Chinese Versus US Negotiation

Abstract

Guanxi which means friendship is a Chinese way of making decisions and it begins with socialization rather than business discussion. Barriers have been witnessed severally when US citizens attempt business negotiations with representatives from china. Cultural barriers affect the two continents. The process applied by Chinese in far much different from that of Americans Chinese emphasize friendship and respect than Americans. Chinese look at the Long-term goals than specific and immediate approach of the Americans.

Chinese versus US Negotiation

1). Waldheim, the United Nations Secretary General in his visited to Iran received numerous critics from his pursuit to intervene in his goal to deal with the hostage situation. Apparently, the word compromise takes only the negative side of surrendering one's principle in Persian interpretation rather than the midway solution which is the English interpretation. More so, a mediator is interpreted in Persian as somebody who is on a bargain with no invitation. These difference interpretations of the Persians towards these two terms led them to rebel the mediation of Kurt Waldheim when he was broadcasted in the media saying that he had gone to act as a mediator so that the country would come to a consensus.

2). Americans have encountered some challenges while negotiating with the Chinese the problems include: the product characteristics and insincerity about reaching an agreement by Chinese. More over, Chinese negotiators do not have or have little authority, unlike the Americans who are authorized to negotiate and are ready to strike a deal. This is due the fact that Chinese companies must inform the government's trade corporations, who are part of negotiations and must be represented in the. According to James Broeririg of Arthur Andersen, who does much business in China, "Companies have negotiated with government people for months, only to discover that they were dealing with the wrong people" (Mungenast, 2007).

Statistics have indicated that the Chinese negotiation process and striking a deal is greatly hampered by cultural. Some of these norms include: their politeness and emotional calmness, social obligations, and belief in the interrelationships of work, family, and friendship. Due to calmness emotional lay back and protecting their integrity, firm and emotional attempts at persuasion in negotiation are likely to fail. Consecuently, the Chinese avoidance of conflict will has normally led to discontinuing or withdrawing from negotiation. The Chinese more often ignore any dealings or cases which can cause them to lose face, they always maintaining their polite behavior out of social consciousness and others' concerns. When approached by an embarrassing and weird situation, they always put a calm face or shrug in an attempt to conceal their feelings; they provide answers which are confusing and cunning to Western negotiators.

3). Social undertakings underlie their positive inclination towards collective goals. In that case, approach to individual members of the Chinese negotiators, rather than approach to benefit the whole group, will probably backfire.

Deeply rooted in Chinese culture has resulted in the smooth functioning of society. Harmony has been due to personal relationships, trust, and ritual. After establishing fruitful relationship with Americans the negotiators then use it as a basis for the scratch-my back-I-scratch yours kind of business discussions. This cultural norm is what is called guanxi, which basically is the intricate, persuasive network of personal relations which should be cultivated by every Chinese it is the basic means of having things done. What it means is that, guanxi put an obligation in exchange for future business favors.

American managers should therefore extend preliminary visiting to foster relationship, and allow the Chinese to learn more about them and their trust and much of their positive side. Chinese consider greatly mutual benefits and therefore this opportunity to convey their concerns.

The Chinese have the expectations of sacrifice on corporate goals and above all cumulative gains to Chinese national objectives and interests, like fruitful friendship, Chinese national development, and the growth of Chinese people. Misunderstandings normally occur when Americans forward a polite and blanket acceptance of these principles minus deep understanding of the significance.

Americans normally undergo two levels of negotiations with the Chinese these are the technical and the commercial levels. Technical stage is normally long because the Chinese want to iron out details of the deal, specifications and technology. This normally brings delays before the commercial team steps in to the deal to handle the production, marketing, pricing, and so forth. Consequently, the commercial team sits on the first stage to familiarize themselves with the Chinese negotiating methods. The Chinese negotiating team is usually outnumbering the Western team. This has led to a lot of the time being spent ironing out the technical specifications aspect and price negotiation aspect.

4. The Chinese are the world toughest negotiators. American negotiators should anticipate and frustrations such as their delaying tactics, avoidance of direct, specific answers Americans approach negotiations with specific goals and they find it easy to compromise. The Chinese reluctantly negotiate details; they do not compromise because their negotiations have a broad vision of achieving China's objective.

Some qualities like patience, honest, respect, and experience are paramount prerequisites for any negotiator in China. For the best results, aged, technical, respected and well versed people are more preferred by the Chinese when it comes to cross-cultural negotiations. The Chinese prefer dealing with the top executive from American companies, with the assumption that the highest officer has perfect personal relationship skills. American practices are strange to Chinese that is why they involve Chinese foreign negotiator.

On the other hand Americans tend to delegate this job to some technical personnel well versed with the job at hand; there fore, they have to b so keen with the appointment of their most preferred negotiators. Also, the visiting negotiating teams need to realize that the Chinese are double-cross with by dealing with other foreign teams, at the same time, and this set up will guide them to play one company's offer against another.

5. There are various differences in risk tolerance around the world. Many of these risks are taken for the sake of the prosperity of the business. Some of the risk tolerance is taken if the business sees chances of business opportunities and sales rising. However, some businesses take tolerance risks if they need to clear their debts before closing down. The role of risk propensity in decision making is to set goals and strategies that should be undertaken incase a business shows signs of deteriorating or signs of not meeting its set target. It therefore sets a well defined plan of steps incase a business proves to be unsuccessful.

6. MTV has faced many challenges in its pursuit of establishing its network. One of the most evident challenges is the prevalent culture in the Arabia world where they believe that the TV network portrays obscene scenes and other immorality related programs since the majority of the Arab culture is imposed of Muslims who are strict in following their Islamic religion. (b). However, MTV has implemented a strategy whereby they have introduced various TV programs from which the Arab population can choose from. I think this strategy will help MTV in reaching the expected market in the Arab states.

7 (a). A search engine selects the most popular and financed websites on the website. This system makes money through the websites depending on the number of views or clicks on a certain web page.  b). many governments appear threatened by Google due to the exposure of many of their governments secrets and corruptions. The European and Chinese counties counterfeit these threats by imposing strict laws on those found exposing government secrets and strategies without the government's permission.