the cultural dimensions of nci
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187THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF NEGOTIATIONGroup Decision and Negotiation 8: 187–215, 1999
© 1999 K luwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands
The Cultural Dimension of Negotiation: The ChineseCase
GUY OLIVIER FAURE
Sorbonne
Racot et Eggimann
Abstract
Culture is one of the major components of negotiation and plays an especially crucial role in international
relations. The current state of research is presented and discussed. The type of influence of culture is specified
and compared with other categories such as strategic behavior and structural determination.
Then, referring to the China case, the way culture impacts on the key elements of negotiation such as actors,
structures, strategies, process, and outcome is described and analyzed. Lastly, culture’s consequences on the
negotiator’s cognition, beliefs, behaviors and identity are investigated.
Key words: negotiation, culture, international relations, China, cognition, behavior, identity
Introduction
Our age is definitely one of negotiation as already pointed out by Zartman (1976).Opportunities for that type of encounter, have considerably increased over a few decades
throughout the whole world. Economic development, multiplication of exchanges,
integration of third world countries in this global trend have led men to meet more and
more around the negotiation table. Technological changes in communications has also
brought people closer to each other, reduced distances and provided convenient support
for joint discussions. Dominant values have also changed and more and more conflicts
are settled through negotiation instead of being played until the destruction or capitulation
of the adversary.
On the business side, new activities have recently taken a large place among more
usual transactions. Joint ventures set up and technology transfers are among their most
prominent manifestations. If one considers a country like China, within 15 years over
300,000 joint venture agreements have been signed.Consequences such as scarcity of some resources (water, wild life) and pollution of
others also call for negotiation. Decision-making in international organization such as
the European Union or the World Trade Organization is carried out through negotiation at
such a point that it has become the main activity of their members.
The interdependence between nations, markets, enterprises and people has strongly
emphasized the visibility of national cultures. This is typically when people are confronted
with people from other cultures that they realize that culture exists. It is a similar situation
to the fish that ignores it lives in the water until it is taken out.
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For human beings, culture provides meaning, goals, justifications, norms of conduct.
This perfectly applies to negotiators and the task of those who like to understand a
negotiation process is to grasp the sense that actors attach to their moves.
Considering culture does not imply that it is necessarily the explanatory variable for
any negotiation. Structural influences and strategic choices play their part and can also be
major variables. But culture with its ambiguities and complexity may have on occasions
an essential influence on some aspects of a negotiation. A negotiation while operating
produces a chemistry among actors. An international negotiation develops a kind of
combination among the various interacting cultures. The real intellectual challenge is to
grasp the elusive and ubiquitous concept of culture and to analyze in a next stage under
which circumstances this combination becomes a key variable. The investigation reported
here addresses the following questions: how is it done? Which levels of the negotiationare concerned? And what are the consequences?
In addition, understanding the role of culture and its various consequences can do
more than increase knowledge. Its predictive dimension may help anticipation and thus,
contribute to prescriptive tools to support negotiator’s behavior while working for a better
outcome.
Based on the case of Chinese-Foreign negotiations conducted in China, the work that
follows, aims to show how culture impacts the key elements of a negotiation. These
elements are the actors, the structure of the “game”, the strategies developed by the parties,
the negotiation process, and the final outcome. The consequences of these influences on
the negotiator are then studied according to the various levels on which they impact:
negotiator’s cognition, beliefs, behaviors, and identity.
This research is of an empirical nature and is introduced by a review of the mainconcepts used in negotiation analysis and the way they interrelate in a negotiation system.
A state of the art on current research concerning the cultural aspects of negotiation is
also provided, bringing to light four main approaches.
Culture: scope and definition
Most of the problems that face human groups are universal but the solutions are specific.
Social interactions among members, relationship between the group and its environment,
the way people consider nature, space, time or major events of one’s life lead to elaborate
beliefs and assumptions widely shared by members of the group. If we take into account
works from social anthropologists, these answers to living conditions strongly vary from
one group to another.
Culture has been defined by Herriot, a French writer and politician, as what remains
when one has forgotten everything. This apparently paradoxical statement grasps one of
the most salient property of culture because it is not so much a matter of substance but a
way of thinking and acting. Faure and Rubin explicit culture as a “set of shared and enduring
meanings, values and beliefs that characterize national, ethnic, or other groups and orient
their behavior” (1993). Herskovits (1995) considers it as the “human-made part of the
environment”, where man left its print on nature. Triandis (1994) distinguishes between
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189THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF NEGOTIATION
“subjective culture” made of categories, norms, roles and values and “objective culture”,
regrouping human products such as tools, chairs, jet planes.
Culture is transmitted through socialization and education from one generation to the
next. In the short-term perspective, culture can be conceived as a structural component
of any society that conditions human thinking and behavior, operating in a deterministic
way. In the long term perspective, it is a dynamic social dimension that induces changes
over time through modification of values scale.
Culture should not be viewed as a sector of human activity but as a part of each sector
of human activity. Religious, political, economic, social aspects of societies are imbued
with a cultural component, influenced by it. In the same way, religious, political, economic
and social developments produce culture and grant it a role in the future (Demorgon
1996).
Extracting and capturing culture
A professor in a European business school had submitted the same problem to three
different groups of students (French, German, and English). It was about a conflict between
two departments of the same company and the question was on how to solve this conflict.
The French brought the decision at the higher hierarchical level; the German suggested
establishing written rules defining precisely scope and prerogatives of each one of the
departments; the English offered to improve communication between the heads of the
two departments (Hofstede 1987). Cultural differences are clearly the explanatory factor.
Each one of the three cultures involved has its own way to see the problem, to identify thecause of the dysfunctioning and to suggest a solution. Referential models such as the
organizational pyramid, the perfected machinery, the information exchange place implicitly
operate but in none of the cases negotiation is put forth as a possible or wishable solution.
In China, on a hot afternoon, “Two Englishmen sweat and puffed while playing tennis.
When they finished, a sympathetic Chinese friend asked: Could you not get two servants
to do this for you?” (Triandis 1994, p. 181). Here again culture manifests itself through
the way each observer interpret a social situation. It is not even necessary to introduce an
exotic dimension to come across that type of interpretation lag, necessarily culturalized,
that can be done. One just needs asking the French about American baseball. Not only its
rationale seems incomprehensible but even the very point of the game remains impossible
to grasp.
The way the Japanese draft a business contract also demonstrate that their conception
of contract including relationship is far from the Western one as shown by the following
excerpt (Graham and Sano 1989, p. 105). “Article 1. This agreement is made ... to maintain
mutual prosperity and coexistence and lasting amicable relations.” Again it is the culture
to whom each of the parties belong which will condition ways to look at the contract, its
meaning and assigned function.
An analytical approach of culture has been suggested by Hofstede (1980) based on
four dimensions that are used to compare national cultures in classifying people’s attitude
on each of them. One dimension concerns “power distance” and corresponds to authority
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ranking. Another measures “uncertainty avoidance” and reflects the tendency to avoid
situations when the outcome is uncertain or with no clear norms or elicits stress. A third
dimension “individualism” deals with the relationship between the subject and the
collectivity. The last dimension, “masculinity” relates to the tendency to adopt values
more commonly shared by men such as ambition, defined as the desire to achieve
something or to earn more.
Each national sample is located on those four scales, thus characterizing its culture.
For instance, Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan have far more respect for authority
than Americans (with scores of 6.8 and 5.8 to 4.0 for Americans), are much more collective
minded than Americans (2.5 and 1.7 against 9.1 on the individualism index). Concerning
uncertainty control, Taiwan ranks higher than the U.S. that itself ranks higher than Hong
Kong (respectively 69 for 46 and 29). The three cultures rather emphasize masculine values,the USA ranking first on this scale (62 against 57 for Hong Kong and 45 for Taiwan).
Language is typically a cultural product and as such may help to show how culture
structures thinking. Language influences people’s experience of the world because it
provides categories to capture what is observed, to turn it into thinking and conditions
behaviors, as underlined in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Any particular language has its
own set of categories to describe reality. For instance, the Eskimo have more than twenty
words to differentiate among various types of snow, while Aztecs use a unique word for
snow, ice and frost. Arabs have 6,000 words connected with camels and 50 of them deal
only with pregnancy stages (Klineberg 1954).
