ireland

Italy

Spain

UK

%Unionized labour force Right to strike

Collective agreements

.

. Minimum working age

Statutory minimum wage

Statutory workweek

Minimum annual holiday entitlement

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Negotiation Unit 2 3. Now, review your comparative data. How favourably are Italian workers treated relative to the workers in the other countries? Which national workers enjoy the best labour conditions?

Part two National agreements on wages and productivity have been negotiated in many countries. One such example is an agreement reached in Ireland called “Towards 2016”. Read the extract below from “Towards 2016: Ten-Year Framework Social Partnership Agreement 20062015”and then answer the questions that follow.

I acknowledge the amount of time and effort that has gone into the making of this agreement. This reflects both the importance of the issues under discussion and the central importance attached by all sides to maintaining our system of social partnership. Social Partnership has helped to maintain a strategic focus on key national priorities, and has created and sustained the conditions for remarkable employment growth, fiscal stability, restructuring of the economy to respond to new challenges and opportunities, a dramatic improvement in living standards, through both lower taxation and lower inflation, and a culture of dialogue, which has served the social partners, but more importantly, the people of this country, very well. Obviously, the challenges of today are different from those of the dark days of 1987, but they are no less complex, and meeting them together is no less important. Now, as then, partnership, as a problem solving mechanism, offers the best way forward. Towards 2016 offers the best way forward by providing an important and strategic framework for meeting the economic and social challenges ahead. Each of the previous social partnership agreements has had a particular focus and has contained significant innovations. In this respect Towards 2016 develops a new framework to address key social challenges, which the individual faces at each stage of life. This means a focus on the needs of children, young adults, people of working age, older people and people with disabilities. This ambitious approach will pose a major challenge – public services will need to be designed around individuals and their requirements, rather than based on different administrative boundaries. This approach will take time to deliver and the agreement sets out how we propose to measure and review progress over a ten-year framework agreement. I commend the parties on all sides for the sustained commitment and leadership they have shown throughout the long and protracted negotiating process.

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Negotiation Unit 2 1. Reading Comprehension Based on the information in the extract from “Towards 2016”, decide whether the following statements are true or false (write T or F in the space which follows). It may also be that there is not sufficient evidence in the text to help you decide.

1. This is the first agreement of its kind in Ireland. _____ 2. It was not easy to reach the agreement. _____ 3. Social partnership has been successful in Ireland. _____ 4. Agreement with employers was the most difficult to obtain. _____ 5. The present agreement is more comprehensive than previous agreements. _____

2. Text Evaluation

1. The concluding sentence, which has been removed, would have identified the author of the piece. Was it a union leader, an employers’ representative, a politician? Explain.

2. Where might the piece have appeared? If a speech, where might it have been delivered?

Part 3. Given the interdependence in the EU, it is obvious that the national press would follow economic developments in other member states. “Towards 2016” was reviewed in Il Sole 24 Ore in the context of coverage of similar agreements in other member states. Read the portion of the newspaper article below which relates to Ireland to identify the following information and make brief notes in English under these headings:

-investment in policies in favour of a flexible labour market (% of GNP in comparison with the EU average):

-the level of formal education of the workforce (increasing or decreasing):

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Negotiation Unit 2

-participation in training programmes to acquire new skills or update existing ones:

-provisions of the agreement “Towards 2016” with respect to wage increases; measures regarding the unemployment of young people and long-term unemployment (particularly for the weaker sectors of the population), continuing education and training, including on-the-job training programmes (especially for immigrants and less qualified workers):

-working hours and overtime:

-the possibility for employers to resort to outsourcing:

IRLANDA

Towards 2016

Il sistema economico e il mercato del lavoro irlandesi negli ultimi anni sono mutati a fondo e in parallelo: la bassa crescita, i ridotti livelli d'istruzione (il 41,7% dei lavoratori tra i 45 e i 54 anni ha soltanto un diploma di scuola media inferiore) e l'alta disoccupazione sono stati ribaltati. Il "merito" è legato anche a un mercato del lavoro flessibile e all'investimento nelle politiche attive connesse (0,75% del Pil, rispetto allo 0,5% della media Ue): le ultime generazioni hanno livelli d'istruzione molto più elevati, anche se la partecipazione all'apprendimento permanente resta inferiore alla media dei Paesi europei più virtuosi e rispecchia la difficoltà nell'offrire opportunità ai lavoratori più anziani. L'accordo "Towards 2016", firmato lo scorso anno, prevede aumenti salariali del 10% tra il dicembre 2006 e il settembre 2008 e diverse misure in favore della disoccupazione giovanile e di lunga durata (e in genere dei ceti meno agiati) in cambio di una maggiore flessibilità nella formazione e nell'apprendimento, nonchè nell'aggiornamento delle competenze sul posto di lavoro indirizzato soprattutto ai lavoratori con qualifiche più basse e a quelli immigrati. Più flessibile risulta anche l'orario di lavoro (straordinari) e la possibilità di ricorrere all'outsourcing. (Il Sole 24 Ore 2006)

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