Handbook of Global and Multicultural Negotiation E-Book

Christopher W. Moore

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 884

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Praise for Handbook of Global and Multicultural Negotiation "In today's globalized world, few competencies are as essential as the ability to negotiate across cultures. In this insightful and practical book, Chris Moore and Peter Woodrow draw on their extensive global experience to help us understand the intricacies of seeking to reach intercultural agreements and show us how to get to a wise yes. I recommend it highly!" William Ury coauthor, Getting to Yes, and author, The Power of a Positive No "Rich in the experience of the authors and the lessons they share, we learn that culture is more than our clothing, rituals, and food. It is the way we arrange time, space, language, manners, and meaning. This book teaches us to understand our own culture so we are open to the other and gives us practical strategies to coordinate our cultural approaches to negotiations and reach sustainable agreements." Meg Taylor compliance advisor/ombudsman of the World Bank Group and former ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States of America and Mexico "In a globalized multicultural world, everyone from the president of the United States to the leaders of the Taliban, from the CEO of Mittal Steel to the steelworkers in South Africa, needs to read this book. Chris Moore and Peter Woodrow have used their global experience and invented the definitive tool for communication in the twenty-first century!" Vasu Gounden founder and executive director, ACCORD, South Africa "Filled with practical advice and informed by sound research, the Handbook of Global and Multicultural Negotiation brings into one location an extraordinary and comprehensive set of resources for navigating conflict and negotiation in our multicultural world. More important, the authors speak from decades of experience, providing the best book on the topic to date--a gift to scholars and practitioners alike." John Paul Lederach Professor of International Peacebuilding, Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Figures

List of Tables

Table of Exhibits

PREFACE

WHAT THIS HANDBOOK IS ABOUT

WHO WILL FIND THIS BOOK USEFUL?

SOURCES FOR THIS HANDBOOK

THE APPROACH OF THIS HANDBOOK

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dedication

PART ONE - THE ESSENTIALS OF GLOBAL AND MULTICULTURAL NEGOTIATION

CHAPTER ONE - Introduction to Culture and Negotiation

A DEFINITION OF CULTURE

WHAT IS NEGOTIATION?

CULTURAL VARIATIONS REGARDING THE ESSENTIAL PURPOSES OF NEGOTIATIONS

PREPARATIONS FOR INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TWO - The Wheel of Culture

THE OUTER RIM: NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, HISTORY, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES

THE INNER RIM

THE SPOKES OF THE WHEEL

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER THREE - Strategies for Global Intercultural Interactions

BASIC NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES

MAKING NEGOTIATION CHOICES TO FACILITATE COORDINATION

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER FOUR - Cross-Cutting Issues in Negotiation

KEY CULTURAL VARIABLES THAT INFLUENCE NEGOTIATIONS

BASIC APPROACHES TO NEGOTIATION

FRAMING AND REFRAMING

WHO ENGAGES IN NEGOTIATIONS, AND HOW?

POWER AND INFLUENCE

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX: SOURCES OF POWER

PART TWO - A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS

CHAPTER FIVE - The Preparation Stage

A CULTURAL LENS IN PREPARING FOR INTERCULTURAL INTERACTIONS

FACTORS IN CULTURAL ANALYSIS

A BRIEF GUIDE TO PRENEGOTIATION PREPARATION AND PLANNING

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER SIX - Beginning Negotiations

MAKING FIRST CONTACTS

ACTIVITIES FOR FIRST MEETINGS

DEEPER EXPLORATION OF THE PURPOSES OF NEGOTIATIONS

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER SEVEN - Identifying and Exploring Issues

IDENTIFYING AND AGREEING ON ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED

GENERAL STRATEGIES FOR COORDINATING THE STRUCTURE OF TALKS

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER EIGHT - Cultural Patterns in Information Exchange

DISCUSSING ISSUES AND INTERESTS AND EXCHANGING INFORMATION

CULTURAL PATTERNS OF INFORMATION SHARING

PROBING FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER NINE - Problem Solving and Option Generation

CLARIFICATION OF TERMS RELATED TO OPTION GENERATION

TIMING OF OPTION GENERATION

CONDUCTING DISCUSSIONS ON ISSUES

GENERATING OPTIONS

CULTIVATING ATTITUDES OF COOPERATION

DEVELOPING JOINT PROBLEM STATEMENTS

GENERATING OPTIONS OR POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TEN - Influence and Persuasion Strategies

NEGOTIATOR POWER AND INFLUENCE

PERSUASION TACTICS OF SELECTED CULTURES

GENERAL PERSUASION STRATEGIES

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER ELEVEN - Assessing Options

SATISFACTION OF INTERESTS IN NEGOTIATIONS

CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS IN ASSESSING OUTCOMES

GENERAL PROCEDURES FOR ASSESSING OPTIONS, PROPOSALS, POSITIONS, AND POTENTIAL OUTCOMES

STANDARDS AND CRITERIA TO GUIDE DECISION MAKING

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TWELVE - Reaching Closure and Developing Agreements

VIEWS ABOUT THE END OF NEGOTIATIONS: ENDINGS, CLOSURE, AND FINALITY

COMMON PROBLEMS IN THE FINAL STAGES OF NEGOTIATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AGREEMENTS

FORM, CONTENT, AND TERMS OF AGREEMENTS ACROSS CULTURES

DRAFTING WRITTEN AGREEMENTS

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Implementing Agreements

REACHING AGREEMENT AND IMPLEMENTING IT

ENSURING COMPLIANCE

FINAL APPROVAL AND RATIFICATION PROCEDURES

CEREMONIES AND RITUALS FOR CONCLUDING NEGOTIATIONS

CONCLUSION

PART THREE - ASSISTED NEGOTIATIONS AND THIRD-PARTY ROLES

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Assisted Negotiations

PROBLEMS IN MEETINGS OR NEGOTIATIONS

ASSISTANCE TO ADDRESS PROCESS PROBLEMS OR IMPASSE

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Facilitation and Mediation

AN INTRODUCTION TO FACILITATION AND MEDIATION

VARIATIONS IN THE PRACTICE OF MEDIATION

HIRING A FACILITATOR OR MEDIATOR

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

THE AUTHORS

NAME INDEX

SUBJECT INDEX

Table of Figures

Figure 1.1. Distribution of Cultural Patterns in a Specific Group

Figure 1.2. Overlaps and Differences Among Cultures

Figure 2.1. Wheel of Culture Map

Figure 2.2. Basic Approaches to Conflict (from Party A’s Point of View)

