Cultural Differences in Negotiations: An Overview on the US, China and Germany
This chapter deals with cultural differences regarding negotiations. In this context, the chapter (comparatively) focuses on the negotiation practice in the US, Germany and China.
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Cultural Differences in Negotiations: An Overview on the US, China and Germany
4.1 How Germans Negotiate 4.1.1 Preliminary Notes As with any other nationality, one cannot distinguish “the German negotiator” or the “German negotiation style”. Personal mentality (degree of extroversion, ability to manage conflicts, risk aversion, emotionality), circle of friends, experience abroad, gender, age, hierarchy, level of education, professional expertise, branch, region, migration background, ownership structure of the firm (e.g. mother company abroad, large corporation with anonymous shareholders or family corporation), size and internationality of the company, international negotiation experience, corporate strategy, competitive situation regarding the contract object etc. are all factors which influence the negotiator’s negotiation type. If, for instance, negotiators lack professional competence, these negotiators negotiate cooperatively less often due to their fear of being disadvantaged. Above that, these negotiators also often act and react emotionally. In Germany, regional differences play hardly any role: the people negotiating are almost never from the same region. Besides, other factors are more formative, such as socialisation in the academic and entrepreneurial environment. In addition, the level of negotiation experience and negotiation training or the concrete composition of the negotiation group can have a significant impact on the negotiation type. Hence it is now commonplace for German corporations to establish international negotiation teams. Nonetheless, there are some statements that generally comply with the behaviour of German negotiators.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 S. Jung, P. Krebs, The Essentials of Contract Negotiation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12866-1_4
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4 Cultural Differences in Negotiations: An Overview on the US, China and Germany
4.1.2 Negotiation Training In Germany, training courses for negotiations exist at law faculties and business schools and in business and engineering degree courses, but they are usually not mandatory and only a fraction of the students take part in such a course. This may be due to the fact that, particularly at universities, practically approached knowledge transfer is viewed with fundamental scepticism. Especially in Germany, the different degree specialisations are strictly separated. Interdisciplinary education (simultaneous or consecutive) is relatively rare, and is furthermore hardly honoured in terms of career perspectives. Since contract negotiations combine scientific knowledge from various sciences (social psychology, classical economic theory, game theory, behavioural economics, communication science, law), each German scientist who deals generally with negotiations moves largely within a foreign field of expertise. This situation is avoided as far as possible. Thus, only a few universities offer more comprehensive courses in contract negotiations. Large companies and occasionally also SMEs offer negotiation training
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