The culture of a society is not a coherent and stable set of values but should rather be
viewed as a “bundle of cultural norms” that are subject to “dialectic tension” (Janosik
1977). Thus, changes can be explained as the varying outcome of the management of these tensions. Blaker (1977) distinguishes between two highly contrasting domestic
ideals of conflict revolution within the Japanese culture, the “harmonious cooperation”
and the “warrior ethic”. Both indeed, are incompatible but at the same time embedded in
the Japanese tradition. According to circumstances one or the other becomes legitimate.
Similarly, French culture has been always defined and expressed by conflicting values
such as liberty and equality. According to the period of history, one or the other would
dominate. Those tensions among priorities provide internal dynamics for change and show
that culture is not a static and conservative component opposing evolution.
Perception, interpretation, problem framing are essential aspects of cultural influences
in social life and in international negotiation. It is extremely interesting to reverse the
usual process of interpreting non western behaviors with Western cultural lenses and see
what non-Western people decode when observing what Western do. Miner (1958, quoted
by Triandis 1994, p. 13) suggests the following: “the ritual consists of inserting a small
bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving
the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures”. In fact, it is simply toothbrushing
seen from another cultural perspective.
Differences across cultures are quite complex. Comparative studies by themselves do
not enable to predict the behavior of the other party. As underlined by Graham (1996),
the best they can do is to help the practitioner to become aware of cultural differences in
communication and negotiating style to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
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191THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF NEGOTIATION
For instance, in a laboratory simulation including business people from 18 cultures, Graham
found that Chinese ask 3 times more questions than Germans do. Knowing the fact does
not enable a negotiator to build up a strategy but at least helps him to understand that such
a behavior is not part of a deliberated strategy devised by the other side, Chinese or
German.
A number of problematiques can be raised over culture, its status in social sciences,
its definition and its instrumentality. The Anglo-Saxon definition of culture is rather social-
anthropological, whereas the French understanding leans towards cultivation as a
refinement of knowledge. The German concept of “Kultur” is closer to civilization. Already
and without going into non Western definitions, the very definition of culture is highly
culturalized.
Another interesting question concerns the very nature of culture. Should it be seen asa process or as a product? It is a process in the sense that culture elicits actions and
orients them. It triggers specific actions in a particular type of situation and, thus, could
be understood as a substitute for instinct (Faure and Rubin 1993, p. 4). At the same time,
it is a product, an outcome of this process that is expressed in visible, tangible ways.
Culture like social structure for instance cannot be seen but can be inferred from its
manifestations.
When culture is assured to be the dominant variable in a social process such as a
negotiation, does it suppose a kind of behavioral determinism of the actors and as a
consequence should we look at negotiation analysis as a deterministic theory? In fact, it
should not be so, because culture is seldom an exclusive explanatory factor. In addition,
culture is made of values “in tension” or simply conflicting, that provide room for choices.
Furthermore, the cultural dimension is composite as it integrates in a complexcombination several components such as the national, local, family, professional,
organizational and religious culture. Last, what is basic in the rationale of the negotiation
system even reduced to its cultural dimension is the intercultural aspect which is the
encounter between several sub-systems with all the entailed uncertainties.
Research on cultural aspects of negotiation
Research on international negotiation is widely influenced by the cultural conditions
within which it is caused out. Ways to view objects and ideas are culturalized, framed by
given concepts and current local problematiques that pertain to the culture when research
is elaborated. Are we able, with the Western analytical tools we have built up, to properly
understand a negotiation happening in Timbuktu or in New Guinea as well as another
one going on in Manhattan? Research on cultural issues in negotiation is strongly
anchored in North America and shows very little interest for non-American publications
(Dupont 1994). Although as underlined by Weiss (1995), bodies of work on negotiation
have developed outside the U.S. as, for instance, in France. Non U.S. research on
negotiation has even been carried out in rather unexpected places such as China (Faure
1995c). Culture intervenes as an influential variable on researchers on negotiation as
well as on negotiators.
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If now we consider research on international negotiation focusing on cultural aspects,
four main streams can be distinguished: the structural-processual approach, the behavioral
approach, the cognitive-strategic approach, the stages approach. Each of those categories
will be presented with some research references.
The structural-processual approach draws heavily on Sawyer and Guetzkow social-
psychological model (1965) that defined five groups of variables intervening in a
negotiation. The resulting analytical framework combines a set of factors playing an
essential role that are contextual or situational, processual or behavioral, strategic or
related to the outcome. Culture is either integrated among contextual factors
(Fayerweather and Kapoor 1976; Tung 1988), or assumed as operating directly within
each of the analytical categories (Faure and Rubin 1993; Weiss 1993).
A second type of approach focuses on the negotiator’s behavior as the fundamentalcomponent in producing negotiation dynamics. According to the analytical tools and
methodology used, two different traditions have been established. The first one aims at
testing the impact of cultural elements on a number of behavioral variables in order to
assess the reality of their influence (Carnevale 1995; Graham 1983, 1984, 1994;
Kirkbridge, Tang and Westwood 1991). The second tradition is based on surveys and aims
at describing the impact of culture on negotiators behaviors and subsequently at analyzing
its consequences (Campbell 1988; De Paw 1981; Frankenstein 1986; Kimura 1980). Most
of the collected data comes from international negotiators bringing their personal experience
through, for instance, a questionnaire.
The cognitive-strategic approach aims at capturing the main elements of negotiator’s
action and at linking them to the actor’s cognition in order to explain the logics implemented
during the negotiation. In comparing national cultural profiles of negotiators, Casse (1982),Weiss and Stripp (1985) describe negotiation conception, cultural dispositions and typical
ways of acting for each negotiator. Bringing the focus on a single profile of actor, the Chinese
negotiator, Faure (1998a), basing his work on interviews of actors and field observations,
presents the major elements of the cognitive map of the Chinese negotiator and establishes
a relation with the most typical strategic actions undertaken by this negotiator in terms of
cultural causation. Thus, negotiation dynamics are captured, made explicit and explained.
The fourth mode for grasping cultural effects in international negotiation is the stages
approach. Borrowing from Zartman and Berman (1984), Salacuse (1991) divides the
negotiation process in three phases having each of them a particular objective and a specific
rationale. Satisfying the requirements of each stage allows an effective adjustment of the
different sequences and the reaching of the agreement.
Concerning the global trends of current research, what can be observed is the care to
grasp the amorphous concept of culture through methods borrowing from systematic
approaches such as those used in social sciences. An emphasis is also put on epistemic
issues by moving from the mere description of cultures as a social component in a
negotiation. Furthermore, it is at the level of query framing, a shift from a comparative
stance expressed in cross-cultural studies to an intercultural concept that takes into account
the encounter between cultures itself.
The cross-cultural approach provides data by ways of comparison and, thus, enables to
anticipate on the behavior of the other, assuming that no other culture influences him or
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her. By doing so, such an approach remains static, segments reality and brings situations
to a standstill. The intercultural approach, although highly difficult to implement, has a
specific property, that of incorporating the very dynamics of the negotiation. It deals with
the mutual osmosis between two cultures, the homeostasis of the cultural system that has
been thus created with its relations, harmonies, paradoxes, contradictions and antagonisms.
In short, it takes into account complexity.
Critical views
One of the most critical streams on the importance of culture is represented by Zartman
(1993) who formulates four basic observations: “Culture is cited primarily for its negativeeffects. Yet even the best understanding of any such effect is tautological, its measure
vague, and its role in the process basically epiphenomenal.” The first argument opposes
culturalists who claim that ignoring culture is a major cause of failure in negotiations.
For Zartman, culturalists do not seriously substantiate their assertions and in no case, set
out a culturally distinct process that could shed light on the matter. In addition, they are
no more able to prove the reverse, that the successful end of a negotiation is due to the
influence of the cultural aspects. Such a comment does make sense but far from rendering
the hypothesis void, calls for more work in this area. Rubin and Brown (1975) already
underlined the relative scarcity of scholar works, assuming that the cause could be the
methodological problems inherent to such studies. For instance, laboratory experiments
concerning culture tend to have one negotiator for each side and one variable to test. In a
real world negotiation between a Western company and its Chinese counterpart to set upa joint venture, two to five Westerners face fifteen to thirty Chinese and discuss during
several years over more than a hundred issues, putting on the stage dozens of variables. It
is quite objectable to transfer findings extracted from the former situation to the latter.