Figure 3.1. Strategic Choices for Intercultural Interactions

Figure 4.1 Positional Bargaining and Convergence Process

Figure 4.2. Triangle of Satisfaction

Figure 8.1. Hierarchy of Requests or Demands in Negotiations

Figure 9.1. Framing a Joint Problem Statement in Terms of Multiple Interests

Figure 14.1. Potential Causes of Problems in Meetings or Negotiations

Figure 14.2 : Dispute Resolution System

Figure 14.3. Grievance Mechanisms with Multiple Local Approaches to Resolving Complaints

List of Tables

Table 1.1. Range of Negotiation Contexts

Table 4.1. Key Cultural Variables

Table 8.1. Types of Questions and Cultural Orientation

Table 10.1 Verbal Negotiation Tactics

Table 12.1. Dimensions of Agreements: A Continuum

Table 14.1. People Who Provide Third-Party Assistance

Table 15.1. Comparison of Facilitation and Mediation

Table of Exhibits

Exhibit 5.1 Situation Assessment, Conflit Analysis, and Negociation Planning Framework

Copyright © 2010 by Christopher W. Moore and Peter J. Woodrow.

All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Moore, Christopher W., date-

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-57344-0

1. Negotiation in business. 2. Cultural relations. I. Woodrow, Peter J. II. Title.

HD58.6.M656 2010

658.4’ 052—dc22

2009032175

HB Printing

PREFACE

Since the beginning of time, people from all cultures and nations have had to solve problems, negotiate agreements, and resolve conflicts among members of their own group or between members of their society and that of others. It is the rare culture indeed that has been so isolated that it has not had to figure out ways that its members could relate across cultures or internationally with people who were “different.”

Historically, most cultures have had some contact with members of other ethnic or national groups, either within their own borders or at least with people from the near abroad (Fagan, 1984). People from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and North and South America have long had diplomatic, commercial, religious, and in some cases colonial linkages and relations with each other (Brook, 1978; Wallerstein, 1976). Within regions or states, groups and nationalities have had to find ways to coexist in a peaceful manner and, when appropriate, seek relationships—diplomatic, commercial, technological, religious, cultural, or social—that result in mutual benefits. As internal migration, urbanization, and immigration from other countries have diversified membership or expanded regular contacts among groups, almost all societies have become multicultural.

In the first years of the twenty-first century, an increasing number of individuals, organizations, and nations are engaged in interactions, problem solving, and agreement making across cultures. Globalization is not only making the world smaller but is bringing people together who heretofore have never made direct contact (Friedman, 2007). This trend of increasing intercultural interaction occurs both within and between societies in numerous arenas: international peacebuilding and diplomacy; industry, business, and the workplace; humanitarian assistance and development; and political institutions, schools, and communities.

WHAT THIS HANDBOOK IS ABOUT

This handbook provides practical guidance for people working across cultures in a globalized world, specifically addressing issues such as these:

• How culture influences the definition of and approaches to problem solving and negotiation

• How people communicate, cooperate, compete, and engage in conflict with people from their own and other cultures

• How relationships are developed and valued across cultures, especially in the context of problem solving and negotiations and at a range of levels, from the interpersonal to business to international diplomacy

• How negotiators evaluate the potential outcomes of problem solving or negotiation with members of their own culture or another culture

• How proficiency in intercultural problem solving and negotiations can be increased so that individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds can work effectively together in multicultural situations

In our rapidly changing world, effective global negotiators not only must be familiar with a generic problem-solving or negotiation process that works in their own culture; they must also become familiar with cultural factors that affect the problem-solving approach of people from other cultures. They must learn how to adapt to cultural dynamics and patterns, respond in flexible and appropriate ways, and use a range of approaches for building positive working relationships and reaching agreements.

WHO WILL FIND THIS BOOK USEFUL?

This handbook was written for a wide audience of individuals and organizations engaged in problem solving, negotiation, or dispute resolution across cultures. It will be useful for people working in multicultural settings or a diverse workforce within a country, people who are working or visiting outside their country, and international negotiators working in a variety of settings and on a range of issues.

We have written the book to serve as a practical guide for negotiation practitioners who are conducting bargaining, problem solving, and conflict resolution. At the same time, we have drawn on considerable social science research to satisfy the concerns of academic colleagues who want to use the book in the classroom or to identify research topics in the critical area of intercultural interactions.

Two broad groups will find this book useful: negotiators of all types and those who assist negotiators (facilitators, mediators, and other intermediaries). Increasingly negotiators in many positions are called on to deal with people of different ethnic backgrounds within either their own country or other societies. The handbook provides conceptual frameworks that will aid them in understanding cultural factors that influence their own behavior, shape the actions and reactions of their negotiating counterparts, and have a deep effect on the institutions in which they work. The handbook also offers specific suggestions of strategies and tactics for handling intercultural negotiations and promoting successful talks and settlements.

While the handbook focuses on the negotiation process, the essential role of mediators and other kinds of intermediaries is to assist parties engaged in negotiations. Thus, mediators working cross-culturally or internationally will also find the work useful, as they must often structure effective problem-solving or negotiations processes. These insights apply equally well when assisting in the resolution of interpersonal, intergroup, intercommunal, or international conflicts. (See Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen for exploration of the roles of intermediaries.)

Specific kinds of negotiators will find the concepts, approaches, and procedures explored in this book useful

• Global business negotiators. The business world is increasingly globalized and diversified. Businesspeople from diverse ethnic groups and societies who are engaged in the development of mutually beneficial financial transactions will find the handbook helpful for understanding their own culture and how it influences their own negotiating assumptions and behavior, the impacts of culture on other bargainers, and the cultural context in which the bargaining is occurring.

• Managers and workers in the multicultural or international workplace. Many societies comprise multiple ethnic groups—and have for centuries. Others are newly diversified due to internal migration, immigration, and guest worker programs. International companies also send managers to work in other countries, often with a diverse labor force, such as a Japanese manager working in a car manufacturing plant in the United States. Managers and labor representatives who are working with multicultural workforces in their own country or abroad will find the handbook helpful for understanding employees, managers, and groups that are different from them and for developing effective working relationships that can serve as the basis for handling day-to-day issues, negotiating more important problems, or developing a labor-management contract.

• International diplomats. Professional foreign service officers from specific countries and people working for international organizations, such as the United Nations, African Union, and the Organization of American States, will find the handbook helpful in promoting effective negotiations to address political, social, and economic development questions. Diplomats who move from country to country often need a broad framework that details “what to look for” in a specific culture’s negotiating style. The handbook provides this general framework, as well as specific information about several national and regional styles.

