Culture and Negotiation

TLDR

Negotiation is typically viewed from a Western perspective as confrontational, transaction‑focused, and evaluated by integrative or distributive outcomes. The article develops a model showing how culture shapes negotiation by influencing power and information processes. It links individualism versus collectivism to negotiation goals, egalitarianism versus hierarchy to power dynamics, and high versus low context communication to information sharing. The study finds that inter‑cultural negotiations are strategically challenging, yet negotiators who actively seek and flexibly use information can achieve high‑quality outcomes.

Abstract

This article develops a model of how culture affects negotiation processes and outcomes. It begins with a description of negotiation from a Western perspective: confrontational, focused on transactions or the resolution of disputes, evaluated in terms of integrative and distributive outcomes. It proposes that power and information processes are fundamental to negotiations and that one impact of culture on negotiations is through these processes. The cultural value of individualism versus collectivism is linked to goals in negotiation; the cultural value of egalitarianism versus hierarchy is linked to power in negotiation; and the cultural value for high versus low context communication is linked to information sharing in negotiation. The article describes why inter‐cultural negotiations pose significant strategic challenges, but concludes that negotiators who are motivated to search for information, and are flexible about how that search is carried out, can reach high‐quality negotiated outcomes.