Cultural differences across the world.

Culture is the set of behavioral patterns, beliefs, norms, and values that is (implicitly) shared by a social group. The idea that culture may influence negotiation styles has received considerable attention (Salacuse 1998; Faure 1999; Gelfand and Dyer 2000; Adair et al. 2004; Metcalf et al. 2007) taken from (DuerMateo_BargainingStrategiesJEPP.pdf)

Culture may also have an indirect influence on negotiation behavior by the way an actor perceives the tactics used by other; for those who work in international business, it is sometimes amazing how different people in other cultures behave. (Taken from http://www.geert-hofstede.com/) most of the time we think that all people are same, but they are not. Before you go to another country maybe to do a negotiation, we have to know how the people of these country operates, because if we made decisions based in how we operate in our country, mistakes can made negotiation fail. Cultural differences have their effects on international business interactions.

Culture has different aspects or a dimension Nick B. Meyer describes five dimensions: Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS) ¸ Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Long-Term Orientation (LTO). I want focus on individualism dimension and give some examples of individualism and collectivism societies.

Individualism countries are the United States, Australia, the U.K., Canada, Netherlands & New Zealand rank as the most highly individualistic nations while Latin Americans cherish strong family loyalties.

These nations are more self-centered and emphasize mostly on their individual goals. People from individualistic cultures tend to think only of themselves as individuals and as “I” distinctive from other people. Individualists view themselves as independent and only loosely connected to the groups of which they are a part. People in individualistic cultures emphasize their success in job or private wealth and aiming up to reach more and/or a better job position. Especially in the USA the fight about jobs and trying to climb up in the hierarchy ladder is something very common there.

Collectivistic countries include Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, Indonesia, Pakistan, Portugal, and Taiwan Cultures with low individualism scores focus more on collective efforts. Collectivistic cultures have a great emphasize on groups and think more in terms of “we”. They often are willing to maintain a commitment to a group even when their obligations to the group are personally disadvantageous.

As we said, highly individualistic countries are generally richer countries while collectivistic are developing countries, so, when a negotiators go to another country he must know the type of people or country he is going to try because they have to know if the other party think on common interest or self- interest despite when you negotiates you also want to fulfill your companies interests.

Bibliography:

Individualistic Trade Cultures: Me First Countries Value Independent Achievements http://www.suite101.com/content/individualistic-trade-cultures-a42764#ixzz0yhyO2QVn

Image taken from http://www.geert-hofstede.com/