Resorting to a different approach, several researchers have recently carried out some
fieldworks and analysis to provide more insights on this topic, showing how shared norms,
specific cultural combinations may facilitate negotiation or how the creation of a
professional negotiator’s culture may strengthen the dynamics of the process (Elgström
1990; Dupont, Lang and Kremenyuk 1993).
Culture tends to be defined tautologically. When culture is related to independent
variables, these variables end up being cultural too. If, for instance, social structure is
claimed to determine culture, at the same time, it is a cultural product. In fact, as shown
by Faure and Rubin (1993), culture relates to problems of different kinds: communication,
perception, identity, that enable the researcher to formulate hypothesis on its relative
importance as compared to other types of causation. What is at stake is not really how
weak can culture be as an influencing factor but rather to shed light on the complexity of
the interaction process and its consequences.
As a variable, how much independent is culture is a chicken and egg type of question.
It is, at the same time, a social product and bears an autonomy of its own. Culture changes
but not because of an external decision as it has been observed in studies concerning
corporate cultures.
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Culture is a vague concept and if it is viewed as the sum of the behavioral traits of a
collectivity, the significance of the “cultural basket” is never clearly defined. This is
certainly true but does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the influence of culture
should be smaller than formerly hypothesized. The essential lesson to draw from this
criticism is that research should be more narrowly focused on specific and well defined
objects in order to avoid this problem in the future. Works such as those of Hofstede
(1980, 1991), distinguishing several dimensions of culture or those of Carnevale and
Radhakrishnan (1994), using attitude scales to characterize a cultural trait demonstrate
concern and clear will to investigate more on this aspect.
Zartman’s last critique is that culture is epiphenomenal and, as a consequence, does
not substantially help in understanding the negotiation process itself. The epiphenomenal
character assigned to culture is a judgment which is not backed by a demonstration. It bears the same weakness that was underlined in the first criticism stating that culturalists
have never been able to prove what they assume. In addition, cultural minorities are certainly
more sensitive to cultural issues. This is probably why most of the critics taking that type
of position belong to the same nowadays overwhelming culture.
In fact, as underlined by Elgström (1994) while raising the issue of the “internal
validity” of culture as the relevant determinant, it is extremely difficult to precisely assess
the relative influence of each major variable operating in the negotiation process.
Outcomes can also be determined by other variables such as structural or process variables
and it would not make sense to turn culture into the unique explanatory variable of a
whole and often complex process. As shown by Druckman et al. (1976) in a study of
bargaining behavior of Indians, Argentineans and Americans, culture does matter in
determining behavior but other factors such as age, gender, environment also play animportant role, paving the way to multicausal models. In addition, what is often observed
is that culture’s effect on negotiation is subtle and this subtlety, however, does not reduce
the importance of culture but only makes it less visible. Again, it only calls for more
attention, more research.
Another strong objection to the importance of culture in negotiation is raised by a
number of psychologists who tend to consider that individual variables are by far the
most important, and that personality is the leading force in the interaction process. The
answers to this can only be found in real cases studies and might even provide a different
answer each time. In addition, and this restriction cannot be easily lifted, it is sometimes
very difficult to draw a line between cultural variables and personality variables. If we
consider, for instance, risk-taking behavior, it may belong to both sets and only a specific
investigation within a case study, will enable the researcher to draw an accurate conclusion.
An interesting remark that should trigger more research on culture and negotiation
addresses the degree to which a culture affects behavior varies from one culture to another.
Another highly relevant observation comes from the fact that as a negotiator belongs at
the same time to several cultures such as national, local, religious, professional,
organizational, family, gender, which one is the driving force? What happens when some
of these cultures put on the stage conflicting values?
Other suggestions consist in “unpackaging” the cultural category, put some of its content
in other categories such as the sociological one, the strategic one or the psychological
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one. Then, it would be interesting to see what is left when attitudes, norms, roles,
motivations, perceptions, personality factors have been taken away. What would be its
explanatory value?
Another question often raised concerns how to distinguish between culture and its
manifestation, how to separate what is acted from what is acted upon. Otherwise, it would
be most challenging to apply any classical scientific method to deal with the explanatory
value of culture.
The weak points in classical approaches concerning the cultural dimension
Two main shortcomings related to cultural aspects can be underlined in classicalapproaches. One consists in simply ignoring the cultural dimension, the other does not
differentiate among cultures. Research in social sciences, when not differentiating among
cultures, leads to establish the culture of the researcher as the norm from which social
facts belonging to other cultures will be analyzed and possibly measured. One may rightfully
speak of a “scientific ethnocentrism”. If considering, for instance, the concept of
intelligence, its definition may strongly vary from one culture to another. Then, the same
scale measures something which is different and this makes the comparative approach
fallacious.
So is it if one considers the semantics of the negotiation concept. The Chinese concept
does not strictly coincide with the Anglo-Saxon concept (Faure 1995a). To capture it one
must distinguish it from the idea of discussion which only represents the cooperative
side. To negotiate (tanpan) combines two actions: “talking” and “making judgment”. Inthis case, harmony, a central value in the Chinese culture, is disrupted. The general
orientation is basically conflictual, while to discuss (taolun) links two ideas: “searching”
and “exposing” towards a cooperative outcome, assuming that harmony is still maintained.
“Emic” aspects of culture are what makes a culture unique as opposed to “etic” aspects,
being what provides ground for comparisons. Emics are especially of interest to the social
anthropologist and etics to the cross-cultural psychologist. Research tends to resort to
etic measurements of emic constructs, for instance social distance in various societies.
However the basis of social distance is often an emic attribute such as tribe, religion,
social group, nationality. Then what is used as an indicator in one culture to measure
social distance may not make sense in another culture. For instance, to ask an American
if “he would mind having a Turk touch his earthenware”, which is a question that does only
make sense in India (Triandis 1994, p. 72). In fact, research should go in an opposite way
and use emic measurements of etic constructs by building, for instance, parallel scales
separately by members of each culture and only afterward try to compare and standardize
them.
The cultural component of a negotiation situation enters in a game of mutual influences
with other components such as the structural and the strategic dimensions. The reality of
a situation is never made of totally distinct, autonomous categories and its ultimate
rationale borrows from the various interactions happening between these three
dimensions.
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Structural aspects are, for instance, widely conditioned by the social culture. Thus,
legal frameworks and administrative ways of intervention are influenced by values and
mores related to the culture in which they are embedded. Similarly, strategic behaviors
are part of a range of choices narrowed by the possibilities offered by the law of the
country and by the social norms to which actors abide to. Thus, not any kind of move is
allowed in a negotiation, and a number of rules of the game should be followed, reducing
accordingly the margin of manoeuvre of the negotiators.
In the same way, all what is culturally conceivable is not strategically feasible because
the nature of the interaction, common project or division of a resource, and the goals that
are targeted reduce the field of possible. Last, from another angle, the strategic component
when often repeated or under way of institutionalization, generates culture through the
new norms that are set up.Besides the fact of being Westerners or applying Western methods and tools, a huge
majority of the research population is made of males and raise choice of problems and
issues connected with their gender. This androcentric bias has put one-gender culture as
the standard from which research, supposedly universal, has developed and half of mankind
has been put aside.
Another weak point for current methodologies is that they assume that intercultural
negotiation processes apply in intercultural contexts. As long as there will not be theoretical
models specifically designed for intercultural contexts, the problem will remain.
Further question in line with the above remarks addresses computer assisted
negotiations. Do ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) professionals at the electronic
bargaining table integrate cultural issues in their expert systems? The power to
communicate over great distances, the ability to store an enormous amount of data, theincredible speed with which it can be processed, should provide incentives to deal more
closely with cultural aspects. For instance, should a program operating as a mediator that
helps to reframe bargaining issues and options only work on quantitative grounds by
introducing new issues in order to enlarge the pie and create joint gains? What about
more qualitative approach of reframing such as changing of basic metaphor to structure
the problem? This would lead to introduce culture in a highly constructive way.
Expert systems, when providing one-sided or two-sided advice have to assess the
reservation price(s). Again, culture leaves its print in what should be a reservation price
or, even more complex, a security point.
Economic approaches are based on the assumption of an interactive concession-
convergence model usually described as a “negotiation dance”. Again, the idea of
incremental concessions is certainly culturally biased, for it is a process that is far from
being observed in many different types of societies (Faure 1998b).