• International donor agencies and lenders and national government counterparts. Every year billions of dollars (euros, yen, and so on) flow from lending institutions and wealthier nations to poorer countries in the form of bilateral aid or more specific relief and development programs. International institutions such as the World Bank, Asia Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are leaders in negotiating with national governments to determine the broad shape of international assistance, particular poverty-reduction plans. The International Finance Corporation and other multilateral and bilateral lenders provide capital to private companies engaged in projects that promote international development. We have also seen considerable effort devoted to the renegotiation of debts owed to international institutions. All of these require skills in intercultural negotiation—for which this handbook will prove useful.

• International nongovernmental organization workers and local partners. International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and community-based organizations (CBOs) are involved in humanitarian relief, development, human rights, and peacebuilding programs (usually supported by international donor agencies, private foundations, or individual donors). Such work involves constant negotiations: between INGOs and their local partners; between INGOs and host governments and donor agencies; and among INGOs, their local partner NGOs, and local communities. Relief agencies also find themselves negotiating with military forces and political groups that have their own agendas. Peacebuilding organizations organize dialogue processes among conflicting factions or serve as informal mediators or conflict resolvers. All of these groups, local and international, will find much useful information in this handbook.

• Professors and other university educators. Members of the academic research and teaching community at all levels will find the handbook useful as a text for preparing students to work in international or cross-cultural settings. This will be especially true in the fields of sociology, anthropology, political science, management, organizational development, planning, international relations, development studies, and the growing field of conflict transformation. University exchange programs or study abroad will also find helpful guidance. The handbook will sensitize students to some of the issues they will face when studying or working in another culture.

• Educators, school administrators, social service administrators, and local government officials. Migration and immigration have created multicultural schools, workplaces, and local communities. People who work in those settings need awareness and skills to handle a range of complex issues across cultural differences—many of which require some form of problem solving or negotiation. The handbook provides frameworks for understanding different approaches to conflict and bargaining that will be useful for people in these positions.

SOURCES FOR THIS HANDBOOK

This handbook presents what we have learned in our extensive practice of intercultural negotiations and dispute resolution, the experience of other practitioners, and the work of researchers in this field over many years. Each of us has almost forty years of experience working internationally in intergovernmental negotiations, humanitarian relief, development, and conflict resolution. This personal experience working and negotiating in many cultures—and helping others negotiate—provides the primary source for this handbook. We have also drawn on the rich literature in cross-cultural understanding, cultural anthropology, and international negotiation—as can be seen in the many sources cited in the text and the hefty References section.

We have also drawn on over thirty years of practical international and domestic negotiation and conflict resolution experience of our colleagues at CDR Associates (CDR), where we both serve as partners. Founded in 1978, CDR is an international collaborative decision-making and conflict resolution firm with offices in Boulder, Colorado. It provides professional decision making, organizational consulting, public participation, and conflict management assistance to the public, private, and nongovernmental sectors. CDR partners and staff members have worked in over sixty countries in Africa; Asia; the Middle East; Central and South America; Western, Central, and Eastern Europe; and the Pacific region to promote effective collaborative negotiations among diverse parties.

Internationally our work has involved facilitation or mediation of multilateral international negotiations over Arctic nuclear cleanup among multiple nations in that region; transboundary river management issues between Botswana and Namibia; and economic cooperation and the resolution of commercial disputes among companies in Canada, Mexico, and the United States operating under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). CDR has provided facilitation and conducted capacity-building initiatives to implement peace initiatives or accords in Afghanistan, Guatemala, the Middle East, Pakistan, and South Africa; promoted multicultural cooperation to resolve ethnic and religious disputes in Bulgaria, Canada, Indonesia, and South Africa; assisted in the resolution of environmental conflicts in Belize, Indonesia, the Middle East, Peru, South Africa, and Uganda; and helped to design, establish, and build capacities of dispute resolution systems or approaches that use negotiation and mediation to resolve civil, criminal, and land disputes in China, East Timor, Haiti, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

In the corporate and governmental sectors, domestic and international, CDR has assisted corporations in negotiating effective partnering and joint venture agreements between entities with highly diverse national and corporate cultures, resolving labor disputes, and settling grievances and charges of discrimination. CDR has also assisted corporations and governmental agencies in designing and implementing new dispute resolution systems, which generally involve negotiation and mediation, to resolve personnel conflicts.

In the domestic public arena, CDR has worked to solve problems involving Americans of diverse heritage (Asian, African, European, Hispanic, and Native Americans) over public policies, labor, and environmental issues. We have also worked in the nonprofit and community sectors to help with intercultural negotiations and problem solving.

THE APPROACH OF THIS HANDBOOK

We assume that most people will come into contact with people from cultural backgrounds different from their own. These cross-cultural contacts will lead to the need to create relationships, solve problems, and reach agreements. However, we are convinced that there is no “cookbook” approach for successful intercultural problem solving. Rather, this handbook provides broad concepts and frameworks that will help negotiators identify, understand, and interpret different cultural attitudes and behaviors and develop appropriate strategies that bridge differences. As a result, the handbook provides:

• A conceptual framework that presents a range of cultural factors that influence problem solving and negotiations, including attitudes toward relationships, communication, and competition, among others

• Clear delineation of the choices available for responding to intercultural differences

• A step-by-step exploration of the various stages and tasks of negotiation, with illustrations of how cultural factors operate at each stage

• Information about how specific illustrative cultures approach specific negotiation tasks and procedures

• A description of the range of intermediary assistance roles, as well as when and how to secure such assistance

In writing this book, we have been constantly aware of the dangers of addressing cultural differences. In presenting “central tendencies” found in the attitudes and behaviors of various cultures, we risk perpetrating stereotypes and even prejudice. However, people from the same culture do share some characteristics—which are then further shaped by personal experience, personality, and organizational routines (among other things). Therefore, we must acknowledge that negotiators from Japan or France or the United States, or any of the other cultures used as examples, may behave in the ways described—or they may not. Generalizations about cultures do contain important information, but that information must be held lightly and with a certain amount of skepticism. One of the most important points of this book is that negotiators must remain alert, expect the unexpected, observe and analyze constantly, and never assume that they understand someone from another culture fully.

Contents of the Handbook

The handbook is divided into three parts. A brief introduction at the beginning of each part provides more detailed information about the chapters that follow.

Part One provides a general overview of how culture affects conflict and negotiations, presents a framework for understanding cultural variables, explores general strategies for dealing with cultural differences, and describes several key cross-cutting issues that appear repeatedly throughout the rest of the book.

Part Two is a step-by-step guide to global and multicultural negotiations, working through preparation, early negotiations, issue identification, exploration of needs and interests, problem-solving and option generation, and reaching and implementing agreements. The chapters provide information on cultural variations, as well as suggested strategies for working across cultural differences.

