Dr. Tajuddeen A. Williams

Cultural influences on bargaining and negotiation

· Personal Essays

Negotiation scenario

A civil war has been raging in Syria that has contributed to the loss of life of many since 2011. Over 250,000 Syrians have been killed, which began as pro-democracy government protests before turning into a civil war, and over 11 million have been forced from their homes (BBC News, 2015; Gordon, 2016). As the conflict increased in severity, the war spread from just including forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad and those who oppose his rule, to the inclusion of ISIL forces who seek to take advantage of the collapse of the country.

The conflict started as a result of government forces firing on demonstrators, killing several of them in the process. A couple of months later, hundreds of thousands started protesting along with them. Eventually, those who oppose Al-Bashar began taking up arms as a means of defending themselves, and later as a way of expelling the security forces out of their area. Within a year’s time, 90,000 had died.

The conflict in Syria has attracted many global powers for those in support of President Al-Bashar to those who are against. The United States got involved in the conflict because they felt that Al-Bashar is responsible for widespread atrocities in the country and want him to resign his position. Russia is one of President Al-Bashar’s backers. They have provided Al-Bashar’s regime with financial backing and weapons despite international outcry, and they have blocked resolutions critical of Al-Bashar at the UN Security Council. The differences between what the United States want and what Russia wants has led to a stalemate between the two as they wage war on two different sides in Syria.

Culture differences

Shell posits that there are four models of bargaining style, which include gender and culture, cooperative versus competitive negotiating styles, interpersonal orientation (IO), and the Dual Concerns Model (Shell, 2006). According to Shell culture presents a myriad of stylistic differences in negotiation. These differences have been studied by Hofstede who came up with a framework assessing different cultural dimensions, small versus large power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, and weak versus strong uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1983).

Whereas U.S. approaches to negotiation rely on individualist values (LeBaron, 2003), Russia relies on interpersonal relationships and indirect communication (Louneva, 2010). Unlike Americans in negotiations, Russians are also emotionally-driven (Larson & Shevchenko, 2014). This poses a problem when coming to the table. Despite both sides wanting different things, there is a large communication barrier.

Culture sensitivity

In dealing with intercultural conflict, there are several ways to reduce conflict between members. One of the ways is not to dehumanize out-group members. Perceiving out-group members as being less than a human do not help negotiations; it hurts them (Haslam, 2006). Stereotypes can also provide a source of conflict and be sensitive to the stereotypes we have of people can reduce them. We categorize people and events because it makes it easier to process. It allows us to understand the world around us. Stereotypes can be helpful, but it oversimplifies and introduces bias (Devine, 1989). Also, adapting a cross-cultural and diverse environment by developing cultural intelligence can assist in resolving conflict (Earley & Mosakowski, 2004). Cultural differences are often a cause of conflict. However, being open towards another culture may help us understand their motivation and lower the propensity to treat one’s culture as being better than.

References

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