What to do while using a negotiation support system if a negotiator misrepresents
his preferences? In the Orient, there is no transparency of goals. Again, people not
disclose what they want because of cultural reasons such as face-maintenance and indirect
action.
What about the concept of stable/unstable outcome? The Chinese way to secure a
stable outcome is not by a written contract including penalties for no respect of
obligations and international arbitration in case of disagreement on the term of
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implementation of the contract. It is rather by establishing a strong and friendly
relationship that conflicts will be prevented or solved.
How to integrate these factors, highly qualitative and cultural in an expert system?
Finally, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to include social-emotional aspects in
problem representations of a negotiation (Faure, Lê Dong and Shakun 1990). This should
also be done with cultural aspects resorting to the various ways culture impacts on the
negotiation process. As long as this world will be made of many cultures interacting with
each other, dispute resolution in cyberspace should integrate this basic component of
human societies.
How culture impacts on negotiation: The Chinese case
Culture exerts a subtle influence that often cannot be directly seen. One has to deduce it
from attitudes and behaviors, the visible aspects of human activity. Negotiation can be
broken down into five key components: actors, structure, strategies, process and outcome.
It is particularly instrumental to confront theory with facts by shedding light on the
influence of culture over each of the key variables in a negotiation. The collected data
comes from a fieldwork that has been carried out in China. Two different types of sources
have been used. On one hand, direct observations made during negotiations concerning
buying, selling, renting, equipment supplying, sub-contracting, technology transferring,
setting up joint ventures. Thus, thirty negotiations have been investigated between Chinese
and Westerners. On the other hand, fifty interviews have been made with Western and
Chinese negotiators involved in business negotiations. Each interview lasted betweenone and a half and six hours. The fieldwork has taken place from 1990 to 1996, and has
mainly concerned two areas: Beijing and Shanghai.
Actors
Individuals, groups, organizations can be involved in the negotiation process. In all cases,
they are men and women and as such, they bring culture into the interaction. For actors,
culture conditions how negotiations will be perceived. Under what kind of metaphorical
representation of negotiation will they operate? Will it be viewed and played as a power
confrontation, a cooperative exercise, a debate, a ritual, a human venture?
For Americans negotiation is rather a give and take exercise, but for the Chinese it is
far more of a confrontation (Faure 1997; Pye 1982; Weiss and Stripp 1985). The way
actors perceive other actors, including stereotypes, their intentions and the values that
guide their conduct. How issues themselves are understood, will a set of issues be viewed
as a list of items to be discussed sequentially as Americans do, or will it be seen as a
system of interconnected elements to be approached in a holistic way as Chinese would
do (Needham 1956).
Issues may also carry a symbolic value that take them away from simple, clearly
delineated understanding and adds a third level of reality and beliefs. Underlying symbolic
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meanings, memories from past experiences, occasionally historical memory may
strongly influence behaviors and become true explanatory variables. In a tough
negotiation, a Chinese may not mind reminding his Western counterpart, what he would
see as a moral debt to China in order to weaken his position. He would refer to events
from the last century such as the sack of the Summer Palace by English and French
troops, the “unequal treaties” of Nanjing and Tianjin compelling China to open its ports
to international trade.
The negotiators themselves bring ethics into the interaction. The cultural line drawn
between what should be and what should not be done, or tolerated, varied from one culture
to another. In some cultures, people easily resort to means of action such as lies, deception
or bribes that are considered as absolutely unacceptable by other cultures.
Considering the counterpart as an enemy may legitimate use of tactics that would not be conceivable with people seen as partners. A threat in China usually generates a “casus
belli”.
In addition to this national culture, actors also bring other types of cultures such as the
organizational culture (Hofstede 1991), the professional culture (Lang and Sjöstedt,
forthcoming), the local culture. Addressing China, Graham (1996) distinguishes between
Northern and Southern culture. The Northern Chinese culture is defined as cooperative
and equity oriented, whereas the Southern culture is more competitive and does not mind
about unbalanced outcomes provided that they are beneficial. With the same concern,
Faure and Chen (1997) isolate three Chinese main subcultures, Northern, South-Coastal,
South-West and relate them to very specific negotiation behaviors. They take into account
criteria such as the way to frame negotiation, flexibility, role of status, emotions, trust,
risk-taking propensity, time management, complexity handling and decision-making. Theyalso distinguish professional profiles of Chinese negotiators such as chief executives,
salesmen, technicians and present the prominent attributes of their negotiating styles.
Last, among the current Chinese counterparts a foreign negotiator may come across in
China, they consider generations and again study their negotiation behavior, be they old
conservatives, mid-age pragmatists, or young materialists.
Structure
External constraints, such as the national and local legal framework, the organizational
setting of a negotiation, are social products and, as such, are not culture free. Other typical
structural factors include the number of parties involved, the number of issues at stake,
the distribution of power between the parties and the degree of transparency of the process
for external observers such as the media.
Again, culture may influence some of the structural aspects. For instance, the number
of negotiators representing one party in the negotiation is largely related to cultural habits.
A couple of foreign negotiators currently have to deal with fifteen to thirty Chinese
counterparts, sitting on the other side of the table. In business negotiations in China, a
foreign team does not only negotiate with its Chinese counterpart but indirectly with
other parties such as the local authorities and government.
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On the Chinese side, usually the real decision-maker does not directly participate to
the negotiation. Such an attitude perfectly illustrates Chinese traditions. It follows the
way it was done by Empress Ci Xi who, sitting behind a white curtain, would listen to what
was said during the hearing from her son, dictate him the answers he should give without
being ever seen. To remain behind the scene is for decision-makers a way to protect
themselves, to avoid exposing themselves to the turbulence of the negotiation, to prevent
any possible risk of loss of face during the highly conflicting episodes. In addition, in
China, negotiation is rather conceived as an “art d’exécution” (applied art) than as an
activity done by a high level executive. This displays how Chinese culture and society
in-print on the negotiation structure.
Culture tends to give pre-eminence to some types of situational power and to disavow
others. In China, it is quite legitimate for the strongest to impose his own views. In former USSR, the Party could not be wrong. In traditional African villages, in a discussion, the
eldest always has the final word. Such a priori judgments will influence the whole process
by weighting on negotiators’ behaviors.
In China, a business negotiation is always conceived as an unbalanced situation. It is
not the foreigner who sells to a Chinese counterpart, but China that buys from a foreigner.
In addition, according to Chinese views, the buyer has a stronger position than the seller,
even if the international dimension is not present. The consequences are quite foreseeable.
If the foreigner treats the Chinese negotiator as an equal, he will be perceived as incredibly
arrogant.
In the case of a negotiation in China, decisions are made according to a double rationale
abiding by the formal Chinese organizational structure but also by following the “guanxi”
system. The formal authority gives its approval according to rules whether public or keptsecret. The “guanxi” is the parallel network of acquaintances within which each of the
members is caught in a logic of mutual obligations in terms of support (Chen and Faure
1995). Thus, this informal network, requested by one of the negotiators makes use of its
influence to try modifying authorities’ attitude on a particular issue in the negotiation.
The relation to law and written rules is also highly culturalized and strongly contrasts
with that adopted in cultures based on written law. For instance, a number of laws and
regulations provide the legal framework because in China fairness is always superior to
law. This is a legacy from Confucian tradition for which governing according to morals
was the major value. From such a position, Confucius opposed the Legists and won over
them. Today Westerners could be viewed as the spiritual successors of those Legists with
their insistence to have a legal framework built up. This is the reason why in China there
is a number of joint ventures that do not have any legal base for existing but nevertheless
have been operating for years without major problems.
Harmony is another Confucian principle that has, at the present time, kept its
importance in the current Chinese culture and its central aspect in the structural
organization of the negotiation. Such a principle applies to civilized people, which means
to Chinese or assimilated people involved in a relationship of a friendly nature. It aims to
maintain non-conflictual social relations. Such a value prevails in the structuring of the
game between the Chinese and the Foreigners who got over the threshold of sinization
that enables them not to be any longer categorized as devils or ghosts.
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Strategy
Negotiating is a global action and the overall orientation given by an actor to achieve his
goal is a strategy. Strategic choices are led by values which, in turn, relate to culture.
