The importance of cultural dilemmas in stakeholder negotiation and conflict resolution is determined by the fact that people traditionally communicate with each other within the framework of their cultural values and beliefs. Culture impacts all spheres of human activities, and its aspects strongly affects people’s behaviors and perceptions. At the same time, cultural values and beliefs form ones’ expectations from the representatives of other cultures. In turn, understanding cultural differences and taking them into consideration frequently lead to successful negotiation while negligence in relation to others’ values and beliefs causes conflicts.
The significance of cultural differences for the success of business negotiations was examined by multiple researchers. For instance, in their article, Liu et al. (2021) investigate the differences between Chinese and British negotiators determined by their cultures. Thus, Chinese negotiators are regarded as collectivists focused on human relations and oriented on results, while British negotiators are presented as interest-based individualists who pay considerable attention to formal procedures and regulations (Liu et al., 2021). The efficiency of business negotiations between them will be determined by the absence of cultural dilemmas that, in turn, may occur due to two main factors. The first one is the reliance on stereotypes rather than on an actual situation. It goes without saying that certain expectations related to a certain culture may be confirmed, however, it is essential to address particular negotiators. The second factor is expectations from the position of a negotiator’s own culture. This unintentional ignorance of partners’ cultural peculiarities may lead to the inappropriate outcomes of negotiations and even conflicts. That is why it is highly important to consider cultural differences to avoid misunderstanding or improve conflict management in the case of controversy.
Reference
Liu, C., Lu, J., & Zhan, Y. (2021). Cultural differences in business negotiations between China and the UK. In 2021 6th International Conference on Modern Management and Education Technology (MMET 2021) (pp. 433-437). Atlantis Press.