Part Three addresses the possible use of “third-party” assistance to negotiation processes, including the roles of mediator and facilitator, but also outlines a wide range of intermediary roles used in different cultures.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In writing this book, we are extremely indebted to our partners and other staff members at CDR Associates. We particularly appreciate the support of Susan Wildau, Mary Margaret Golten, Bernard Mayer, and Louise Smart, who worked with us on a variety of international and intercultural projects, helped clarify some of the concepts, and tested some of the procedures described in this book.

We also acknowledge and thank some of our domestic and international colleagues and clients with whom we have worked over the past thirty years. They have helped us immeasurably in developing our insights and procedures for intercultural negotiation and dispute resolution. These include Jack Lang y Marques of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission; Cindy Cruz, Zell Steever, Richard Ives, and Chris Kenney of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Jerome Delli Priscoli, Lester Edelman, and Frank Carr of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Ken Acton of the Saskatchewan Mediation Service; Jack Knight and Ellen Smeiser of the Continuing Legal Education Societies of British Columbia and Saskatchewan; Mary Ann DeSoet of the Rikswaterstaat in the Netherlands; Vasu Goundon and Karthi Govender of ACCORD; Sandra Fowkes, a private consultant; H. W. van der Merwe of the Centre for Intergroup Studies (currently the Centre for Dispute Resolution); Azikwelwa Zikhalala of the Negotiation Skills Project; Loet Dowes Dekker of the University of Witwatersrand; Athol Jennings and Vuyi Nxasana of the Vuleka Trust in South Africa; Gay Rosenblum-Kumar, John-Mary Kauzya, and Dekha Abdi Ibrahim of the United Nations Dispute Resolution Systems as Instruments of Governance Project in Africa; Norbert Ropers and Ulrike Hopp of the Berghof Foundation; Hannes Siebert of the One-Text Initiative in Sri Lanka; P. B. Heart, Kamalini de Silva, and Dhara Wijayatilake, Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms, Sri Lanka; L. Amarajeewa, M. Bandula, T. Y. Silva, P. Dematagoda, M.N.S. Gunawardena, M. T. Mubaris, S. Parathasarathy, A. De Seram, and M. Thirunavukarusu of the Center for Mediation and Mediation Training and former Ministry of Justice Mediation Trainers, Sri Lanka; Nilan Fernando, Dinesha de Silva, Ramani Jayasundere, Niro Nayagam, Eric Jensen, Nick Langton, and Kim Mckay, Asia Foundation, Sri Lanka; Sandra Dunsmore, Roberto Menendez, and Philip Thomas of the PROPAZ Program, Organization of American States in Guatemala; Zbjeck and Ela Czwartos, colleagues at the University of Warsaw, and Kinga Markert of Markert Mediacje, Poland; Rumen Valchev and colleagues of the Bulgarian Center for Negotiations and Conflict Resolution; Mas Achmad Santosa, Wiwiek Awaiati, Mega Adam, and Takdir Ramadi of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law and Indonesian Center for Conflict Transformation; Mehmet and Ipek Gurkanyak of the Hope Foundation in Turkey: John Marks and Bonnie Pearlman of Search for Common Ground; and Connie and Jeff Peck, Eleanor Wertheim, Tim Murithi, Tricia Reidy, Gao Pronove, and Lata Chandiramani, United Nations Institute for Training and Research and UNITAR-IPI Fellowship Programme in Peacemaking and Preventative Diplomacy; Gillian Martin, LEAD International; Winfried Hamacher, Stephan Paulus, and Carola Block, GTZ Germany; Meg Taylor, Amar Inamdar, Kate Kopishke, Rachel Kyte, and Henrik Linders, Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman at the International Finance Corporation; Steve Del Rosso, Pew Charitable Trusts; Pedro de Sousa and Edwin Urresta, Land and Property Directorate, Ministry of Justice, East Timor; Jonathan Stromseth and Ji Hongbo of the Asia Foundation, People’s Republic of China; colleagues at the U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Information Service who supported projects in South Africa, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco; Mary B. Anderson, Diana Chigas, Cheyanne Church, and Sue Williams of CDA Collaborative Learning Projects; and Frédéric Kama-Kama Tutu of Peace Tree Network, Kenya.

We are also indebted to several researchers whose intellectual work greatly influenced our thinking. First and foremost are Roger Fisher and William Ury for their pioneering work, Getting to Yes: Reaching Agreement Without Giving In (1981) and subsequent research and writing; and P. H. Gulliver, an anthropologist whose work Disputes and Negotiations (1979) set out the initial framework for negotiations in a cross-cultural setting that greatly facilitated Chris’s thinking in the framework for his earlier book, The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflicts (1986, 1996, 2003). We also thank John Paul Lederach for his outstanding work in the field of cross-cultural dispute resolution in Central America, Africa, and Asia. He has not only influenced our view of international conflict and its resolution, but also has contributed to the way CDR trains in international settings.

Finally, we thank our editors, Seth Schwartz at Jossey-Bass, and Susan Geraghty, who assisted us immeasurably in making this book more readable.

October 2009

Christopher Moore Boulder, Colorado

Peter Woodrow Cambridge, Massachusetts

For Susan and Linda, patient partners in life and other adventures

And our many friends and colleagues around the globe Who made this book possible

PART ONE

THE ESSENTIALS OF GLOBAL AND MULTICULTURAL NEGOTIATION

Part One examines in detail cultural factors that influence intercultural negotiations and problem solving. Chapter One explores the concepts of culture and negotiation and the intersection of the two. Chapter Two presents an important conceptual framework: the Wheel of Culture. The Wheel of Culture explores broad factors that shape the context and parameters in which negotiations occur, as well as specific variables, including cultural views toward relationships, communications, cooperation, competition, and conflict.

Chapter Three explores a range of possible strategies for responding to cross-cultural situations, examining the merits of adhering to your own culture, accommodating another cultural way of doing things, adapting to another culture, or developing new approaches that incorporate elements of both or all cultures involved.

Chapter Four looks carefully at a number of cross-cutting issues that will be referenced repeatedly throughout the remainder of the book, including key cultural variables, three main approaches to negotiation, the composition of negotiation teams, and the uses of power and influence.

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction to Culture and Negotiation

The Context of Global and Multicultural Negotiations

Let’s look in on Alex, who is struggling to cope in a cross-cultural negotiation setting. Here is Alex’s message to people in his office. He might be a diplomat, a businessperson, or a development worker.

