Deck 9: Intercultural Negotiation Teams

Question 1

Describe how three nonverbal factors--site/space,agenda,and use of time--affect negotiation outcomes.

Answer 1

In all three factors,being the host is an advantage. When the host culture is unfamiliar to the other side,the guests face challenges in the environment. The host is on familiar ground;the guest is not. The host sets the agenda,especially for non-official negotiating time such as social events. The host team communicates messages it wants to get across through the entertainment-or absence of it-of the guests. The host can also determine when negotiation begins and ends,regardless of pre-planned agendas. The use of time is another powerful tool of the host team.

Question 2

Question-asking by the Chinese is not a learning method,so frequently it is done not to acquire information-that is typical of the Canadians-but rather to verify what they have been told already.

Answer 2

Not answer

Question 3

Discuss differences in the roles taken by members of negotiating teams from individualist cultures and compare them with roles on teams from collectivist cultures. In particular,refer to roles of leader-surrogate,suggestion-maker and consultant in a collectivist-culture team,and skeptic,recorder,and gatekeeper in a team from an individualist culture.

Answer 3

Members of negotiating teams perform a variety of roles which are the result of cultural values. Collectivist cultures place importance on protecting the face of the leader. In situations in which the leader's face may be exposed to slight or damage,the surrogate leader can substitute and take any face-threatening communication instead. Another value in collectivist cultures is harmony,so instead of confrontational disagreement,collectivists engage in suggestion-making. It is positive and face-giving,rather than negative critique. Because collectivists understand the ranking of authority to give appropriate opinions,some team members are probably silent at meetings. However,their agreement is important,so the consultant role allows them to participate in side conversations with the consultant. These three roles help consolidate the members in a unified team. They are unnecessary,however,in individualist teams.
Individualist cultures value successful outcomes of their teamwork. The skeptic challenges others' ideas and invites the others to probe them for weaknesses. The recorder keeps track of who is responsible for what,since individualist cultures value and expect individual performances. The gatekeeper's role is to ensure everyone gives an opinion,and to prevent some voices being drowned out by other,louder ones. These roles are unnecessary in collectivist cultures,but lead to strong outcomes in individualist results-oriented cultures.

Question 4

Discuss expectations for negotiation outcomes. The three components you should address are goals,notions of fairness,and the three outcomes.

Question 5

Discuss how the team orientation-strategic or synergistic-and the criteria for selecting members (high status,special expertise,translator)reflect cultural values.

Question 6

The hierarchy that ranks team members in Chinese culture was not clear to the Canadians,who viewed themselves as two equals. That,in turn,puzzled the Chinese.

Question 7

Negotiation is a special communication task that has specific characteristics and factors. Six factors include focus,honor,verbal style (direct or indirect),form,emotion,and silence.Discuss two with reference to two contrasted cultures.

Question 8

Define and discuss the four phases in negotiation. Use examples to show how cultures view each phase differently.

Question 9

The Chinese value relationships;the Canadians value results. The Chinese kept asking about representatives of Canwall whom they had met before and were unsure of their ground to meet the two unfamiliar negotiators.

Question 10

Permanent group membership,including membership in a relationship with another organization,meant certain communication behavior to the Chinese.They value harmony,which means giving face,avoiding displaying emotions such as anger that can cause loss of face,and being acutely aware of what words and phrases/questions can cause shame.

Question 11

The Chinese had an interdependent self-construal;team members viewed themselves as part of a single unit made up of the individual people on the team,who in turn represented a larger unit. They believed themselves to be part of a collective.Canadians had an independent self-construal and came from an individualist culture. They acted as independent spokesmen for their company,and each had a viewpoint that was expressed.

Question 12

How can knowledge of culture help a negotiating team reach a successful outcome? Using cultural values from the dimensions you have already learned,discuss the negotiating behavior in the Canwell case.

Question 13

Discuss argumentation styles for persuasion that vary from culture to culture. Use specific examples from different cultures.

Question 14

In the Canwall case,approximately ten of the 24 cultural dimensions from Chapters 3 and 4 came into play. Discuss at least 5 of them,explaining the Chinese or Canadian position on each cultural dimension.

Question 15

Cultures that emphasize relationships may negotiate differently from cultures that emphasize results.

Question 16

Access to authority is mediated in Chinese culture,so the authority figures with the most power were not actually present at the negotiations all the time. They had the greatest face to lose,after all. The two Canadians,on the other hand,had full authority to enter into an agreement that met Canwall's goals.

Question 17

The Chinese perform tasks simultaneously,which seemed to the Canadians to be rudeness.The Chinese answered the telephone or left the room in response to some call in the middle of the negotiations. They were paying attention to other important relationships but did not feel their developing relationship with the Canadians was harmed.
6 Form is very important to the Chinese,whereas the Canadians have a suspicion that form is a mask for insincerity.

