Thursday Thought: Inter-cultural Negotiations

Posted By Flavio Araujo, May 26, 2016

The power of “you”: An inter-cultural way to improve your negotiations outcome

Inter-culture negotiations get you nowhere!

Many people believe that the above is true. Some scientific studies even throw us in that direction. You know the feeling. Someone from a different country tries to negotiate with you and… Come on! Where did that come from?? Why did he do that? Isn’t that weird?

Well, looks like the common-sense idea above is not true, according to a study published by Mary C. Kern and colleagues. And if you ever negotiated inter-culturally and felt that way, maybe you should reconsider your analysis of what happened.

This study points us to another direction, showing that inter-cultural negotiations may produce greater joint gains for the parties involved than intra-cultural negotiations.

The use of language as a bridge builder

 A study made with American and Korean students from Ivy League institutions shows us that the use of the pronoun “you” makes a huge difference in the outcome of negotiations.

The researchers put together 92 students (47 U.S. and 45 Korean) and then split them up into three teams of two: 16 U.S. – U.S.; 15 U.S. – Korean; and 15 Korean-Korean. The Koreans were considered bi-cultural because they have “deep experience in two cultures and have acquired the cultural theories or mindset of both cultures”. They were given a negotiation exercise, and their results were measured. The results showed that the U.S.–Korean teams fared better than the others in terms of obtaining joint gains.

Evaluating what happened in each team, the researchers found that the inter-cultural teams with American and Korean negotiators used the pronoun “you” more in their negotiation.

The pronoun “you” and words related to it (your, yours, you’d and you’ll) were more effective in bridging social distance, the “degree of sympathetic understanding”, between the negotiators when used in phrases related to (i) asking about the other’s preferences and/or priorities (e.g. “when would you like to start?”); (ii) showing insight into the other’s preferences and/or priorities (e.g. “…that also depends on where you live. I mean if you live in San Francisco,…”); and (iii) making an offer (e.g. “what about I give you $10,000?”).

Closing social distance

They concluded that the pronoun “you” was successfully used by both U.S. and Koreans students to close social distance in the inter-cultural negotiation, despite the age and gender of the teams. It was also used to provide insight into the other side’s priorities and interests, creating a path to joint gains. Also, they concluded that demonstrating social awareness ( the “degree of consciousness of and attention to the other”)  is fundamental to productive inter-cultural negotiations.

So, next time you negotiate with someone from a different culture, forget any misconceptions about inter-cultural negotiations and use your language to achieve better results for both of you!

Mary C. Kern et al., Bridging Social Distance in Inter-Cultural Negotiations: “You” and the Bi-Cultural Negotiator, 23(2) Int’l J. Conflict Mgmt. 173 (2012).