Cultural Effect on Negotiation in International Business

Title: Cultural effect on negotiation in International Business.

Introduction:

This research proposal investigates the effects of culture on negotiations in an international business context and identifies which areas of negotiations are influenced by culture and to what extent. The primary purpose of this study is to understand how international business negotiation is important for companies and how the skills used by management during this process are useful in other aspects of a business. This paper also puts forward a series of effective methods, intercultural strategies and responding tactics. As well as providing an insight the research will suggests that cultural influences persist during the entire negotiation, from preparation to after sales contacts. Key points of the research paper will study and analyze the presence of cultural impact on international business negotiations, with a special emphasis on German and British businesses. This focus is partly due to the special German approach of writer industrial placement experience, but also because of a great personal interest and curiosity for comparing own experiences from living in these two countries.

Justification:

The instruments of diplomacy and the process of negotiation are perhaps more important than ever, especially, in an era where globalization of economic activity has set new challenges for business managers. One of the most important is the ability to negotiate transactions around the world in order to achieve what is required of their businesses. Today the foundation of modern life is no longer for domestic transactions, but most of all global transactions in foreign trade. The German model of negotiation will be used as the main comparative to various others.

Culture is characterized by the perception of the individual as the basic element of German society. A peculiarity of this culture is to make decisions individually and in consequence of the responsibility for their actions. In the process of negotiating Germans decisions usually are taken individually, in a short time.

International negotiations are conducted under different conditions and social situations. Sometimes during the negotiations meetings people come from different backgrounds, religions, political systems and with different cultures. Businesses usually willing to establish contacts with partners who truly understand the mentality and know how too adapt to the situation.

In accordance with research conducted by Bedford (2003, 2004), Snarey (1985) and Ahmed (1999), which have discovered that degree of uncertainty and avoidance is a factor showing the relationship of society to changes and new situations that are difficult to predict. In Germany, country with a low degree of uncertainty decisions are made quickly and