Goal setting is also, to some extent, influenced by culture. Maximizing one’s own gains,
creating joint gains, building up a reputation, establishing a friendly relationship, teaching
a lesson to the other side are as many intentions that have to be implemented by adequate
strategies. In some cultures action will be direct, conflict widely accepted and problems
met head on; in others, action will be indirect, conflict not openly acknowledged and
problems only dealt with through allusions. Russians, for instance, tend to negotiate from
a position of strength and do not mind resorting to aggressive tactics such as threats,
whereas the Japanese are highly reluctant about direct confrontation (Kimura 1980).Westerners are strongly driven by the idea of fairness and respect to basic principles,
and rules. The Chinese are much more concerned by preserving at least the appearance of
a peaceful relation among the participants of a negotiation or by maintaining face than by
abiding by rules and abstract principles, and may even sometimes act at the expenses of
these rules. Thus, on many occasions, social values can be dominating over economic
interests.
Culture may also influence the way negotiators proceed to reach an agreement. Some
cultures, such as the French or the German, favor a deductive approach, looking first for
acceptable principles, then applying them to concrete issues. Other cultures, such as the
American, would rather adopt an inductive approach, dealing pragmatically with specifics
and underlying principles will only become discernible in the end (Salacuse, in this issue).
The Chinese global approach of negotiation combines two very different types of exercises inherited from the tradition (Faure 1998a). The first one, the “ mobile warfare”
operates on a basically highly conflictual repertoire. The foreign counterpart is defined
as an adversary, a barbarian, and this enables the Chinese negotiator to use a lot of tricks
and tough tactics to meet their goals. For instance, to cut the other off his base, to take
advantage of the isolation of the foreigner in China. This is expressed in a classical saying
“to lure the tiger down from the mountain”. Compared to a tiger, the foreigner is integrated
in a quite meaningful metaphor, that of a powerful and merciless prowler on the Chinese
land.
Impressing the counterpart, showing determination, frightening him is another type of
tactics used. It is “killing the chicken to warn the monkey”. The false concession is also
a way to gain a lot over the other. This is done by offering something of a low cost for
oneself, trading upon foreigner’s ignorance of its real value. it is “giving away a brick to
earn a piece of jade”.
Dividing the opposite side by playing on possible disagreements among its various
members is another tactic commonly used. The purpose is to sow dissension by discussing
separately with each foreign negotiator and thus “take advantage of a fire to commit a
robbery”, here to get an otherwise unexpected benefit.
To raise a guilt feeling in the foreigner by making him responsible for some wrong
doing, misbehavior or so-called offenses that his company has supposedly formerly done,
is another way to get a positional advantage. To plan on the assumption that he will feel
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indebted to his Chinese counterpart is “to borrow a corpse for the return of the soul”, to
recall a past event to serve a present purpose.
The "mobile warfare” is also based on tactics of harassment, destabilization, exhaustion
and squashing. All of them having some similarities with the teachings from traditional
war books such as “The three Kingdoms” “Outlaws of the Marsh” or Sun Zi works (a war
adviser in ancient China). Harassment consists in submerging the other under a host of
questions so that he loses his references. Destabilizing the other is achieved by brutally
changing the style of the negotiation, from a smooth mode to a tough stance, then back to
the smooth mode with no apparent cause. The exhaustion tactics are designed to reach a
certain level of physical and psychological weariness of the opponent so that to surrender
on some important issue. This is done, for instance, by fighting with the last energy over
the smallest detail, coming back endlessly to the same questions, taking turns if necessary.Squashing tactics are meant to crush the claims and expectations of the other party by
making offers at a very low level. The foreigner can be made desperate if, in addition, the
Chinese side insists on the fact that it does not really need to quickly reach an agreement,
that it can do without, that it has an alternative option.
Usually the final purpose of the Chinese is not like in the classical chess game, to
destroy pieces from the other side until he collapses and thus get a total victory. It is
more inspired by the game of Go whose point is to secure an advantage on the other, to
score more points. Maneuvers to reach this goal consist in holding encircling rings,
organizing chains, creating areas of influence, controlling territories.
The second type of traditional way to conceive a negotiation applies to an encounter
between “civilized people”. A barbarian has been sinizied if he is considered to understand
some of the particulars of Chinese culture and possibly has adopted some of them likeeating dog meat and drinking mao tai. Then, he gets access to the category of the “civilized
people” and the Chinese negotiation strategy he has to face is entirely different from the
former one. It is a kind of “ joint quest ” whose point is to rather negotiate the construction
of the problem than to just agree on a solution. It is first of all an orientation for action
and a state of mind. One might see the influence of Taoism because it strives at establishing
a balance among various elements of the game, at building a stabilizing harmony within
this uncertain encounter that is negotiation. The conciliatory spirit that prevails over such
a relation promotes a very specific principle of fairness, that of a symmetry modified
according to the inequality of the needs that should be met.
The major means used for this joint quest is a highly ritually controlled activity, with
well defined formal limits, where the subtle tools of perception and decoding do at their
highest, like while making a medical diagnosis in ancient China. The pulse was the only
indicator and the doctor was able to differentiate among nine distinct pulses in order to
deduce anything wrong with the patient’s health.
In such a negotiation situation, the point is no more to optimize one’s gains on a laid
out itinerary but to build the road itself. The rules of the game are the shared values
necessary to cant out the task paying respect to the Confucian precept according to which
“without common principles, it is useless to discuss” (Confucius XL, p. 40).
The joint quest is a long and exacting work of exploration which gives rise to a lot of
impatience with the Western negotiators. Its cognitive nature disconcert the Foreigner
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who rather expects getting into a give and take process. The application of the Confucian
principle of harmony requires the reaching of a balanced state through successive
adjustments excluding any disclosure of conflicting interests. Negotiator’s positions
cannot be made explicit without infringing those basic rules. Joint research is done through
implicit communications and allusive discourses to avoid exposing the other’s face. In
addition, elementary rules of politeness imply that one should not openly show any
impatience because it would be understood as a loss of control on oneself, meaning a
loss of face. This process is a highly time consuming and painstaking exercise.
In traditional China, only devils move on a straight line. Effectiveness requires
“Slipping into the on-going, oscillating, and flowing course of events. It implies a
proper judgment of the auspicious moment for a passive use of their process” (Jullien
1992). The major point of the joint quest is not to strike a deal on the substance of thenegotiation but to conceive a puzzle, an unknown figure, with some of the pieces given
and others to be created. What will be built is a metaphoric game for whom both parties
have to establish rules of functioning.
The Chinese concept of negotiation combines these two approaches, the one that elicits
clearly observable effects and the one that never reveals itself as such. If the foreigner is
not able to establish this distinction while negotiating, he or she runs the risk to operate
on the wrong repertoire and face considerable difficulties if not total failure.
Process
The core of the negotiation is the interaction between the actors. Process is made of moves or tactics of all kinds designed to divide a resource, to exchange information and
concessions or to create new options. Process is normally the variable that produces and
explains the outcome. It noticeably varies from one culture to another.
Usually, the process is divided into several stages, each of them related to the
implementation of a distinctive rationale such as consensus-seeking and concession-
making, integrative and distributive bargaining (Walton and McKersie 1965), value creating
and value claiming (Lax and Sebenius 1986), formula and details approach (Zartman 1978;
Zartman and Berman 1982). For negotiations in China, the process can be subdivided into
four phases: opening moves, assessment, end-game, and implementation phase
(Frankenstein 1986). The first phase exploratory and focused on relationship building, is
for many foreigners at the same time something very specific of China and a major
difficulty. It is a long lasting and apparently unproductive stage, because it does not enable
the parties to move ahead on any substantive issue. No doubt, if someone comes to China
to get a quick solution and ends up with a protracted game of relationship building, a lot
of frustration will appear on his side. In fact, in China, one has to know his counterpart
before developing any significant business with him. In the Chinese tradition, managing
relationships is an art, a sign of civilization. Any attempt to bypass this stage can only
lead to mutual misunderstanding, personal offense and the paralysis of the whole process.
Rituals plays also an essential part in negotiations. A ritual can be defined as any formal
action that carries a symbolic quality. Ritual action is imbued with shared social meanings
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and is performed through a kind of ceremonial. Viewed as often senseless by many
Westerners, rituals are in China the warrant of the quality of the relationship, for in the
People’s Republic as well as in the Middle Kingdom, it is the ability to perform rituals
that distinguishes a civilized person. Ritualized behaviors in a negotiation are many :
exchange of business cards held with the two hands as an offering, welcome gifts, banquets
in formal dress following a specific etiquette including speeches and toasts, rules of
precedence during meetings, ways to address someone, handling of symbols and numbers
(often meaningful too), the agreement signature ceremony. The Chinese negotiator will
assess their counterparts according to their ability to perform rituals in a satisfactory
way and will make his opinion on the possibilities of developing with him a fruitful relation.
