Communication and Negotiation

Executive Summary

The purpose of this report was to analyze a case study which deals with some issues in intercultural business.

Research for this report includes a review of literature on Edward Hall’s intercultural communication theories and Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory.

The major findings in Hall’s theory indicate that the people’s perceptions towards context, time and space can be divided by two scales according to the cultures where people are involved in though there are some issues about methodology limitation and lack of scopes.

This report applies the theories to business cultural communication problems and also recommends solutions, which are team reconstruction, training and creating new cultures, to develop their communication capabilities and reduce misunderstandingsdue to cross-cultural differences.

1.0 Introduction

In this report, I will be analysing a case study dealing with a number of intercultural communication issues. Three theories from Edward hall will be used for demonstrating the problems caused bydifferences of cultures due to relevant facts I have found throughout undertaking research. Other relevant theories and opinions will also be mentioned to help the understanding of diverse communication matters. At the end, I will attempt to proposeseveral recommendations to avoid such cultural problems in the future by suggesting realistic solutions. Overall, analysis ofdifficulties currently facing businesses between different culturesdiscussed in this paper will likely be helpful to drive solutions people can adopt for their successful business negotiation.

2.0 Identification of issues

2.1 Intercultural Issues

• According to Hofstede(2010, para. 1), in China, it is not common to contact to another companies to make a meeting as a vice president judging from the highly ranked company’s power distance level to save their faces.

• Bows combined with handshake the way USA team was greeted could be seen as display of respect (Lustig, Koester, 2013, p.68).

• Giving awhite gift which represents negative meaning can be a critical factor in communication though it was not meant to(Bortoli, M. D &Maroto, J.,2001, p. 12).

• Stanely and Ritacca (2012, para.1)said dinning is vitally important for Chinese so the company offers lavish meals to guest but Americans could be under burden due to the cultural difference.

• In official relationship, entering the other’s personal space like physical contact could be perceived uncomfortably by Westerners due to their value of their territoriality (Edward, H. 1987, p. 131).

2.2 Intercultural