To: The Gang at the Office From: Alex Subject: Progress on negotiations for the new initiative

I thought I should give you all an update on how the talks about the initiative are proceeding. In my last message, I told you that our team had to meet the local leader prior to proceeding. Well, that meeting happened, and it was quite an event! Initially we were surprised to be met by a detachment of soldiers who we assumed were the leader’s personal bodyguards. They were all decked out in elaborate uniforms and rifles. They formed a corridor through which we walked to meet the leader, who was standing at the end of the column outside an elaborate audience hall and palace. He shook hands with all of us, introduced us to his wife, and invited us in to sit with them at a low table surrounded by chairs. (Naturally he and his wife sat in the largest and highest chairs!) He motioned to his servants, who rapidly brought tea and some sweets, some of which were unrecognizable and very chewy. The leader initiated some small talk, asking about where we were from, what we had seen of the country, what we thought of the culture, and so on, and we reciprocated the small talk. Finally, one person on our team tried to talk directly about the proposed new initiative, but the leader dismissively waved his hand and said that we should discuss it later with some of his colleagues. We took the hint and returned to small talk.

Upon adjourning our meeting with the leader, our team was shown into another large audience hall adjacent to the palace and seated at the head table on a dais at the front of a large conference room with fixed tables in the shape of a U. About twenty or thirty men and three women filed in behind us and took their seats around the U. A number of people, who we assumed were their subordinates, also stood around the outside of the room and kept constantly coming in and going out while delivering messages to or taking notes from their bosses, who conferred and signed papers. (This went on throughout the meeting.) Occasionally a cell phone would ring, and the recipient of the call would take the call where he was sitting, often talking in a fairly loud voice, or would rush to the back or out of the room. It felt like controlled chaos!

Finally, we were asked to make our presentation. While most people seemed to be listening, there were also a number of side conversations going on. When we finished, the local participants began a long and elaborate discussion in their own language that didn’t appear to have much focus either on us or on the program proposal. For long periods, they even seemed to be arguing among themselves. They occasionally asked us questions, but the discussion focused on several men who made fairly long, vociferous speeches, only portions of which were made in a language we understood or were interpreted for us. The group seemed to circle the question of whether to support our proposal, without ever explicitly supporting or rejecting it. I guess they wanted to get all of the views out on the table and assess the lay of the land without committing themselves. When it seemed appropriate, we added our comments and tried to answer their questions. Finally, one of the older men said he liked our ideas and suggested that talks continue at a later undefined time. I guess this will take longer than I figured! Please change my return air reservations to late next week. That’s all for now.

Alex’s message illustrates some of the difficulties of intercultural negotiations. Traveling businesspeople, diplomats, and development specialists writing to their home offices find that formal ceremonial events, a confusing decision-making process, and unclear power dynamics leave them stymied about how to proceed. Certainly local counterparts approach the negotiation process in ways that are strange—but are completely normal to them, of course.

This book is about the intersection between culture and negotiation. People who work across cultures, whether internationally or within nations, need general principles—a cultural map, if you will—to guide their negotiation strategies. Such a map will help them to:

• Identify the general topography of cultures—the beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, procedures, and social structures that shape human interactions

• Recognize potential hazards, obstacles, and pleasant surprises that intercultural travelers and negotiators might miss without a guide

• Select responses that will be more likely to achieve successful interactions and outcomes

Although many books have been written about the negotiation process and many more about culture, few analytical frameworks provide practical guidance about how individuals, groups, and organizations from different cultures solve problems, negotiate agreements, or resolve disputes. This book addresses this gap.

A DEFINITION OF CULTURE

Culture is the cumulative result of experience, beliefs, values, knowledge, social organizations, perceptions of time, spatial relations, material objects and possessions, and concepts of the universe acquired or created by groups of people over the course of generations. It is socially constructed through individual and group effort and interactions. Culture manifests itself in patterns of language, behavior, activities, procedures, roles, and social structures and provides models and norms for acceptable day-to-day communication, social interaction, and achievement of desired affective and objective goals in a wide range of activities and arenas. Culture enables people to live together in a society within a given geographical environment, at a given state of technical development, and at a particular moment in time (Samovar and Porter, 1988).

When we think of culture, we often think exclusively in terms of national cultures that are often reported in the media. However, we find cultural differences at many levels. For instance, women and men constitute the two largest cultural groups in the world (Gilligan, 1982). We also encounter subcultures in the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of ethnic groups, regional groups, social classes, tribes, clans, neighborhoods, and families (Kahane, 2003; Sunshine, 1990). Governments and their agencies, corporations and private firms, universities and schools, civil society and nongovernmental organizations have their own specific cultures and ways of doing things, often called organizational culture (Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Schein, 2004). Culture is also rooted in religious beliefs, ideological persuasions, professions, and professional training and in the levels and types of education (Smith, 1989; Sunshine, 1990). Finally, families have cultures that are a blend or combination of the cultures of their adult members or of their extended families (McGoldrick, Giordano, and Garcia-Preto, 1982, 2002).

Given all of these cultural variables and significant variations within cultures, how can we develop any conclusions about how a particular person or group from any one culture might behave in negotiations or conflicts? Despite the apparent insurmountable scope of the problem, specific cultures do contain clusters of people with fairly common attitudinal and behavioral patterns. These culture clusters occupy the middle portion of a bell-shaped curve (Trompenars, 1994), such as that illustrated in Figure 1.1.

However, every culture includes outliers—people who vary significantly from the norm and are outside the cultural cluster. Although they are still contained within the range for their culture, their views and behaviors differ significantly from those of their peers and may even look similar to those of people from other cultures. For instance, a businessperson or engineer from a developing country who was educated in the United Kingdom and has lived there for many years may have more in common with his or her peers in Europe than with people in his or her country of origin (Figure 1.2).

For this reason, we must be wary of making vague or sweeping generalizations about how people from a specific culture may think or act. Rigid notions about a group’s cultural patterns can result in potentially inaccurate stereotypes, gross injustice to the group, and possibly disastrous assumptions or actions. Common elements and repetitive cultural patterns found in a group’s central cultural cluster should be looked on as possible, or even probable, clues as to the ways that members of a cultural group may think or respond. However, the hypothesis should always be tested and modified after direct interaction with the individual or group in question. You never know when you may encounter an outlier who acts out of cultural character, does not follow expectations according to stereotypes, and may think and behave more like you than you ever expected.

Figure 1.1. Distribution of Cultural Patterns in a Specific Group

Figure 1.2. Overlaps and Differences Among Cultures

Source: Trompenars (1994).

WHAT IS NEGOTIATION?

Before exploring the characteristics and cultural aspects of negotiation, we need a general definition of the term. Generally most Western negotiators and academics, when defining negotiation, emphasize the presence of incompatible positions or preferred solutions, a bargaining or problem-solving process based on an exchange of positions to address contested issues, or a process that results in specific tangible outcomes or substantive exchanges.

