NATURE AND EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION IN INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS

Year 2011, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 103 - 114, 01.06.2011

Claude Alavoine Claudine Batazzi

Abstract

The influence of culture on international business negotiations is recognized by
most of the specialists and researchers in the field. A more important question is
to what extent and what are the consequences in agreement making. Personal
values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours and decisions too are largely influenced and
determined by our own culture, but the level of its influence on the negotiation
process is difficult to estimate.
Negotiation is a specific form of communication in which the parties enter into
deliberately, each with supposedly clear aims and goals as well as a mutual
dependency on a decision that will be taken at the end of the confrontation.
Communication will have a strong influence over the development of conflict, in
particular the nature of the information used and the expectations in terms of
feedback. Indeed, the information transmitted during the process includes
unconscious signals and the underlying affects carried on will considerably
influence it, particularly regarding the level and nature of the exchange. When
confronted with difficulties, negotiators have a tendency to use pressure-tactics
such as threats which will increase the level of conflict and reduce the chances of
reaching an agreement.
In an intercultural context the expectations of each party regarding information (
in particular the interpretation of what is a useful or relevant) may lead to
multiple misunderstandings and so increase the level of conflict between the
parties. Drawing on concepts from several disciplines, our intention in this paper
is to clarify the aspects and elements of the causal relationship between the nature
and exchange of information and conflict in intercultural negotiations in order to
uncover new hypotheses for experimental research

Keywords

negotiation, culture, information, conflict, threats, competition, cooperation

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