Thus, rituals from an empty shell becomes a structuring element that functionally
contributes to the negotiation dynamics.Concession making is one of the basis sub-processes in negotiation. If a concession is
an objective fact, it is interpreted as a somehow cultural origin. In a “mobile warfare”
setting, a Chinese would surely take it as a sign of weakness, a proof that being tough,
insistent, clever pays. Then, he would go ahead with the same tactic and seek another
concession. In a “joint-quest” concessions are mainly gestures, moves to meet the
concerns of the other party. In that case, that would be reciprocated.
The negotiator’s behaviors are value related and what can be seen as legitimate in one
culture can be totally rejected in another culture. For instance, not sticking to one’s word
or deceiving the other party about a deadline can be viewed from very different angles,
for being polite is in some cultures more important than telling the truth.
Adler (1986), drawing upon Fisher and Ury (1981) provides a list of 15 tactics
considered as “dirty tricks” in the North American culture. Some of them would never beunderstood as “dirty tricks” in the Chinese culture but rather as common practice. For
instance, “too little eye contact” does not mean in China the launching of a psychological
warfare but simply a polite and modest attitude which is the sign of a good education. No
private place to talk does not either mean that the Chinese negotiator is trying to put his
foreign counterpart in a stressful situation. In the Chinese culture, there is very little
privacy and a negotiation is a rather public discussion as much of the life of people in
professional settings. Even a hotel room is rather viewed as a public place.
Another example is “extreme demands”. In fact, what is highly exaggerated in one
culture, can be seen as reasonable in another one, especially if the foreign seller is viewed
as rich. In addition, such a stance allows room for concessions and provides opportunities
to contribute to equalize both parties’ condition, thus meeting an essential value in China.
“Reopening old demands” is something very common in China. It does not mean that
the Chinese negotiator is trying to play some trick but it rather means that he has another
understanding of negotiation and that he has a strong concern for the issue on which he
goes back.
“Take it or leave it” often comes in the end of the negotiation. It is in China, as in many
other places, a way to indicate that one has gone as far as he could with concession-making.
In any case, it is definitely not seen as a dirty trick but as a very normal and decent, even
if a little tough, behavior in the Chinese culture. Conversely, some actions and moves
considered as quite common in the West would be viewed as unscrupulous or abnormal
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practices by Chinese negotiators. Among them, emotional outbursts, face and reputation
challenges, embarrassment of the other side, escalating demands, direct threats are part
of the panoply of non-acceptable behaviors.
The way behaviors are perceived and understood is also highly cultural. A significant
example is given in the letter sent, at the beginning of the century, by a Chinese traveling
in the West to one of his friends. “I have seen two white men meeting on the deck of a
ship. Each one offers his right hand and holds the other’s. I thought they were trying to
throw each other into the water, for I believed they were engaging themselves in a fight. In
fact, it was their way to greet each other: they were friends” (Chih 1962, p. 203). Thus, in
those times, it was just inconceivable for a Chinese to see shaking hands as an expression
of politeness or friendship. It is culture which provides the meaning of the gestures.
Communication is another major component of the negotiation process. Itseffectiveness may be considerably affected by cross-cultural dissimilarities. When
communication is indirect, content ambiguous, feedback scarce, negotiation has to become
mainly a decoding exercise in which culture and context provide the two main keys to an
accurate perception of signals sent by the other party. Differences do not only lie in what
is said but in how it is said and also in the social context of the discussions.
The meaning of the Chinese smile is an interesting case with which to illustrate the
complexity of the task, and at the same time its necessity because from an objective fact
one can derive opposite conclusions. A Chinese smile can be perceived as a mask of
politeness, an opaque wall behind which one observes the other. It can express cooperation
or denial, joy or anger, certainty or total ignorance, trust or distrust, pleasure or
embarrassment. Only some knowledge of the Chinese culture and the reference to the
current context of the smile may enable to get access to its real meaning. It is a necessaryinformation in a negotiation where signals are often scarce.
The discourse itself follows a different logic according to cultures. Kaplan (1966),
analyzing the Anglo-Saxon way of reasoning, deduces that it develops linearly, following
an inductive process from fact to conclusion or a deductive approach starting from a
general principle that will be applied to particular cases. By contrast, the Oriental argument
development has a “beating around the bush” structure, including a lot of digressions and
moves slowly by concentric circles to the real core of the subject.
Cross cultural differences in the use of time may also affect the negotiation process.
In the West, time is conceived as a commodity that has a cost and should be used with
parsimony. In contrast, in the Orient, tinie is rather viewed as an unlimited resource like
the air. As a consequence, time pressure will have very little effect on Oriental negotiation
behavior. As it has been said by a Chinese negotiator to his Western counterpart who was
pressing him to quickly come to an agreement: “Your technology, China has been able to
do without for 5,000 years. We can wait for a few more years”.
Humor may be used as a facilitator but what is funny in a culture may be merely viewed
as nonsense or as a quite unpleasant remark in another culture. Differences existing
between, “Voltairian irony” and the critical distantiation conventionally called “English
humor”, are more than a matter of shade, but reveal intellectual constructs of a very
distinct nature. For instance, self criticism is simply a polite way to give face to the
counterpart, not a purposive way to entertain him.
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Outcome
The outcome is a function of. the other key elements of negotiation and, as a consequence,
the influence of culture on these elements will indirectly bear upon it. A choice is made
among the various types of possible agreements, through the values that culture
emphasizes. Fairness is one of the values which operates as a driving force in this selection.
According to the principle of fairness that is applied, the zone of potential agreements
may be modified and the global value of the game changed.
There are also more direct linkages between cultures and outcome. For instance,
Western negotiators prefer an agreement in which each word has been carefully assessed
and where all possible eventualities have been anticipated. Chinese may do with more
loosely formulated agreements, simply stating general principles. Thus, a joint venturecontract in China conceived by the Western side can be several hundred pages long,
whereas the Chinese would easily do with a ten-page length. What is included in the
outcome, is far from always being put in a written form and varies according to cultures.
Besides the usual provisions, numbers and figures that are mentioned in a business contract,
Westerners consider that the time spent (or saved), reaching the agreement is part of the
outcome. Chinese systematically put trust and quality of the relationship as major
components of the outcome.
Fundamentally, to the Chinese the idea of a written contract is a tangible proof of a
lack of trust and demonstrates that the conditions for cooperation are not fully fulfilled.
The very essence of the transaction is legal instead of being relational.
Culture may also influence how the parties interpret the outcome that has been attained.
In Western societies, an agreement is a final decision carved on stone that has to bestrictly implemented. In the Chinese society, an agreement is a written paper that was
valid the day it was signed but which may be modified if the external conditions prevailing
at the time of the signature have changed. Signing a contract is definitely not closing a
deal but substantiating a relationship. It is just one episode in an ongoing relationship
(Pye 1992, p. 49) and the negotiation may start again the next day.
To be concluded, as previously mentioned, agreements normally have to meet some
norm of fairness. Perceived fairness can be narrowly linked with cultural differences
(Roth et al. 1991). Behind such a concept one can find different, sometimes conflicting
principles of justice narrowly connected with social values. Some cultures resort to
precedent, other favor equality of concessions or gains as a basic norm of fairness; others
prefer imbalance gains distributed according to the specific needs of each party, as the
Chinese do. Both sides may not agree on which principle should be applied. Typically,
principles in a negotiation work either as a strong cement that get people together or as a
major obstacle to any agreement.
Once an agreement has been reached, the point becomes to make sure both parties will
respect its provisions. In the Western mind, this is done through institutional mechanisms
such as courts, international arbitration. In the Chinese culture this attitude is simply
viewed as a sign of distrust and would rather resort to additional negotiation or mediation
in case of litigation. The legal system does not guarantee the enforcement of written
contracts but the quality of the relation does. As underlined by Adler (1986 p. 516),
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people honor contracts if they like and respect the people with whom they are doing
business.
