论文总字数：24195字

摘 要

在经济全球化的环境中，国家与国家之间的商务交往活动日益频繁，而商务谈判是商务活动的一个重要环节。由于不同国家的谈判者都有不同的语言习惯，文化背景，思维方式，观念习俗等许多的因素，这些因素造成了商务谈判中文化冲突的显现。因此，各国之间想要成功地进行商务贸易往来活动，只有在解决这些文化冲突之后，各国之间才能更好地合作，达到双赢。

本文主要以南通新飞纺织有限公司为例逐步分析了中英在商务谈判中引起冲突的原因和表现形式，并且总结出中英商务谈判中避免文化冲突的措施，使两国商务谈判者在商务谈判中避免不必要的麻烦，促进两国之间的贸易合作。

关键词：商务谈判；中英跨文化冲突；措施

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. Cultural Conflicts in English and Chinese Business Negotiations 1

3.1 Goals 2

3.2 Negotiation styles 2

3.3 Ways of mkake decisions 3

3.4 Ways to communicate 4

4. Causes of the Cross-cultural Conflicts in English and Chinese Business Negotiations 4

4.1 Ways of thinking 5

4.2 Culture values 5

4.3 Customs and habits 6

5. Strategy to Solve Cross-cultural Conflicts in English-Chinese Business Negotiations 7

5.1 Fully prepared, know ourselves 7

5.2 Clear objectives, master skills 8

5.3 Mutual benefit and a win-win 9

6. Conclusion 9

Works Cited 10

1. Introduction

Cultural conflicts refer to the contradictory among different forms of culture and cultural elements and the mutually exclusive process. Negotiators successfully avoid the cultural conflicts are very important in business negotiations. Negotiators from different cultural backgrounds often use different negotiation styles and ways, and their communication styles and customs, etiquette, negotiation strategies differences appear. So how to avoid cultural conflicts in business negotiation for the success of cross-cultural business negotiation is of great significance.

1. Literature Review

For transnational negotiation, cultural difference is a very important and tedious variable. Negotiation is a process of cooperation, which makes it possible for both parties to achieve their best interests, but at the same time, it is a competitive process. Donald Viv Hanton in his "cross cultural in business negotiations" points that cross cultural business negotiations affect by the background factors and the impact of the climate variables. Stephen Weiss in his "complex international business negotiation Analysis” he divided into twelve variables .The variables influenced business negotiations. their opinion are different in the different factors of cross cultural negotiation,but its core is the same. That is to say, if you understand the cultural backgrounds in advance, the negotiators will effectively communicate with each other.

3. Cultural Conflicts in English and Chinese Business Negotiations

In business negotiations, negotiators from different countries have different language habits, cultural backgrounds and ways of thinking. Cultural conflicts are unavoidable in business negotiation. We analyze the causes and forms of cultural conflicts in business negotiation between Chinese and British and to work out effective ways to avoid cultural conflicts between Chinese and British.

3.1 Goals

In business negotiations, the Chinese people focus on the harmonious relationship and the win-win results. Goals in negotiations are different, Chinese negotiators are not strict with the quality of products. Countries as the UK, it is the early industrial development country, British businessmen are stricter with the quality of the product, and the British’s interest degree is not as deep as Chinese. Chinese and English set different negotiation goals, when the Chinese enterprise cooperates with the British, they often make cultural conflicts due to the inconsistent Co-operational expectation.

Nantong Xinfei Textile Corporation is an independent right to operate，it has engaged in the textile processing trade, it is a export and medium-sized enterprise. the Company has the good product and service which it brings the overseas customers.

Case1: In September 2009, Nantong Xinfei Textile Corporation sent the negotiating team to a British company to conduct business negotiations. In the process of negotiations, the Xinfei Textile Corporation proposed to raise the price of orders, while the British ask the company whether the quality of the product is qualified to the standards. After negotiations, the negotiating team and the British company tangled too long time in product price. The company has always refused to compromise with the British, the British company is not satisfied with the negotiating team because the company spends long time in the price rather than pay attention to the quality of product. Eventually the negotiations failed.