For example, Albin (2001, p. 1) states, “Negotiation is a joint decision-making process in which parties, with initially opposing positions and conflicting interests, arrive at a mutually beneficial and satisfactory agreement. It normally includes dialogue with problem-solving and discussion on merits, as well as bargaining and the exchange of concessions with the use of competitive tactics.” Although this definition does identify some of the key characteristics or elements that may be present in negotiations, it fails to accommodate the full range of negotiation goals, approaches, procedures, and outcomes found across cultures. We explore some of these variables later in this chapter.

Within a broad definition of negotiation, we should also note that negotiations take place in a wide range of contexts, from simple market bargaining to complex processes to end wars within or between nations. Table 1.1 presents a schematic range of situations in which people from different cultures often engage in negotiation.

Table 1.1.Range of Negotiation Contexts

The examples in the table represent both simple and complex situations and ones that involve less or more conflict. Note, however, that situations of relatively little conflict can easily become contentious and move toward the right side of the table. For instance, trade negotiations are usually held in an atmosphere in which both sides are looking for mutual gain. However, if there has been recent perceived unfairness or disputes over certain kinds of goods, trade negotiations can become more contentious. And interactions that are generally straightforward in the context of a single culture can swiftly become conflictual due to intercultural misunderstanding. A European tourist might seek to purchase a carpet from a merchant in the market in Turkey. The interaction could begin amicably, with tea served and many carpets brought out for display. Although both buyer and seller expect a degree of over- and underbidding, either party might become angry based on perceived unfairness. A simple purchase can plunge into an irritated exchange.

Although the concepts in this book are applicable in all of the situations depicted in Table 1.1, they are most useful for more complex negotiations. The later chapters provide step-by-step practical guidance for all stages of negotiations. Such elaborate detail would be of little use for relatively simple transactions, but it becomes increasingly necessary as the stakes become higher and the level of actual or potential conflict rises.

CULTURAL VARIATIONS REGARDING THE ESSENTIAL PURPOSES OF NEGOTIATIONS

Members of different cultures see negotiations differently. For instance, some cultures place great emphasis on building positive relationships among negotiators—perhaps greater than their attention to any specific substantive decision or outcome. Many cultures also emphasize preexisting commonalties or areas of agreement or connections and procedures that develop consensus, as opposed to the exchange of positions or the use of threats. As we will see in later chapters, this difference in the basic conceptualization of negotiations can be considered a cultural frame.

Because of the range of cultural conceptions about what negotiations signify, the divergent goals that are influenced by culture, and the vast range of procedures and practices involved, we need a broad definition of the negotiation process and its potential outcomes. Our working definition of intercultural negotiation, used in the remainder of this book, is detailed in Box 1.1.

Although these elements occur in almost all negotiations, different cultures emphasize or value different parts. We now examine the elements of this definition in more detail and explore how the components of negotiation interact with culture.

Negotiation Is a Relationship-Establishing and Building Process

Negotiation occurs in the context of relationships: preexisting or newly created affiliations between individuals or groups. Relationships either bind parties together through common positive feelings of trust, respect, caring, obligation, or love, or drive them apart because of mistrust, pain, or hate. Constructive relationships, which on occasion are a precondition for productive negotiations, are generally established through the development of common positive feelings, perceptions, interactions, and reciprocal obligations or exchanges. Because the quality of relationships is often a key to the potential success or failure of negotiations, examining how positive negotiator relationships are established, maintained, or damaged across cultures is critical.

Box 1.1. Intercultural Negotiation: A Definition

Intercultural negotiation is a process initiated by individuals, groups, or organizations from different cultures that enables them to:

1. Jointly define the form of their relationship.

2. Clarify individually and together the goals and outcomes to be achieved.

3. Communicate about issues of individual or common concern.

4. Educate each other about shared and differing issues, interests, or needs.

5. Develop options that address their interests, needs, issues, problems, or conflicts.

6. Influence and persuade each other.

7. Reach mutually acceptable decisions and agreements.

8. Implement agreements reached.

Note: We are indebted to William F. Lincoln for his thinking on the components of the definition of negotiation.

Culture influences participants’ views regarding what a relationship is: its goals, what goes into making a good one, norms and expectations for exchanges and reciprocity, appropriate interactions, activities and rituals involved, and things that damage or destroy them. It also defines what relationships are appropriate for negotiations. For example, in a small town in France, it is perfectly acceptable for a single or married woman customer to have a positive and friendly relationship with a man from whom she regularly buys vegetables at a local farmers’ market. The negotiation relationship usually begins with a greeting: “Bonjour Madame/Bonjour Monsieur!” During their subsequent exchanges, it is within culturally acceptable limits for them to exchange pleasantries about each other’s families or goings on in the village, as well as to dicker a bit over the price of the produce. The familiar exchanges preserve their relationship—and might also influence the price of the vegetables. The seller wants to preserve the relationship and may throw in some extra fruit to indicate that he values the connection, while also encouraging the customer to return. The buyer’s exchange may be no more than a smile, a good story, or a promise to return to the stall next week, Nevertheless, the exchange is valued.

Contrast this negotiation relationship to the possibilities of a similar market interaction between a single or married woman and a male merchant in Middle Eastern cultures. In some countries and cultures in the region, an exchange like the one described in France would be totally acceptable, but in other settings, any interchange between a woman and a man would be forbidden. In still other places, a woman could buy from a male merchant if she were accompanied by a male relative. What is talked about, by whom, and for how long would probably be more highly circumscribed, but haggling over price might be more exaggerated, even if only as a ritual, than in the French example.

Relationships, mutual obligations, and trust are often valued as the cement that will ensure compliance with an agreement. In such settings, relationships are more important for compliance than abstract rules, laws, or court systems. For example, Jewish merchants in Europe, since the time of the Middle Ages, often acted as the bankers, lenders, and facilitators of commerce throughout the continent. Their network of coreligionists, who shared a common culture and similar values and were often connected through intermarriage, created bonds that allowed the lending and transfer of funds to be conducted in a fairly predictable and secure manner. It was the relationships and shared values and culture that facilitated these trusting exchanges, not the rule of law, although the latter often developed and was formalized from the model of these preexisting relationships (Putnam, 1993). Similar cultural relationship patterns have been found in networks of Chinese, Lebanese, and Indian merchants across the world (Sowell, 1996).

Negotiation Is a Goal- and Outcome-Oriented Process

Much of the literature on negotiation and statements from prominent negotiators in the West identify substantive agreements as the primary goal or outcome of negotiations. Substantive agreements involve coming to terms over money, property, performance, behaviors, and so forth. The focus is often on concrete and tangible outcomes, whether negotiations involve a reduction of the number of missiles possessed by nations, the adoption of a specific foreign policy, the intervention conditions for a peacekeeping force, development of a balance of trade, the definition of contractual relations in a commercial transaction between a multinational and a host country partner, terms for implementation of a development project, or even the price of a hotel room or taxi.

