International     Business     and Cross-cultural Communication

The increase in international business and in  foreign  investment has 

created a  need  for executives with  knowledge    of foreign  languages and

skills in cross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not  been

well  trained in   either area and, consequently, have  not enjoyed the same

level of success in negotiation in an international arena        as have their

foreign counterparts.

Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purpose

of reaching an agreement. It involves       persuasion and compromise, but in

order to participate in either one, the negotiators  must understand  the 

ways  in   which  people are persuaded and how compromise  is reached within

the culture of the negotiation.

In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are perceived

as wealthy and impersonal.  It  often    appears  to  the  foreign 

negotiator  that  the  American  represents  a  large multi-million-dollar

corporation that can      afford to pay the price without bargaining further.

The American negotiator's role becomes that of an impersonal      purveyor of

information and cash.

In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been

identified that may serve to confirm this   stereotypical perception, while

undermining the negotiator's position. Two traits in particular that cause        

cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part

of  the   American   negotiator.  Furthermore,    American   negotiators 

often   insist  on  realizing short-term goals. Foreign negotiators, on the

other hand, may value   the relationship established between negotiators and

may be willing to invest time in  it for long-term benefits. In order to

solidify  the  relationship,  they  may  opt  for  indirect  interactions 

without  regard  for  the  time

involved in getting to know the other negotiator.

Clearly,  perceptions and differences  in values affect the  outcomes of

negotiations and the success  of  negotiators. For Americans to play a 

more effective role in  international  business negotiations, they must put

forth more effort to improve cross-cultural understanding.

國際商業(yè)和跨文化交流  國際貿(mào)易和海外投資的增加產(chǎn)生了對具有外語知識和跨文化交 流技巧的經(jīng)理的需求。

然而，美國人在這兩方面未得到良好的訓(xùn)練，因此沒有在國際談判 中象他們的外國對手一樣成功。 談判是為了達(dá)成協(xié)議而反復(fù)交流的過程。 它包括說服和妥 協(xié)。

但是為了去進行說服和妥協(xié)，談判者必須懂得在談判的文化中怎樣說服人和怎樣達(dá)成 妥協(xié)。 在國外的國際商務(wù)談判中，美國人被視為富有和不帶個人情感。

在外國談判者看來， 似乎美國人代表著一個龐大的擁有數(shù)百萬資財?shù)拇笃髽I(yè)，不用進一步地討價還價就能出得起 價錢。

美國談判者的角色變成了一個沒有個人感情的信息及現(xiàn)金的供應(yīng)者。 對在國外的美

國談判者的研究中，我們找出了損害談判者能力的幾個特點，或許證實這個已成定式的看法。 尤其引起跨文化誤解的兩個特點是美國談判者的直截了當(dāng)和缺乏耐心。

此外，美國談判者 經(jīng)常堅持實現(xiàn)短期目標(biāo)，而外國的談判者會珍視建立談判者之間的聯(lián)系并愿意為長期利益投 入時間。

為了鞏固這種聯(lián)系，他們會選擇非直接的交流而不計較投入用于了解對方的時間。 明顯地，價值觀的不同和理解上的差異影響了談判的結(jié)果和談判者的成功與否。

美國人要 在國際商務(wù)談判中扮演更為有效的角色，他們就必須投入更多的努力提高跨文化的理解力。

譯路通武漢漢口翻譯公司整理

2012.6.10