Question 18

Negotiation boils down to mere differences in style;approaches to negotiating are value-free.

Question 19

The Chinese appeared more flexible about uncertainty and were able to explore a relationship with Canwall without tying it to a deal. The Canadians had less willingness to tolerate uncertainty,and indeed had convinced themselves they had successfully closed the deal by the time they left China.

Question 20

With the developing relationships,the Chinese looked for a chance to practice unequal obligation.

Question 21

In individualist cultures,team members can fill between 5 and 9 roles.

Question 22

All negotiating teams want to diffuse conflict.

Question 23

Which statement is NOT true of negotiating?

A) it is value free
B) it is a special communication task
C) it occurs when two or more groups have common interests and disagreements about achieving them
D) it is not static but is dynamic

Question 24

Organizations form teams in order to have better results for their strategies and goals than they would get from individuals.

Question 25

Members can be chosen for a negotiating team because they are relatives of someone of high status.

Question 26

Skilled Western negotiators use a technique called "enlarging the pie"-adding items to what is already on the table as a way of enabling the other side to win,too.

Question 27

It appears that members of cultures in which harmony has a high priority will negotiate with frequent reference to what has already been agreed.

Question 28

A team is composed of two or more people who interact and coordinate their work to
achieve a shared goal.

Question 29

A record of cooperative achievement shows relational effectiveness,according to some scholars.

Question 30

Businesspeople around the world agree a sequential approach to items is the way to negotiate.

Question 31

In collectivist cultures,team members can fill between 10 and 15 roles.

Question 32

The role of consultant-a person who confers with other team members outside of meetings to ensure their opinions are addressed-is a typical role on teams from individualist cultures.

Question 33

Everybody around a negotiating table understands compromise: each party gives a little and gains a little,in a fifty-fifty agreement that is fair to both sides.

Question 34

Negotiators who are guests in another country have the advantages of convenience and well being,since they are treated specially.

Question 35

Own-goal concerns prevail in the communication of collectivist-culture teams.

Question 36

Translators do not need to know the terminology of an industry,as long as they have a general competence in the country's official language.

Question 37

Individuals value being on teams because they want to develop a record of cooperative achievement.

Question 38

Note-taking and keeping a record of all that has been said and decided is not as important in collectivist teams.

Question 39

Organizations employ teams frequently,although they do not see effective decision-making with teams.

Question 40

In considering task effectiveness,we can see that often communication among members of teams from collectivist cultures often leads to other-face concerns being considered in choice of topic for discussion.

Question 41

Expectations for negotiation outcomes may include:

A) long-term relationships
B) winning
C) written contracts
D) all of the above

Question 42

How communication is worded in negotiation can affect outcomes because:

A) negotiators may become offended if they believe their group's honor is being criticized
B) negotiators may become offended if they believe enough attention is being paid to correct form
C) negotiators may become offended if words are too long
D) all of the above

Question 43

Which of the following is NOT discussed in Chapter 9 as one of the three areas of team effectiveness,from a team member's view?

A) personal effectiveness (sense of satisfaction)
B) task effectiveness (achieving a satisfactory outcome from the team's work)
C) relational effectiveness (achieving cooperation that enables members to work together in the future)
D) global effectiveness (achieving an organizational presence in international environments)

Question 44

In the case study that begins Chapter 9,the Chinese emphasized

A) getting results
B) giving their team members equal speaking time
C) establishing trust for a sound relationship
D) speaking through interpreters

Question 45

When collectivist and individualist teams negotiate:

A) both teams,regardless of culture,rank issues the same
B) both teams have the same attitude about using time efficiently
C) both teams have a desire to "win"
D) both teams begin with generalities and continue using general references

Question 46

Which of the following is NOT a role played by team members in collectivist-culture teams?

A) leader
B) skeptic
C) implementer
D) specialist

Question 47

The physical location of negotiations can impact their outcome because:

A) the host team has an advantage: all their resources are available to them.
B) the guest team has an advantage: they are free from the stress of the demands of daily work
C) the host team is exhausted from preparations,which gives the guest team an advantage
D) the guest team may have adjustments to make for time,climate,and food,which puts the host team at a disadvantage

Question 48

Members of negotiating teams are chosen for these reasons,EXCEPT:

A) relationships to high-status people in the organization/country
B) technical expertise
C) friendly openness to a foreign culture
D) language proficiency

Question 49

The phases of negotiation,regardless of culture,include:

A) quickly establishing a relationship with the other side so both sides can go on to the real substance of the negotiations
B) exchanging information about objectives so each side can go on to try to persuade the other
C) getting concessions so an airtight,detailed contract can be drawn up thus successfully concluding the negotiations
D) all of the above