However, culture often defines what kinds of substantive outcomes are important or desirable. For example, in some more traditional societies, a person’s wealth or status is measured in the number of cows and size of herd he possesses, not in the more abstract forms of wealth, such as money in coin or paper currency. An exchange of money, although of value, may not be the proper goal or outcome for negotiations.

Although substantive goals and outcomes are clearly important, they may not always be the primary outcome desired by all parties, especially those from different cultures. In some cultures, a relationship or psychological outcome may be just as important as any specific substantive agreement. In addition to substantive and relationship goals, some parties are concerned about the procedures used to achieve outcomes. The interactions among substantive, relationship, and procedural interests—and differing concepts regarding negotiation—is a constant theme in this book.

Negotiation Is a Communications Process

Communication is the lifeblood of negotiations, for to reach agreements, parties must communicate and exchange information with each other and be able to accurately interpret and understand data that have been presented. They need to be able to exchange information on their feelings, perceptions, concerns, interests, needs, goals, objectives, visions, and procedural preferences. Communication can be face-to-face, through intermediaries, written, over the telephone or Internet, or through symbolic gestures (such as gift giving), but it is a required element of effective negotiations.

Communication is deeply affected by culture. What, when, where, to whom, and how parties communicate is directly influenced by a negotiator’s culture and background. Whether parties use respectful or pejorative language, speak directly or in a roundabout manner, quietly converse about a topic or debate it in a loud voice, or present specific or general proposals early or late in negotiations is governed by the cultural background of the participants. The cultural patterns of communication are explored in detail in later chapters.

Negotiation Is a Joint Education Process

At some time, the negotiators begin a mutual education process. This may be an explicit education process or indirect mutual learning through the presentation and exploration of positions. In most cases, in order to reach agreements, the parties must create informal or formal opportunities to educate each other about the connections they desire, the topics or issues for discussion, and their individual and collective needs and interests.

Cultures use contrasting approaches to educating one another. For example, a comparative study of business executives from the United States, France, and Germany concluded that many members of each of these cultures have very different styles and expectations for educational procedures in the context of negotiations. Hall and Hall (1990) noted that French executives often expect elaborate presentations that may include emotional content and literary or historical illusions: “The French like to provide masses of figures organized in complex patterns along with detailed background information. This is a result of their education, which stresses abstract thinking and the use of statistics and figures” (p. 103). In contrast, Germans in general provide more information on a subject than most other cultures either expect or require. Germans generally expect direct, clear, and highly precise presentations that provide a logical outline of facts, lots of data (including minutiae), and a summary at the end that repeats all major points. In still another contrast, American business executives generally expect direct and, on occasion, informal presentations (though not as direct as Germans) that are punchy, to the point, and often accompanied by some humor. Points are often made in headline or bulleted form, and a brief digest of key ideas may be submitted in written form. American executives appear to find general or background information less important than specifics that are needed to make immediate decisions. More will be said about cultural approaches to education in negotiations in later chapters.

Negotiation Is a Problem-Solving and Option-Generation or Proposal Process

Although negotiation serves many purposes and may achieve a wide range of goals, it is primarily a problem-solving process. Negotiators strive to identify a common issue, problem, or conflict and generate possible options to address their individual and collective concerns, interests, and needs.

In general, there are three broad procedural approaches to problem solving and negotiations, and related option generation: positional bargaining, interest-based or integrative negotiations, and relationship or conciliatory procedures (Walton and McKersie, 1991). These approaches are practiced in all cultures to some degree, although members of specific cultures typically emphasize one approach over another. The approaches may also be conducted separately or in combination. (See Chapter Four for a full exploration of these three approaches.)

Negotiators from a given culture select the specific procedures they will use depending on the specific situation; the particular issues or conflicts in question; the parties involved and their rank, status, authority, or gender; the perceived risks or stakes; their potential or actual means of influence; their expectations or goals regarding current and future relationships; personal style; and cultural norms regarding preferred negotiation approaches and a variety of other factors, including the approach that the other party or parties adopt. In general, outcomes of negotiation can be integrative or distributive in nature.

Integrative outcomes address to the greatest extent possible the individual and joint aspirations, interests, and needs of the parties. Striving for integrative solutions to issues, problems, and conflicts involves parties in identifying individual and mutual interests and needs and then developing options, or possibly an overall formula or package, that achieve the greatest benefit for all involved. Distributive outcomes are negotiation consequences that result from the division, sharing, or allocation of perceived or actual limited resources. Money, property, time, performance, or activity can often be divided and allocated among concerned parties.

The desirability of achieving integrative or distributive outcomes of negotiation is influenced by the mind-sets and cultural norms of the parties (Fisher, 1988). Decisions about the approach taken are determined by the issues, who the parties are, perceived or actual scarcity, and preferred negotiation procedures, among other things.

Relationship or conciliatory procedures are used to establish and build positive personal, intragroup, and intergroup relations or repair or solve problems in the context of relationships. In some cases, there are relatively few substantive issues of concern, as negotiators focus on changes in attitudes, expectations, or relationship-oriented behaviors.

Negotiation Is an Influence and Persuasion Process

In negotiations across cultures, the cultural acceptability of a persuasion tactic may make the difference between a positive working relationship and deadlock. Each party initiates activities to influence and promote change within the other party. Generally these activities expand or narrow the range of potential options for agreement.

Negotiators have many ways to influence each other, including cooperative tactics that provide positive benefits from collaboration, as well as more coercive means that may risks, and hurt or damage the other side if they do not comply. Some means of influence are exercising formal authority; providing testimony of experts or information; using connections or the influence of respected associates of another party; making suggestions on how to proceed with discussions; making threats or exercising coercion; being a nuisance; appealing to the status quo or traditional ways of addressing problems; exercising moral authority or appeals; or exerting personal persuasion (Mayer, 2000). Strategies and persuasion tactics have significant cultural elements that promote or discourage their utility or acceptability to members of other cultures.

Negotiation Is an Agreement, Decision-Making, and Exchange Process

Negotiations involve procedures by which parties reach agreements and exchange either tangible items (money, land, goods, or behavior) or intangible items (trust, respect, apologies, retraction of a statement or curse) to meet individual or jointly defined substantive, procedural, or psychological interests or needs. Members of diverse cultures often differ sharply regarding what constitutes an agreement, how an agreement is reached, the degree of detail and closure involved, and expected procedures for implementation and compliance. The culture of the parties may also significantly influence what is exchanged, how exchanged items are valued, and what constitutes equity or fairness. More will be said about these aspects of intercultural negotiation in later chapters.