Rather than abiding by principles, the Chinese would pay more attention to the
consequences of not respecting what has been decided and consider the related cost as
the first criteria in making a decision. If he is himself victim of someone who does not
implement all the terms of the contract, he would first assess the losses and if these are
relatively small, he would not protest in order not to look mean and expose himself to
losing face.
Rather than looking for an arbitration as it is done in the West, Chinese tradition favors
mediation, for its takes much more care of social-cultural constraints. Nowadays, as it
used to be in ancient time, as shown by Wall and Blum (1991), mediation practice still
operate on a rich and broad range of actions.If the matter is not a business negotiation but a peace settlement between countries
for instance, again a cultural disjunction takes place. In Western cultures, peace is
conceived as a state of absence of conflict. In Chinese culture, a peaceful situation needs
to be characterized by additional features such as the prominence of a principle of harmony
and the establishment of a balanced relational system. Thus, where a Westerner would
perceive a successful restoration of peace, a Chinese might only see a situation of non-open
aggression. If both sides were at war, unexpected initiative may happen after some time.
Levels of cultural effects of negotiation
Culture impacts on negotiation in a number of ways eliciting various types of consequencesat four different levels: cognition, beliefs, behaviors, identity. As underlined by Rubin
and Sander (1991), some of the most important effects of culture are felt even before the
negotiation starts. This is typically the case with these four levels where, silently and
unconsciously for the actors, culture leaves its invisible trail.
Cognition relates to ways of perceiving, understanding what is at stake in a negotiation:
goods, money, power, technology, status, face concerns. Cognition also relates to how
the negotiation is perceived in itself, the nature of the game that the actors are playing:
for instance a strength test, a relationship, a search for justice, a palabra, a game of
seduction, a construction exercise. Cognition also concerns what one party knows about
the other party. What are the driving perceptions operating: stereotypes, historical memory,
past personal experiences. Stereotyping by bringing together various traits reduces
cognitive complexity to simple terms, easier to handle during the preparation of the action.
Cognitive aspects play a central part in problem framing and subsequently when making
choices in terms of strategy and behaviors. When Magellan, in the year 1521, accomplished
the first circumnavigation around the world, reaching an island in the Pacific ocean, he
met the king and offered him presents. He wanted to establish relationships on an equal
basis and explained that he wanted to treat him as a brother, but the king sharply objected
the idea and told he could only be considered as a father. In this early cultural encounter,
what was at stake, was precisely the framing of the relationship to be subsequently
developed. Concerning a more actual type of encounter such as those elicited in doing
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business in China, what is viewed as a conflictual negotiation by Chinese may not be seen
as such by Americans. Similarly, what is often seen by American negotiators as a delaying
device can simply be for a Chinese the time needed to know better the other party.
The general approach to the negotiation is typically conditioned by actors’ culture. To
the cartesian-analytical approach implemented in the West can be opposed the holistic
approach of the Chinese. The first approach aims to segmenting the problem and solving
the difficulties as and when required ; the second tends to assess the entire situation and
to learn how to accommodate the relative influence of the many forces involved (Redding
1990). These conflicting approaches produce highly negative effects because the point is
not to meet way in the course of negotiation, but already to put the process on its tracks.
In that case, each party moves on a different track.
“When you will have understood the whole, then you will understand the parts” asChinese wisdom says. Originally, the holistic approach finds its origin in the Chinese
writing itself in its initial form, that of a pictogram. To capture the meaning of a character
requires the complete representation of the object. Thus, the Chinese develops a global
perception of reality, a sense of the whole including, in the case of a negotiation, situational
aspects far from the negotiation table. A Chinese meal perfectly illustrates the holistic
approach. Dishes do not come one after the other but are all displayed at the same time
on the table, and starting from the perception of the whole meal, the participants make
their choices and organize their own sequencing.
Thinking is often built up from metaphors that are concrete expressions that capture
reality with its ambiguities and contradictions. Metaphors are culturally bound and should
be understood in terms of what culturally shapes them, in the culture of the actor. One
way to capture the cultural dimension is to take an example that expresses the Chineseapproach to negotiation with the help of a metaphor directly drawn from a real context
such as the bicycle circulation in Beijing. This metaphor, while showing the tacit
coordination and non verbal exchanges that occur among the thousands of Chinese cycling
around the city, reveals a number of essential features of the Chinese way of negotiating
(Faure 1995b).
Language, a typical cultural product, is a major instrument in cognitive activities.
Problems are necessarily defined within existing categories. As commonly stated, if your
only tool is a hammer, then every problem is a nail. Labeling is, thus, a major cultural
activity which conditions and, to some extent, structures social action.
Hidden values may be found behind words givin them very different connotations. For
instance, the term “compromise” has a positive acceptation in English. In others cultures,
it carries a strong negative judgment such as giving up all morals.
Attributions also play an important role because perceptions are narrowly linked to
behaviors explanations. Cultures strongly differ in the focus of the attributions they make
(Miller 1984). Individualistic cultures such as the American tend to make attributions an
internal disposition (for instance, moral qualities or weaknesses), whereas collectivist
cultures such as the Chinese tend to make more use of contextual judgments (for instance,
external circumstances).
The second level, that of beliefs, puts forth a set of values rooted in the cultural
background of the negotiator. These values, expressing what is desirable and what is not,
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208 FAURE
operate as instrumental goals and directly orient the behavior of the actors. If only national
cultures were at play, as a set of shared values, culture would generate a rather predictable
pattern of negotiating behavior. With other cultures such as the corporate culture and the
professional culture, the assumption of homogeneity looses its relevance and common
values become more difficult to discern. Paradoxes and inconsistencies may start taking
a large place. Combined with personality variables within strategic behaviors, the final
attitude of the negotiator would become much less predictable, if ever.
When both parties stick to conflicting beliefs, unless these are never disclosed as it
can be done through indirect games, the whole negotiation process may be strongly
affected as there is no way to divide values and no reason to give up one’s own beliefs.
Both negotiation teams operate along highly contrasted rationales. For instance,
Chinese culture, is based on an “associating logic” that does not systematically opposevalues one another to show what is desirable but lays down complementary relationships
between those values. Like the “yin” and the “yang” in the Taoist philosophy, black and
white are not opposed; no more than socialism and market economy in today’s China.
Beliefs also refer to ethical issues and here again considerable gaps take place between
Chinese and Westerners in terms of values. In the Chinese tradition, ruse is a form of
wisdom, the pre-eminence of smartness, cleverness over strength and power. Fundamental
books displaying Chinese values such as the “Three Kingdoms” lengthily illustrate this
idea and are still used as educational tools. This is why now Chinese keep copying
shamelessly Western products and through this type of conduct, not only enjoy economic
benefits but gain merits for having so well served their fatherland. Technology follows
often a similar fate when transfers to joint ventures because, far from being protected as
stipulated in the contract, it can be widely disseminated to competing Chinese enterprises.If cognition refers to the type of game to be played and beliefs deal with the goals and
the rules of the game, behaviors concern the way to play. The negotiator chooses within
a range of acceptable behaviors and defensible arguments what he thinks appropriate to
his task. Tactics such as “imposing a deadline” or issuing direct threats are rather part of
the American culture. The Chinese culture would better be illustrated by the use, for
instance, of the “salami tactic” (nibbling) or just keeping silent and not answering. Each
culture has some sense of what level of risk should be taken and this level can be extremely
diverse (Faure 1995b). For instance, the uncertainty avoidance scale, on which Hofstede
(1980) ranks 53 cultures, goes from 8 to 112. Cultural learning is an ongoing process
throughout the interaction and the experience gained in the course of the negotiation may
influence back cognition.
Under the heading of “negotiating styles”, a number of publications address the
behavioral aspects of negotiation in putting the emphasis on cultural differences. They
describe typical ways in which negotiators behave when they are, for instance, Japanese
(Van Zandt 1970; Blaker 1977), Chinese (Pye 1982), Arabs (Alghanim 1976). Conclusions
were sometimes drawn in terms of advice to the practitioner such as “do not call your
Chinese counterpart by his first name”, “while sitting in a tent do not show the sole of
your shoes to your Arab counterpart”, “do not give a slap on the shoulder of a Japanese to
show him sympathy”, “when you meet a Latin-American negotiator, do not suggest getting
down to the work before getting well acquainted”. The attention of the reader is drawn on
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209THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF NEGOTIATION
misperception, miscommunication and cross-cultural misunderstanding that often occur
in international encounters.