3.2 Negotiation styles

Negotiation styles refer to that the negotiators performance characteristics through their words and deeds, their manners, habits and hobbies in the negotiation process. Generally speaking, negotiation style is usually affected by the cultural backgrounds. Culture backgrounds not only determine the negotiator"s world view and value view, but also it impacts on their way of thinking and behavior, so the negotiators from different cultural backgrounds form different negotiation styles. Chinese businessman Negotiation style is that before the negotiation the Chinese do adequate preparation, respect opposite side culture and customs, pay attention to quickly establish good business relationship with each other. But before the negotiations, British businessman will not do too much preparation, the negotiators maintain a certain distance because of the British style of communication and they do not have the passion to establish the interpersonal relationship, and not to mention rapidly build up a relationship. so Chinese negotiators is very difficult to establish the relationship with the British , the two sides have different negotiation styles and often make cultural conflicts happen in business negotiation.

3.3 Ways of make decisions

The different power value of Chinese and British decided different ways of their decisions. In China, people formed different various hierarchical relationships because of the experience, cultural level and the status. Chinese people focus on the value of status heavily and their position was in the subordinate relationship, the hierarchical relationship is present in the negotiation process. In the negotiations, Chinese decision usually decide by all the members of the group after the consulate repeatedly, generally avoid one personal decision. If the other requirements over the authority of the Chinese negotiators, the Chinese side will tell their superiors to give reply. However, British sense of hierarchy are not stronger than Chinese People, they advocate democracy and freedom, the details of the negotiations in general can be made by their own decisions, they do not like the Chinese side that they have to report to the higher authorities.

Case2: In the middle of May 2010, Nantong Xinfei Textile Corporation sent representatives to the United Kingdom to discuss cooperation in the next month. In the process of negotiation, the British proposed to reduce the price, keep the amount of cloth unchanged, which makes Nantong Xinfei Textile Corporation representatives were not satisfied. They proposed that they should report their supervisor for instructions. Thus, the negotiations should be finished in one day, at the end, it was changed into two days. Before the behalves leave, the British proposed that the company should be improved their decision-making efficiency in the next negotiation.

3.4 Ways to communicate

English and China communication styles are different. In the negotiations, the British present their opinions and attitudes are more simple and clear. If they cannot accept each other advice, they can tell directly, in many cases, we only understand from the literal meaning.In the negotiations, Chinese people prefer twists and turns, however they don"t like to argue and avoid friction, they put forward the substantive requirements with the subtle hints. Such as when they have a view on problems, or they do not agree to the terms, sometimes Chinese don"t refuse in time directly and they use silence to replace in order to leave each others face, or they use an euphemism answer to deny or reject the other party. So how to understand the implications of the Chinese words and grasp the implication are necessary. Chinese people like to use holiday words and start with the communication process, and then they cut into the subject and the British speak like to cut to the chase and the point at once. The British side was not used to the Chinese implication in the negotiation and even don"t understand” beat around the bush”, which greatly affect the efficiency of the negotiations, the negotiations could not proceed.

Case3: Nantong Xinfei Textile Corporation communicate with British in business negotiation, they often make conflicts because of different language expression. Once time, the British company members came to China and they conducted with Nantong Xinfei Textile Corporation to discuss the cooperation plan. In the negotiations, the British sides proposed the color of the cloth and they also asked the company what colors they can produce, the company did not answer the question briefly, but the Nantong Xinfei Textile Corporation first listed the company mainly produces cloth, what colors, and then they answered what kinds of color have been ordered by other companies, they finally back to the topic answer British’s problems.

4. Causes of the Cross-cultural Conflicts in English and Chinese Business Negotiations

For small and medium enterprises, establish a good business relationship is the best guarantee for profit. But as a result of the different culture and customs, different business negotiators have big differences in negotiations. China and the UK are a typical representative Oriental traditional culture and western traditional culture country. Conflict is inevitable. If we did not deal with the conflicts in time, it caused the failure in business negotiations. In business negotiations, cultural conflict was caused by various reasons. We will discuss from three aspects: the causes of the formation of the china-British cultural conflicts in business negotiation, different ways of thinking, different values and customs.