Negotiation Is an Action-Oriented Process That Requires Implementation

Negotiations are different from conversations or discussions in that they are outcome oriented. They generally result in changes of attitude, behavior, performance, or an exchange of something of value to one or more parties. This means that agreements have to be implemented. In general, negotiated agreements are either self-executing, in that parties make necessary exchanges in the negotiations themselves, or non-self-executing, which requires performance or exchanges over time. Each of these approaches may have culturally sanctioned or common norms regarding how they are confirmed. In some cultures, it may be a handshake, in others a meal, and yet in others the signing of a contract. Regardless of the type of agreement, usually some procedure is used to implement and a ritual performed to confirm the agreement.

PREPARATIONS FOR INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION

An important first step in becoming an effective intercultural negotiator is to understand that culture can make a difference and pay attention to it. People just starting to work across cultures, and even those with extensive experience, often make several significant mistakes. First, they may start from a significantly ethnocentric viewpoint, assuming that all people are basically the same and denying differences because of ignorance or belief that their culture is the basic template from which all others are derived (Bennett, 1983). Such individuals or groups often believe that underneath our multipigmented skin, diverse languages, unusual clothing, and different behaviors, we all have identical wants and desires and similar approaches to negotiation and conflict resolution. Those who assert the basic similarity of cultures assume that if we can just communicate well with each other, all problems can be addressed or will evaporate.

Although this view is less common than it used to be, it is still frequently found in those with little experience with people from or working in diverse cultures. It is also prevalent among those of a second group who, when abroad, spend most of their time with colleagues and friends from their own culture or in international diplomatic, business, development worker enclaves, or tourist havens where either Western or international middle- or upper-class culture prevails or local culture is presented as a caricature of only the most acceptable, or in some cases romanticized cultural elements—a slice of the real thing.

Thus, when international travelers—whether tourists, businesspeople, or diplomats—visit countries such as Mexico, they are introduced to Mexican culture by mariachis (singing musical groups with guitars), sombreros, and margaritas. In Indonesia, they are likely to stay in an international hotel where accommodations are similar to those they might find in their home countries, they can choose Western or Japanese (or local) food if they care to, taxis or limousines whisk them (or get stalled in traffic) to meetings and meeting rooms that are similar to those found in developed countries, and so forth. If they take a break over the weekend, they are often likely to visit a Club Med type of resort in which only a slice of Indonesian culture is presented. In some cases, it may be limited to the gamelan orchestra—a percussion ensemble with xylophones, gongs, and other instruments—in the hotel lobby, masks and woodcarvings in the hotel shops, or the attire of the concierge, hotel staff, or servers in the restaurant. In these settings, it is perfectly possible to be abroad and never leave the comforts and culture of one’s home culture and rest assured that “people in X foreign country live just like us.”

A third group who are likely to think that all people within their cultures are basically the same—or should have the same values, cultural patterns, and behaviors that they do—are members of groups, organizations, or countries that are, or have been in the past, politically, economically, or socially more powerful and dominant than members of other cultures, or expatriates who have never had to accommodate or adapt to the cultures of others. For example, men in many cultures often miss or do not understand the culture of women and ask, “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?”

In the United States, the majority of Anglos, or whites with historical origins in Northern Europe, frequently do not understand, dismiss, or are threatened by the culture and needs of long-term citizens in the Southwest of Hispanic origin (who have been there since the 1600s) or more recent Latino or Hispanic immigrants from other Latin American countries. They demand that non-Anglo groups integrate and become just like the rest of Americans, or “stay on the other side of the river” (Badillo, 2006).

Americans may not understand the culture or attitudes of Somalis and assume that they are striving for the same things that people from the United States want (Kaplan, 2003). Germans may not understand the cultures and sensitivities of members of central European or Turkish cultures and the joint history that they share with Germans (Kaplan, 2005). Russians may fail to accommodate to the cultural patterns and aspirations of Georgians, residents of the Crimea, Chechnyans, or former Soviet Republics (Nasmyth, Ku, and Pun, 2007; Sakwa, 2005). Chinese from the People’s Republic of China may not understand the cultures or sensitivities of Tibetans, Taiwanese, Uyghurs, Inner Mongolians, Vietnamese, and so forth (Terrill, 2003).

In each of these examples of intercultural relations, power between cultures helps define and strongly influences relationships, interactions, procedures, and types of outcomes. “Culture needs to be taken seriously in debates over justice, in the sense that criteria for fairness are always rooted in particular cultural traditions, rather than in some transcultural definition of human reason, interests or rights. And particular cultures exist in relation to one another, in contexts always shaped by power—the sovereign power to coerce, enslave, or exterminate tying in with the ability to dictate the terms of political debate, while denying the cultural roots of these terms” (Kahane, 2003, p. 7).

As people become more familiar with other cultures, they begin to recognize differences but may still be defensive about the merits of their own in contrast to others. They take the view that while others exist, their culture is superior and the best. As they adjust further to differences, they may not judge other cultures as harshly, but they may still minimize differences, thinking that we are all basically the same despite some small differences (Wanis-St. John, 2005).

Another common mistake, currently in vogue, is to go to the other extreme: romanticizing culture and diversity and treating other cultures and their members as exotic, sacred, and deserving of protection from “cultural imperialism.” Followers of this approach overemphasize differences among cultures, on occasion try to “go native,” make extreme efforts to be culturally correct, and try hard to avoid unpardonable cultural errors.

Both views of culture hold some truth—there are many similarities among cultures, and cultures are unique. People get married in most cultures, but the kinds of relationships and relationship expectations that the couple have, the terms of the marriage contract, and rituals for uniting them may be extremely different. Children are educated in all societies, but what they are taught, how, by whom, and for how long are different across cultures. The education of students, in terms of subject matter, way of thinking, and the teaching-learning process in a Pakistani madrasa and one of the French grandes écoles are all quite different. People drive cars in many countries and cultures. However, the side of the road they drive on (left, right, in the middle or weaving between the two), where they drive (roads, sidewalks, or through fields), the way they drive (in an orderly and predictable or random fashion), and their observance of laws or informal driving practices (law abiding or adherence to situational ethics) may differ drastically. Leaders and managers in the private or public sector of various cultures and societies help define and oversee the work of subordinates. However, they do it very differently.

To move beyond the two extremes described and shift from a stance of ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism, a view in which there is greater acceptance of cultural differences and tolerance for them, individuals and groups move through three stages of development: acceptance, adaptation, and integration (Bennett, 1993).