Culture in Negotiations across Cultures in Business. An Encounter and Business Negotiations between Iceland and Portugal

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Corporate communication, grade: 1.3, University of Applied Sciences Aschaffenburg, language: English, abstract: The paper focuses on the role of culture in negotiations across cultures in business. Starting point of the paper will be the theoretical analysis of the selected cultures of Portugal and Iceland with the help of relevant theories/approaches regarding culture's impact on negotiations. The impact of culture on negotiations in business will then be analyzed in a practical part with the help of a specific critical incident with focus on the Portuguese and Icelandic culture.

The paper focuses on selected cultural aspects. The focus was chosen on aspects that show the most interesting differences between the cultures of Iceland and Portugal and that are most interesting for the critical incident. The paper focuses on communication aspects, that are important during negotiations, as well as the monochronic and polychronic time orientation and Gestelands' pattern of relationship-focus and deal-focus.

Cross-cultural negotiations are getting more and more important in the business context. Doing business abroad, using sources and hiring workforce from other cultures make cross-cultural negotiations between professionals necessary, especially in times of globalization. In international business, great benefits can be gained from cross-cultural negotiations, nevertheless negotiations across cultures are more complex than negotiations between persons from the same country or culture. Negotiations between people from different cultures add an entire dimension to any negotiation introducing inter alia language barriers, differences in body language and alternative ways of expressing pleasure or displeasure with the elements of the deal that is negotiated.

A professional negotiator has to understand the cultures of the participants, as well as culturally specific aspects. People that are involved in international negotiations have to acquire a skill set that is useful in the prevention of undesired perceptions and that promotes successful negotiation outcomes. According to the authors Shi and Wright the business executive's work has an increasingly international orientation and international business negotiation becomes an important competency in a global business environment.