Cross-Cultural Negotiation: Chinese Masks for Losing Face
Maximize your recession-era negotiations by understanding the folkways of your negotiation partners. There's lots of useful information on the internet, including the following piece on negotiating with the Chinese
By Ron Cune
The Chinese are much less direct in their communication than Westerners. Indirect signals, avoiding confrontations; to Western entrepreneurs the experience is comparable continuously walking on eggshells.
Situations such as price negotiations, an evaluation talk or the discussion of a problem with a Chinese partner seem like an impossible task. In the West we are used to freely expressing our opinion or giving our own interpretation of things. In China, however, it is customary to refer to existing rules or external factors.
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Comments (1)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endDenise Hummel - February 28, 2009 11:53 PM
I'm Denise Hummel, Founder and Director of Universal Consensus, http://www.universalconsensus.com, a cross-cultural consulting and international mediation firm. So nice to see the growing consciousness of negotiating across borders. The issue you discuss relative to losing face is a critical one in Chinese and other non-Western cultures. Equally important is the issue of silence in Chinese culture and the fact that Americans and other Westerners tend to see this as acquiescence or agreement, when in fact, the silence, combined with avoided eye gaze is a sure indication of discord or discomfort. Thanks for sharing.