4.1 Ways of thinking

East and west two kinds of thinking mode are just represent the two basic form of human thinking, namely the comprehensive thinking and linear thinking. And different ways of thinking have great impact on the negotiators and negotiation process. In the negotiations, the British negotiators are affected by the ancient Greek civilization, their way of thinking are mainly characterized by Aristotle"s philosophy of logic and analytic thinking, they attach importance to the solution of the specific content in the contract. Such as in the face of more complex negotiations, the British negotiator will often make large tasks into many small tasks, they deal with the price, time of delivery, insurance, service contracts one by one. In each issue, they have concessions and commitments; the final agreement is the sum of a series of small agreements. Chinese negotiators, however, due to the influence of Confucianism and Taoism, their way of thinking is mainly characterized by dialectical and holistic thinking, they pay attention to comprehensive problem or they consider problem fully. When they faced with complex negotiations issues, such as China, they usually discuss issues on the whole, they use comprehensive solution to address the issues and then talk about the details, there are not orders to solve the problem. Usually until the negotiations in the end, they make concessions and compromises; they cooperate to reach a final agreement. Due to the different way of thinking, it leads to different negotiation styles in business negotiation.

4.2 Culture values

Values refers that people recognize all kinds of the value about the specific things and people form the basis overall the view and value of things. It mainly includes the concept of time, the group view, power, etc.

Concept of time is that how people view the time and use the time. In Chinese culture, the concept of time is reflected by the diversity of the things, that is, time is used to complete any event in this period, including the unexpected incident s. Chinese people tend to think that it is a process; it is not just a sequence. So the Chinese are better at completing various tasks at the same time. the Chinese negotiators often arrange a number of business activities in a period of time, no wonder orders.In contrast, the British culture it has a single time view, it attaches great importance to the rules of order, they are used to according to the order and priority to arrange the business activities.

Group concept refers to that people advocate collectivism and group consciousness or it still emphasizes on individualism and individual rights. Chinese emphasize collectivism and group consciousness, they thought that faithful is the national rights and collective interests. So the Chinese negotiator is given priority to deal with cooperation to discuss negotiation strategies. And British believed in self-awareness and one person struggle in business negotiations, the individual negotiator with self-confidence he looks calm and has individual ability, they like their methods to decide the negotiations and they achieve the success in the negotiations. Authority refers that people how to think power and influence people"s minds. In business negotiations, the conception exists in a particular cultural background, as a member of a company, everyone has its own power and affects the way of decision .China has a deep-rooted concept of power and hierarchy. At the time of negotiation, once the problem is beyond to the Chinese negotiators scope of rights, they must report to the superior. However, the British advocate democracy and individualism, the British negotiators can decide according to the requirements.

4.3 Customs and habits

Individual or collective tradition refers to the customs, manners, habits; it is a specific social and cultural area which of the ancient people complies with the common cultural patterns. it is a long history of development, it has a conventional behavior and the way of life. Although it is not a formal legal provision, the country most people abide by the norms of behavior in every aspect of life. Unique traditions and customs shape people"s particular attitude and behavior. Different great feelings and behaviors reflected in the actual business negotiations, it often forms cultural conflicts and appears it.

China- British custom differences are mainly embodied in the topic selection, the use of color, the use of digital, diet, eating habits, dress habits and civic minded, and so on.In business negotiations, when the Chinese people meet, they usually like to talk about things that it is unrelated to the negotiations,. such as the current situation of private topic, while British people hate to spy into other people"s privacy. Chinese negotiators think that the familiar communication style can make the negotiators closely and quickly establish interpersonal emotional bond, thus successfully establish trade relations. British people generally have a social disease formality. People who have a kind of inward or poor communication, they did not like this feelings, eventually it makes difficult to avoid cultural conflicts in intercultural business negotiations.

