论文总字数：43273字

摘 要

在这个文化交织的新时代，人们正面临不同的文化，合作和互相依存的复杂关系。随着中美贸易往来愈发频繁，中美商务谈判的次数也愈来愈多。跨文化商务谈判成败的关键是人们能否正确运用谈判策略。商务谈判技能的提高能有效解决跨文化沟通的矛盾，提高谈判效率。

本课题将从跨文化的角度探讨中美双方商务谈判中的文化差异、价值观、思维方式、实用语言运用以及谈判双方的身份等方面对谈判过程带来的影响，并且以中美商务谈判为例，阐述提高商务谈判成功的策略。

关键词：跨文化交际；中美商务谈判；策略

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1

2.1 The definitions of culture and cross culture .........…...................…………...1

2.2 Theory of cross-cultural negotiation ...................................…….......………2

1. Differences of Cross-cultural Business Negotiation Between China and America................................................................................................................3

3.1 Differences of culture consciousness.......................…...........……....…........4

3.2 Differences in cultural values ………...........…….....…………………........5

3.3 Models of thinking patterns……...............………………………………...5

3.4 Styles of languages in business negotiation...…………......………………..6

3.5 Identities of the negotiators between China and America........……………..8

4. The Influence of Cultural Differences on Business Negotiation..............8

4.1 Misunderstanding caused by cultural differences..................…...………......9

4.2 Cultural differences prevent negotiations from taking place............…….10

4.3 Cultural differences prevent business negotiations from taking place..….10

5. Strategies to Solve the Cultural Barrier in Business Negotiation.............11

5.1 Constructing negotiation strategy…………...........................…........……11

5.2 Using practical language strategy………........................………..………...13

5.3 Improving cultural consciousness strategy...........…...........……………….14

5.4 Face negotiation strategy ..................................…..............……………….14

6. Conclusion…………………………....…………………………………..15

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...17

1. Introduction

Business negotiation is an important part of business activities. It connects countries and represents the cultural values of a country. The current social pattern is developing in a pluralistic direction. The international business exchanges are becoming more frequent. Successful business negotiations will bring different changes to the economies of various countries. Especially with the acceleration of information technology and the opening of the Internet in modern society, more and more people can be involved in cross-cultural communication without leaving home. In this new era in which all kinds of cultures interweave, people are facing complex relationships of communication, cooperation and interdependence between different cultures. Therefore, the frequent international business negotiation between many countries and regions has become an inevitable fact, as well as involves cross-cultural communication.

2. Literature Review

Cross-cultural business negotiations are negotiations for their own interests, but the scope of these negotiations is relatively broad, mainly refers to the international negotiations, and then after continuous adjustment of the formation of the conditions. Finally, many enterprises reach a unified agreement process, we call it cross-cultural business negotiation (Cai 182). In order to gain the advantage of negotiation, we must deeply study the internal factors of cross-culture, master the skill of business negotiation, know ourselves well and know each other, which can win a hundred victories.

2.1 The definitions of culture and cross culture

“Culture is the collective programming of the mind which differentiates the members of one category of people from another”. Culture is different from one country to another, which refers to characteristics of behaving and thinking obtained and transmitted by signs. Furthermore, “Culture originates from many aspects, which involves nationality, education, profession, beliefs, ethnicity, religion, family, gender, social class, customs and language” (Wang China 4). According to this aspects, we must adopt appropriate methods and measures to solve the cultural conflicts and cultural barriers in the course of business negotiation.

The concept of intercultural communication was first proposed by Edward. T. Hall, who pointed out that cross-cultural communication refers to the communicative activities among people with different cultural intuition and symbolic systems. It includes interpersonal communication, inter-ethnic communication and inter-regional communication (Zhang Jin 1). It makes people know more differences between countries and notice the details in the progress of business negotiation.

Cross culture refers to the interaction between groups with two or more different cultural backgrounds and the labor of producing goods is not the labor of all kinds of useful nature embodied in labor products. In short, “cross culture” means to the connection between all people who have experienced cultural attribution by crossing the boundaries of the system.

2.2 Theory of cross-cultural negotiation

Robert T. Moran and other scholars have defined cross-cultural negotiation as a process in which people from different cultural backgrounds strive for benefits resolve collision conflicts and finally reach an agreement by means of communication. In the same cultural environment, there are no obstacles to negotiation caused by cultural differences. However, there are differences in language barriers and communication modes in cross-cultural negotiations, which will lead to difficulties and obstacles not found under the same cultural conditions and will make the negotiations more complicated.

Adaptation Theory proposed by Verschueren, who announced “Pragmatics as a theory of linguistic adaptation” in 1987, which was interpreted from a new angle and got published in 1999. Verschueren notes, “language use must consist of the continuous making of linguistic choices, consciously or unconsciously, for language internal and language external reasons”. According to Verschueren’s pragmatic theory and adaptation theory, the language use has to be assigned these following four side to pragmatic descriptions and explanations of language use which are contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability, salience of adaptation processes (Wang Business 6).

