Intercultural Negotiation Case Study
Introduction
Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication across Cultures (Seventh Edition) is a book by Jolene Koester, and Myron W. Lustig. The book addresses issues in relation to the balance between theory and skills in different cultures. The book therefore gives the way towards success in the current multicultural world.
This paper will look into the factors that worked against the Canadians in the competence of intercultural communication and then give recommendations of the issues in relation to the book and study of the Canadian interrelation with the Chinese. In addition to that, the paper will address the advice I would give as an Intercultural Consultant. All this will be in accordance to the book ‘Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication across Cultures (Seventh Edition)’.
Cultural factors that worked against the Canadians
Intercultural communication defines a form of communication globally. Intercultural communication is a description of challenges that people from various social, religious, and ethnic backgrounds face in an organization (Rogers and Steinfatt). In the article, various cultural factors worked against the Canadians due to the intercultural communication competence as Canwall tried to enter the Chinese wallpaper market (Lustig and Koester).
The first instance of intercultural factor to work against the Canadians was the issue of how it was hard to communicate with the Chinese. Even with the use of interpreters, the message put across was not as clear as it would have been if the two parties understood each other directly. ‘Their interpreter also seemed unfamiliar with technological terms...’ (Lustig and Koester) the statement shows that language barrier was the key factor against communication between the two parties.
The second challenge the Canadians faced was that they failed to realize that the Chinese had a third eye in technology. In the negotiations, Raines and Burton concentrated on the business part in terms of profits. The Chinese however wanted them to go into technological details that the two Canwall representatives did not have ideal knowledge in. ‘Neither Burton nor Raines had been involved in the engineering of the high-tech component that was the heart of the equipment’ (Lustig and Koester). The company should have put some considerations based on the intercultural communication as this paper discusses below.
Recommendations for overcoming the intercultural communication barrier
The first way to curb this barrier is by exposure. The company should have exposed its employees to the Chinese in order to ensure they are acquitted with their culture before calling for a meeting with them. That way, they would have realized that they needed an engineer to explain the technological concepts of their product.
If I were the Intercultural Consultant at Canwall, my second advice would be to look for an expert in Chinese culture and communication. Canwall should have used the expert to either coach the two negotiators or negotiate the deal himself. The mistake that Burton and Raines made was to think that the Chinese would think the same way they think. Their mistake was ignorance in that they did not know how a Chinese woman would take to discussing business in a hotel room with two men. ‘…but she requested they remain in a public place because as a woman she could not meet them in their room’ (Lustig and Koester). The negotiations would have been a success if Canwall had put the issues into considerations and put forth required measures to curb the barriers.
In conclusion, effective intercultural communication processes enable businesses to run smoothly by the acknowledgment of potential problems and understanding in the resolution of the problems. Canwall would not have lost to the Japanese. Their weak point was that the Japanese have a considerable equal culture and communication system with the Chinese.
References
Lustig, Myron W. and Jolene Koester. Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication Across Cultures. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010.
Rogers, Everett M. and Thomas M. Steinfatt. Intercultural Communication. Long Grove, IL: Waveland PressInc, 1999.