These often anecdotal observations may sometimes be useful to the practitioner but
bear limitations as they do not very much help to understand the culture of the negotiator
across the table and, in any case, do not tell much about what happens on the intercultural
side of the relationship. The major obstacle to a productive negotiation at this level is the
behavioral disadjustment produced by the influence of the two other levels, the cognitive
one and that of beliefs. For instance, the highly normative thinking generated by the Chinese
culture (Granet 1950) leads to make judgments concerning the foreign counterpart’s
behavior and personality. The classical way to handle difficult situations, here those
disadjustments, not to face the risk of a destruction of the relation, is to use indirect
proceedings, to resort to allusive talks, to make an abundant use of understatements,metaphors, meaningful silences.
Identity is the last level of intervention, the deepest and most difficult to deal with.
The consciousness that a negotiator develops of his own culture contributes to build an
inner sense of identity. If a behavior is put into question or criticized, it can be perceived
as an attack against one’s own culture, subsequently eliciting a feeling of a threat to one’s
identity which may entail defensive reactions. Such a defensive attitude often permeates
the whole negotiation, inducing a paralyzing effect.
Such a process can be highly critical in some negotiations even when they apparently
involve only business issues. When identity is not built by differentiation but mainly
through opposition to the other party, any change likely to reduce the antagonistic
relationship and to improve the conditions for a settlement may appear as a betrayal.
Modifying the elements that form one’s identity is a denial of oneself and can be viewed,at the symbolic level, as a destructive attempt.
The role of culture is narrowly associated with the intensity of conflict. If conflict
increases, so does the role of culture (Faure and Rubin 1995, p. 216). When the conflict
deepens and reaches the identity issue, it turns to cultural stakes, and negotiation becomes
a game in which culture is used as a sword and a shield.
In a business negotiation with foreigners, the Chinese do not tend to see their
counterpart as representatives of a company, coming to serve its interests. They view
them first as nationals representing their own country and accountable for it. Such a
perception drastically modifies the fundamentals of the negotiation, for it introduces
new issues. This is why, for instance, a Chinese negotiator in the course of the discussion
may refer to a historical litigation more than a century old.
Chinese negotiators nowadays like in old times demonstrate what Kissinger (1979)
calls the “middle Kingdom Syndrome”. Foreigners are no more than Barbarians coming
to pay tribute to the center of the world and of civilization. They have to be received and
treated accordingly. If they do not behave as expected, it is seen as a disruptive attempt of
the basic relationship as framework and a challenge in role assignments and identities. A
suggestion supported by an argument such as this is the way it is done in America runs the
risk of not only being counterproductive but of being felt as a blow the Chinese identity.
An aggravating factor comes often on top of this, the Sino-centrism which, combined
with the extreme Chinese sensitiveness, makes all issues cropping up during the negotiation
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210 FAURE
reframed in comparative terms. Then, any critical attitude from the foreign side may be
easily interpreted as a denial of identity. This observation applies to a number of negotiated
issues such as the salary of the Chinese deputy general manager, equal access to foreign
schools, technology protection, force majeure in case of nationalization of private
assets.
The importance given to face-saving in the Chinese culture entails a multiplying effect
to identity stakes. “Face-maintenance” can be defined as the “desire to project an image
of capability and strength or conversely to avoid projecting an image of incapability,
weakness, or foolishness” (Brown 1977). The concept of face-maintenance applies when
the negotiator is exposed to the other party, but also to an audience, to a third party or to
his constituents. Open proceedings increase the likelihood of having to resort to
face-maintenance devices (Dupont and Faure 1991).Opportunities to be concerned by face-maintenance, face-saving or face-restoration
are many because in a relationship of a competitive nature, sometimes even highly
antagonistic, negotiators must constantly not only avoid objective losses but also protect
themselves against any risk of being humiliated. Face-maintenance may incur a high
economic cost. For instance, a protracted deadlock leading both parties to waste market
opportunities can find its origin in the Chinese concern not to lose face in mentioning
the difficulties the Chinese side has met and cannot overcome, or in submitting itself to
the requirements of the foreign side (Faure et al. 1998). Difficult to grasp, highly complex
to manipulate, identity aspects remain the untouchable core of culture.
Conclusion
Three categories of factors directly influence the negotiation process: the structural-
organizational factors, the strategic factors, the cultural factors. None of these categories
is totally absent in an international negotiation. If the strategic dimension is by definition
of a universal importance, in China the two other dimensions take a considerable acuteness
(Faure, forthcoming). Structural-organizational factors such as the legal framework, the
role of public administration, the political guardianship, the information and decision-
making systems are not without any relation to the social culture that has either produced
them or accepted them. The cultural factors play a determinant role at several levels of
the negotiation process and, for a practitioner, to ignore such a reality is to run the risk of
conducting all his approach to failure.
Any cross-cultural exploration begins with the experience of being lost, as emphasized
by Hall. However most often, it is only a temporary stage. Predictors of success have
been put forward for people working abroad in another culture (Martin 1989). Among
them, the following apply to negotiators: the ability to develop social relations; the
willingness to communicate; skills in conflict resolution; patience as the ability to suspend
judgment; intercultural sensitivity. These predictors are certainly quite valid in China but
if one wants to get more specific about Chinese culture and negotiator’s behavior, several
aspects should be emphasized: awareness and understanding, empathy, anticipation,
uncertainty management and creativity.
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culture. However, again, it can be highly problematic to implement such a dimension for
the above mentioned reasons.
The challenges a foreign negotiator in China is confronted with, are not so rnuch of a
cross-cultural nature but actually intercultural. If it is already difficult to foresee the
other’s behavior, it is even harder to imagine what will come out of this uncertain encounter
between two cultures and what will be the dominating rationale of this cultural
combination.
Considering Chinese culture, the foreign negotiators often waver between fascination
and stubborn resistance. Fascination leads them to implement an immersion rationale
aiming to absorb a number of Chinese cultural traits. Resistance is the expression of the
development with foreigners of a siege mentality that incites them to shelter in a cultural
ghetto, the protective cluster made with their own nationals, within the turbulent and hardChinese environment.
The foreign negotiator comes up against an additional difficulty because China has
produced a “fortress culture”, at the example of the Great Wall protecting the country
from external influences. By contrast, Hongkong has, for instance, worked out a “bridge
culture” that lives on traffic, interactions and information flows.
Another challenge for the foreign negotiator at the stage of preparing for action is to
make an accurate distinction between what belongs, in the behavior of the Chinese
counterpart, to the cultural register and what refers to the strategic dimension. This should
be viewed as a high stake, especially in case of deadlock when it becomes necessary to
make a diagnosis. According to the nature of the deadlock, a specific treatment will be
devised and implemented, for the means to overcome a cultural stalemate have nothing to
do with those required to effectively deal with a strategic deadlock.The persistent lack of feedback from the Chinese side added to the indirect way to
play the game, makes such a diagnosis difficult to carry out and the final outcome rather
uncertain. A clever Chinese negotiator may thus make his foreign counterpart believe
that he is acting according to social habits and traditions, when in fact he is playing with
these strategically. Again, the foreign negotiator has to carefully assess which one is the
driving force behind the Chinese behavior and to this purpose find significant indicators.
Among the major necessary skills for a negotiator entering the Chinese market are
observing and decoding. In a research, it provides data for the first stage, the description:
When, where, how? What are the relevant elements of the situation? A cultural training
also enables the researcher and the practitioner to reach the second stage, the explanation.
Taking into account the cultural, organizational context and considering the actor’s
strategies, what is the reason behind such an event, why such an outcome has been achieved,
or why such a goal has not been attained?
To predict what should happen is a far more difficult exercise. Negotiation does not
belong to deterministic approaches and what makes it always exciting to follow makes
extremely difficult any forecast on a possible result. Finally, to prescribe a strategy or a
move in a negotiation raises the same obstacles and risks. Furthermore, this last level of
intervention requires that each side knows precisely what he wants, which is far from
being always the case in China. It also requires that the Chinese side accepts to let its real
goals known, which seldom happens.
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213THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF NEGOTIATION
Here lies the vital stakes to be met for a productive development of the negotiation.
For it is by providing relevant answers to the various issues just stated that the degree
of effectiveness of the negotiation system can be raised by discovering com-
plementarities and by transforming this cultural encounter into a synergistic and creative
interaction.
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