Class Review and Cross-cultural Negotiation

On Monday, we did our second negotiation role play about snake eggs. Though my group didn't reach a win-win solution in time, I really enjoyed figuring it out with Maya and Kengo. This time, the negotiation was harder because we had three stakeholders: the seller, buyer one and two.

However, I found out one thing. I used to think that "the more complicated the situation is, the harder the negotiation will be," but this wasn't always true. Moreover, in this case, we wouldn't have met a win-win solution if any of the three stakeholders hadn't joined the negotiation. I don't know how the negotiations are held in the real situation, but if one-by-one negotiation(composed of two stakeholders) is often the case, isn't it kind of mottainai? I mean, there might be a better solution if the negotiation is held with more than two stakeholders :)

By the way, the professor of the course I took in the autumn term told us an interesting story about cross-cultural negotiations. He said that when Japanese government have meetings with foreign governments outside Japan, government officials sometimes take the interpreter with them, even though the country they are visiting will offer them a local interpreter. The reason of this is to have a thinking time.

When the meeting is held in English, most of the Japanese officials not only understand other country officials' words, but also can tell their opinions in English. Therefore, if the local interpreter doesn't do a good job, they cannot help speaking English and have a direct conversation when negotiating. If this happens, they will have to give up their own pace, and the negotiation will be advantageous to other country. 

By taking the trustworthy interpreter from Japan, they are trying to do calm and constructive negotiations.

When it comes to cross-cultural negotiation, there are many things to think about. In addition to the problem of the language, non-verbal signs may influence the negotiation!