Adler understands cross-cultural identity from the diversity and globalization of identity, and defines it as the re-integration of new identity consciousness and its personality at a higher level, showing the multiplicity of cross-cultural people, the floating cultural ownership and cosmopolitan sentiment. Starting from the interaction and association of identity, Yoshikawa interprets it as “non-one or two”, which is independent and related double spiral cross-cultural relations, breaks the dualistic opposition and creates the identity possibility of “in between”. Jin Rongyuan focuses on the individualization and universalization of identity, and regards cross-cultural identity as a continuous process of seeking for the commonality of self-identity and human beings. It shows that communicators break through ethnic centralism and cultural stereotypes and constantly transform themselves. The ability to adapt to a new environment (Dai 1).

“Cultural identity” is an extension of the concept of “identity”. A Chinese scholar Liu Shuang thinks that cultural identity is the identity of the members of a cultural group to their own cultural identity. To be short, cultural identity is when people ask themselves “Who am I, where I come from, where I go”, which is a cognition and description of the subject itself (Hu 107).

Cultural identity emerged in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. CCCS, the center of contemporary cultural studies at Birmingham University is the center of cultural research. And so-called cultural differences, including race, sex, age, occupation and so on. In Hall’s view, cultural identity is a kind of cognition about identity formed by individual or group under the action of culture, which provides a sense of belonging and alliance for people. Cultural identity is formed under the joint action of historical identity and difference, and has no essence, core and fixed connotation. It is in constant change. We should use constructivism to understand the emergence of cultural identity. Hall’s cultural identity theory has established its superiority in many cultural theories because of its innovative thinking and opening theory.

3. Differences of Cross-cultural Business Negotiation Between China And America

In cross-cultural communication, there are many factors that influence business negotiation. But their diachronic and developmental paths are different. The differences are mainly reflected in five aspects: differences of culture consciousness, differences in cultural values, models of thinking patterns, different styles of language in business negotiation and identities of the negotiators between China and America. Therefore, in the negotiation process, both sides must be cautious, reducing unnecessary contradictions and promoting the smooth progress of the negotiations.

3.1 Differences of culture consciousness

Cultural differences make people have different rules of processing time. Americans belong to a high-level “single habit” culture, which is efficient and effective in controlling their time. China is influenced by Confucian thought and culture. It’s easy to bring itself into the collective and integrate it into the collective. Perhaps it is China’s 5,000 years of history and culture that fostered their patience. They are patient to build a long-term and strong negotiating relationship. Ignoring Chinese culture, powerful American companies ultimately chose the wrong people to negotiate with China in the wrong place and at the wrong pace, making costly mistakes that ended in failure.

In addition, Americans’ concept of time is very strong. They were punctual and simply greeting, hoping to resolve the problem as soon as an agreement was reached. And the Chinese may be negotiating for hours, they can’t get to the point. They will talk about home-to-earth in the negotiation process, hoping to build a better interpersonal relationship. What’s more, families culture of China and American also have deep differences. For example, Chinese people rarely say “thank you” for getting help from others, which is not because the Chinese are impolite, but the Chinese are not good at showing their feelings directly and often keep in mind but not to say. And in American families, no matter how young they are, as long as they accept the help of others, they say “thank you” immediately. When the Chinese invite guests to dinner, they are accustomed to constantly persuading them to eat more food as an expression of hospitality and considerate service, which may confuse Westerners and even make them feel that they are forced and infringe upon one’s liberty. This meal culture will not only make each other feel depressed, but also affect the smooth progress of the negotiations.

3.2 Differences in cultural values

China has traditionally been a unified country, emphasizing unity. While Westerners are more prominent in their individuality and self. Chinese people as a whole pursue “harmony and wealth”, paying attention to collective consciousness and collective value, while Americans emphasize individual consciousness, personal value and personality. These differences lead to different communication habits and ways. For example, Chinese people can take into account emotional needs, think for others and consider problems from the others’ point of view. In Business English, Americans mainly put forward “Can I help you?” and “What can I do for you?” to each other from their own point of view. Americans like to innovate, challenge, explore new things and pay more attention to effectiveness in action. But the Chinese notice more things on the traditional idea and have the motivation of stability and respect for authority. They sometimes lack the spirit of innovation, competition and risk-taking.

