论文Influences of Culture on Business Negotiation

Influences of Culture on Business Negotiation

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of HUFN

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for BA Degree in English

Language and Literature

by Wan Weiwei

Supervisor: Zhang Liming

Academic Title: Associate Professor

May, 2010

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Acknowledgements

During the process of preparing and writing this paper, I got much help from many

people. It would be impossible for me to accomplish this thesis without their support and

advice.

I would like to extend my special thanks to my tutor, Professor Zhang Liming, for she

has offered me very valuable advice and constructive suggestions, as well as great

encouragement and support. Without her supervision and encouragement, I would not have

been able to accomplish this thesis. I have amply benefited from her patience, seriousness

and kindness with my work. What I have learned from her will definitely benefit me for

my future life.

I also want to show my gratitude for all the faculty members of Foreign Language

School in Hubei Institute for Nationalities, whose excellent scholarship has enlightened

and inspired me a lot.

I’m grateful to my family, especially my parents, for the love and support they give to

me all these four years.

Last, but not least, my friends and roommates have been supportive all along. They

are Yang Qin, Deng Jun, Zhang Li, and Li Feifei, Xiang Xiaoli. I shall always appreciate

and cherish their kindness and support.

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摘要

随着经济全球化的发展，国际商务谈判日益频繁，文化因素对国际商务谈判的影响也日益受到关注。当前，对谈判中文化问题的研究大部分集中在北美，但是伴随着谈判主体的向外发展，北美以外的国家也越来越注意文化的影响。

在本篇论文中，本文首先用一个例子来说明因忽视文化因素而导致的谈判破裂。接下来论述了文化对谈判的影响。Faure从谈判参与者、结构、策略、过程和结果五个方面归纳文化对谈判的影响。Salacuse 把文化对谈判的影响分为十个要素。Weiss把影响跨文化谈判的因素分为十二个变量。这十二个变量涵盖的内容最广泛，本文从中选出四个变量作为理论依据，来分析文化对谈判的影响。

这四个变量分别是：（一）对谈判的基本观念。谈判人员对谈判的理解各不相同，有的文化将谈判看作是冲突性的，有的文化将谈判看作是合作性的，从而采取不同的策略。（二）谈判人员的选择。人员的选择标准涉及到职位、年龄、性别、经历、社会地位等。不同的文化有不同的选择标准。（三）交流和沟通的差别。交流在谈判中起着重要的作用，谈判人员交流和沟通方式的不同，可能会造成相互的误解，使谈判破裂。（四）时间观念不同。有些国家的谈判人员认为时间是有限的，且是有价值的，而在有些国家的文化中，时间很充裕，并没有被认为是一种资源。在实际谈判中正确地理解和运用这些变量能很好地避免误解，提高效率。在结尾，作者提出了在国际商务谈判中应该提高文化意识的建议。

关键词：跨文化变量；商务谈判；文化差异；谈判风格

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Abstract

With the development of globalization, more and mote people are engaged in

international business negotiation. Different negotiation styles are paid more and more

attention in the process of international business negotiation. Different negotiation styles

are caused by the different cultures of the negotiator. Therefore, culture plays a great

important role.

To begin with, the author cites an example to show that the international business

negotiation will break down if the negotiation styles and culture differences are ignored.

Then the author reviews the definition of culture and of negotiation. Many scholars

explored and are exploring how the culture differences influence the negotiation. Weiss,

Stripp and Foster divided culture into twelve variables. The author chooses four of them as

her theory basis.

At the end, the author suggests that we should pay attention to negotiation styles and

culture differences in the process of negotiation in order to avoid misunderstanding.

Moreover, the author also points out the limitation of this thesis.

Key Words: international business negotiation; culture differences; negotiation style;

cross-cultural negotiation variable

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Table of contents

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Significance of the study ......................................................................................... 1

1.2 The structure of the study ........................................................................................ 2

2. Definition of culture and negotiation ..................................................................... 3

2.1 Culture ..................................................................................................................... 3

2.2 Negotiation .............................................................................................................. 4

3. Literature reviews .................................................................................................... 5

4. Four cross-cultural negotiation variables .............................................................. 7

4. 1 Basic concept of negotiation process...................................................................... 7

4.1.1 Distributive perspective ........................................................................................ 8

4.1.2 Integrative perspective .......................................................................................... 8