Mission statements: corporate level = one voice Excellence Integrity Innovation Linda Williams (2008)
Communication in a transactional culture: Multi-national companies Anne Marie Bülow Copenhagen Business School Dept. Int. Culture and Communication St / CBS Negotiation Centre
2 concerns
Trust Legitimacy -in order to get things done
2 principles
Convergence: Our way, and we’re proud of it Divergence: Meet them where they are Cynthia Stohl 2001
3 levels
The corporate level The interactional level The company-internal level
’Voice’ and ’persona’
Monsanto = a company seeking a cure for world hunger World Bank = an AIDS-elimination program Nike = an agent of economic development and ecology David Boje (2008)
Mission statements: corporate level = one voice Excellence Integrity Innovation Linda Williams (2008)
Company history: same? Coca-Cola stresses government prizes, local involvement in China Yan Tian (2006)
Annual report
With the exception of North America, all of our Automotive operations were profitable, excluding special items, and all achieved significant improvements. In North America, we made substantial progress on our plan to aggressively restructure in order to operate profitably. We continued to align capacity to demand, and reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers which significantly improves our competitiveness going forward. Ford chairman 2008
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To our customers, I thank each of you for your ongoing support, and recommit all of us in the Company to striving harder each year to make your experiences with us as exceptional as you expect. To our people, the challenge lies in that commitment, and I have every confidence that you will rise to it with determination and enthusiasm. Singapore Airlines chairman 2008
Interaction
Belarus managers working with Westerners: “they deal with us as second rate aborigines”, “We do get information, but we do not trust it”, Expatriate managers: “My partners are not honest”, “the locals are working for themselves, not for me” Peter B Smith (2003)
Joint decisions
Different traditions for - getting views on the table taking the decision ? Power hierarchies ? Uncertainty avoidance Werner Auer-Rizzi and Michael Berry 2000
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Negotiation
Elements compared across cultures in the literature: Communication styles Professional cultures Interactional roles international/-cultural dyads are worse off in terms of joint gains (only) Graham; Jeanne Brett & Tetsushi Okumura (1998); Laura Drake (2001)
Role
Buyer / sellers Status quo / grievance ’owner’
Cross-cult comparisons
the word “no” in a 30-minute session: 5.7 for the American dyads, 9.0 for the Japanese, 83.4 for the Brazilians John Graham (1985, 2003)
silent periods for 10 seconds or more per 30 min. session : 5.5 for the Japanese, 3.5 for the Americans, 0 for the Brazilians
Conversational overlaps: 12.6 for the Japanese, 10.3 for the Americans 28.6 for the Brazilians
Spain, France, Germany, UK Nigeria USA, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil Japan, China, India military, lawyers, engineers, diplomats & public sector, teachers, students accounting & finance, management & marketing Jeswald Salacuse (1998, 2003)
national vs prof. culture
WIN/WIN: JPN CHN ARG FR IND (%) 100 82 81 80 78 USA UK MEX GER NIG BRZ SP 71 59 50 55 47 44 37
WIN/WIN: DIP/PS MGT/MKT ACCT/FIN (%): 86 81 76 TEACH ENG STD LAW MIL 71 71 43 42 40
Risk HIGH: MIL AC/FIN ENG MA/MKT (%): 100 81 77 75 STUD TEACH LAW DIP/PS 72 67 66 36
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