The traditional thought continues until now, which has been accepted by the people and changed the whole consciousness. Confucianism strongly praised harmonious social order. People don’t express different opinions, but they pay attention to harmony, avoid differences and think twice before doing things. Moreover, Chinese attach importance to collectivism and interpersonal communication. In Chinese business communication, a good interpersonal communication can help businessmen do more trades (Zhang With 286). To some extent, this reflects the importance the Chinese attach to the past and the United States is deeply influenced by religious culture. They have strong egoism, pay attention to the direction of individualism, emphasize “self” and show strong affirmation and prominent personal style in cross-cultural communication. The American ideology is embodied in action. They dare to show themselves and have the spirit of self-realization and adventure. To Americans, Chinese people are not used to making their views public because they can’t tell the difference between “right things” and “right people”. Americans stand for personal opinions and don’t do things to people. They treat each other equally in a fair and impartial manner.

3.3 Models of thinking patterns

As we all know, thought plays a very important role in business negotiation, which is the driving force of negotiations. The process of business negotiation is the ideas of the representatives of negotiators run at a high speed and collide with sparks, which means that the minds of the representatives of the two sides of the negotiation are different, even though you have a thorough understanding of the culture of a country. But negotiators’ thoughts and ideas are never intelligible to you. It requires us to understand and respect the differences in thinking, seek common ground while reserving differences and establish a cross-cultural sense of negotiation in the process of negotiation. The difference in the consciousness of business negotiation is mainly for the mutual harmony to reach consensus and obtain economic benefits, which is interest consciousness.

In contemporary society, both Chinese and American negotiators have a sense of interest. The purpose of both sides is focused on the distinct interests, the interests are regarded as the main evaluation index. However, the interests of Chinese negotiators are less subjective and explicit than American negotiators. In terms of their treatment of contractors, Americans are always able to draw up contracts carefully. They are used to analyzing problems with abstract logical thinking. Their thinking always starts from the concrete facts and generalizes them systematically and finally comes to the conclusion. Many Chinese negotiators often fail to understand or notice the aspects involved in both negotiations.

Some negotiators believe that in the course of negotiations, as long as the application of data can be used will be successful, which is very blind. In America, the Americans will notice cultural connections but ignore their differences in order to maintain good relations with each other. They have more abstract analytical thinking ability, which is from the facts to sum up and come to a conclusive thing. The Chinese pay attention to the moderation of the mean, take a moderate approach to negotiation and take into account the overall interests to grasp the problem. Further, Chinese negotiators have also noticed the establishment of friendly and harmonious interpersonal relations between people. When encountering disputes or contradictions, we should have the courage to face them and resolve them in a timely manner.

3.4 Styles of languages in business negotiation

In a certain period of time, different ethnic groups are bound to present different cultures. The cultural differences of different nationalities will be reflected in their own languages. Therefore, the language of a nation can not be separated from its own culture.

In cross-cultural business negotiation, we must pay attention to the styles of language in negotiation. For example, Americans like to say in negotiations “Frankly, what is your bottom line?”. However, the Chinese are often implicit, euphemistic and do not directly express their attitude. Leaving a certain margin, which will give people a feeling of uncertainty and ambiguity. And they think the American way of expression is too direct and gives a sense of arrogance. Americans, on the other hand, believe that the Chinese are bending, dragging time and untrustworthy. From this point of view, only by correctly understanding the meaning of languages and the differences between the two styles can people accurately convey information and understand the intentions of both sides. Thus removing cultural obstacles and making the negotiations proceed smoothly.

It’s worth noting that although language is the link of negotiation. However, mastering the language of a country is not simply limited to understanding its literal meaning. It also requires negotiators to know some certain words and phrases denotation (Sun 386). The appropriateness of the use of language also has different effects on the outcome of cross-cultural business negotiations. In cross-cultural communication, there are some differences in the choice and use of oral language of business negotiation between China and the United States. In the United States, people like to argue, question the bottom line and have a strong antagonism in their language, which they think is to express their personal opinions. It’s beneficial to solve the problem quickly, even if there are some disagreements between each other, but it will not affect the friendly and harmonious relationship between people. While the Chinese people attach importance to harmony. Almost all negotiations are conducted in a harmonious atmosphere, which is also a very important means of Chinese negotiators. Sometimes, in order to ensure the respect of both sides, most of them use euphemistic language. They take a roundabout way to express their views. Therefore, in China’s business negotiations, there will be basically no contradictions and frictions. However, if the verbal meanings of the two sides are inconsistent in the course of our negotiations with the United States, it is possible to produce an unpleasant result, which will lead to a deadlock in the whole negotiation and ultimately lead to the failure of the whole negotiation.

3.5 Identities of the negotiators between China and America

Identity is a symbol of people and their position in the social network, which is a meaningful systematic specification between individuals and groups. Status and identity are inseparable. “Identity” means seeking common ground, which can be interpreted as whether the outside world accepts the role of “he” or not (Fangamp;Lu Conversational 110). The social identity of participants in speech communication, including gender, age, social status, social relations and so on will have different effects on the use of speech. For example, between children and adults, men and women, superiors and subordinates and the police and the masses, the language is used in different ways.