5. Strategy to Solve Cross-cultural Conflicts in English-Chinese Business Negotiations

In order to make the Chinese enterprises and British enterprises establish better business negotiation relationship and maintain cooperation between with each other, I think we can start from the following three aspects, to avoid cross-cultural conflicts in English business negotiations.

5.1 Fully prepared, know ourselves

In front of the business negotiations, Chinese negotiators should understand each others foundation culture and negotiating style in order to avoid possible conflicts in Chinese and English. Bacon"s theory said: "man with people, know their habits, in order to guide, its purpose to coax, grand its weaknesses to intimidate, examine the advantages with the muzzle". At the time of negotiation with the UK, Chinese negotiators should learn the British negotiators cultural background, including the thinking mode, emotion and behavior enchant. Chinese analyzed the cultural differences from the UK. For example, China negotiators are not too paying attention to the time. When in negotiations with the British side, we should pay attention to the time and make an appointment in advance and avoid late behavior, therefore we can give the British left a good impression. At the time of negotiation, Britain with a special focuses on the etiquette. Gentleman culture is particularly important. China members should try to avoid using impolite words and the appropriate behavior can plus China to win the long-term cooperation business relationship. Before the business negotiation, Chinese enterprises must make preparations for a large number of negotiators and understand the culture of the negotiation opponent taboo, religious belief and schedule; we also understand the British negotiator economic basis and integrity of the company. China is familiar with the British negotiator"s negotiating style in advance. On the other hand, the British negotiators are eager to establish cooperative relations with the British and avoid cultural conflicts easily in negotiating style. In addition, in order to improve the negotiation efficiency, it is important to the British companies. Chinese enterprises can improve in decision-making. Chinese negotiators can fully estimate the occasional considering point in negotiations and they should discuss with the superior about room for compromise and the final bottom line for negotiations, Negotiators should also give more decisions to the negotiators and avoid trivial and time-consuming in the actual negotiations to report and make decisions and improve the efficiency of the negotiations. Chinese negotiators also understand the British negotiator’s negotiation skills in the negotiation, Chinese negotiators fully estimated and careful analyzed the negotiations which may lead to bifurcation point. Prepare relevant information for your own benefit in advance.

5.2 Clear objectives, master skills

Differences between in Chinese and English are often inconsistent. In order to avoid this situation, we should get to know each others goals. The British did not think that interest is not the only aspect. Chinese enterprises should be adjusted when the negotiators excessive pay attention to the interests, we are eager to establish trade relations to benefit the tone and avoid to cause the UK negotiators nervous in psychological. After the negotiation, improve communication skills were very important. China should avoid using the traditional Chinese way of thinking. If the UK proposed views or did not agree to a clause, China should direct or deny a clause and we did not answer in silence. For the British, English is their official language, we use the fluent English and we will let British businessman feel China respect their culture and it is good for negotiation development in the negotiation.

5.3 Mutual benefit and a win-win

The principle of reciprocity and mutual benefit are important to the success of negotiation. Mutual reciprocity and mutual benefit in the Chinese-English cross-cultural business negotiation mean that they not only stand in the Angle of the interests of Chinese enterprises, but also it wants to consider the needs of the British side and finally realizes the equivalence between the two sides exchange, mutual benefit and win-win. In China-British business negotiations, we should learn to perspective-taking and stand in the Angle to communicate with each others culture. In the process of negotiations, Chinese negotiators should adjust the mind, we allow room for concessions. When specific issues are discussed, the conflicts will happen, China can make appropriate concessions, China can use the British thought as far as possible and solve specific terms and then solve the problem in total, and it is good for each other.

6. Conclusion

In business negotiations, cross-cultural conflicts have the important influence upon the China-British trade. Small and medium-sized enterprises are faced with enormous challenges. Once the relationship with British companies failed, the Chinese will lose a lot of customers. Therefore, in order to build the long-term interests of each other, we have to understand the British culture and negotiation style, and on the other hand, the enterprise must get ready to find out the solutions of the cultural conflicts.In this way, the enterprises can gain more interests in business negotiations.

Works Cited

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