The general qualities of the negotiators will influence the result of the negotiations. First, negotiators need to be prepared in advance for a persuasive negotiation planner. For example, they need a rigorous analysis of the combined cost and market that trend to determine that appropriate concessions can be made in certain parts to better adapt to changes in the negotiating situation. When the other side makes appropriate concessions, we can strive for greater interests; when the other side is very firm, we should respond flexibly. Secondly, the content involved in business negotiations is extensive and complex, which requires negotiators to have a certain amount of knowledge reserve. It’s also necessary to master some foreign language skills, folk customs and psychology, so as to lay a good foundation for the negotiation. At last, the psychology and temperament of the negotiators are very important, which influence the outcome of the business negotiations. It requires the negotiator to have confidence, stability and fear of failure and other positive psychology. Only in this way can negotiators be able to face problems in a complex negotiation process and face them bravely. Therefore, when selecting negotiators, enterprises need to take into account the cooperation and complementarity of each individual’s personality and expertise, so as to better solve the negotiation problem and realize the promotion of enterprise economic benefits (Xi 175).

1. The Influence of Cultural Differences on Business Negotiation

Culture differences of a country and a nation will influence the modes of negotiations in business negotiation. An integrative strategy is characterized by cooperation, mutual efforts to identify disputed issues, developing solutions that are suitable for both parties, and readiness to share potential benefits by creating added value (Gideon 365).

4.1 Misunderstanding caused by cultural differences

Some of the misunderstandings, conflicts and obstacles that occurred in culturally diverse negotiations are not the result of cultural differences, which undoubtedly have cultural origins. These types include cultural misconceptions, stereotypes, lacking of cultural discrimination. Cultural differences affect how people attribute and categorize conflicts and determine how conflicts should be managed. As Deutsch noted that “conflict is determined by what is valued by the conflicting parties and what beliefs and perceptions those parties hold”. An individual who practices interdependent self-construal tends to have goal that fits in the group, connects and collaborates to his or her group based on harmonious relationship (Gendrin 16).

How to avoid misreading and realize effective cross-cultural communication has become an important topic in contemporary culture. As Larry and Richard have pointed out, “We believe that cross-cultural communication skills are seen as one of the most important skills a person needs to develop. As long as you look at the world around you, you will realize the need for such an ability, because you are facing a future in which to communicate with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It’s not an easy thing (Fangamp;Lu In 85).

Cultural differences between America and China affect how negotiators attribute and categorize conflict and determine how conflicts should be managed. Cultural differences in the perception of conflict may also generate barriers to interaction, cause misunderstanding and give rise to prejudice. The conflict styles of negotiators are greatly influenced by his or her cultural values. In addition, lacking of culture knowledge for communications will undoubtedly result in the communication clash, communication break-down or even communication failure. This method allows us to approach a large sample of professional experienced negotiators in contrast to inexperienced students with no any practical experience in international negotiations background, who are the typical participants in most lab simulations (Wimsattamp;Darvi 386).

4.2 Cultural differences prevent negotiations from taking place

The usage of taboos reflects the different cultural values between China and the United States. In China, “4” is taboo. Many people think that the homonym of “4” is “death”, which means unlucky. People tend to prefer numbers such as “6” and “8”. In Chinese values, these two numbers are considered to mean “smooth” and “rich”, so many companies or families’ phone numbers and even license plate numbers tend to use them. In the United States, “13” is considered as unfortunate number. In international trade, the number “13” has also been replaced by the term. “Long dozen”, that is “thirteen”, translated as “big dozen”, which is for professional trade terms in international trade.

The difference in “appellation” is also one of the differences in values between China and the United States. American names are composed of “first name” and “surname”. For example, Mary Green, Mary is first name, Green is last name. Americans use only the first name in most cases. However, Chinese names are composed of surnames, such as Zhang San, Zhang for last name, and San for first name. In English, people often call first name each other directly, and very few words are used as appellation to express their position or title, such as Professor, Doctor, Judge and Captain, Colonel, General, Lieutenant. In China, people often add their titles when communicating with each other, such as Mr. Zhang and Accountant Li. It’s wrong to call an American engineer Engineer Smith, an American teacher as Teacher Lucas. In the United States, people cannot be called blindly by occupation except for a few professional titles. Therefore, in the process of negotiations, the first meeting, misaddressed will affect the mood of both sides and make the negotiations into an awkward situation.

4.3 Cultural differences prevent business negotiations from taking place

People who are in different cultural backgrounds have different views of negotiation. The methods, techniques and styles of negotiation, even different ways of getting into the subject of negotiation are also different. Therefore, if we do not respect the cultural differences at first, the business negotiation would face to fail.

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