Country specific negotiating styles

1. Business letters – the beginning of business relationships

In spite of the great advances made in the field of communication the business letters remains one of the most effective ways of conveying information from one person to another. Bearing in mind the important role played by the letter in the world of business we need to dis­tinguish between good and bad practices in letter writing. The acceptable forms and styles need to be understood.

The critical importance of the letter is its impact on the receiver. We are dealing with cus­tomers or members of the public (potential customers) without whose support the business would fail and our jobs disappear. Of course this is true of all our contacts with the public but the letter is difficult to retract or to deny, and these features mean that we need to be particularly careful and precise when we compose letters.

Managers and other professionals spend a substantial portion of their time and energy negotiating and resolving conflicts with superiors, co-workers, subordinates, customers, competitors and suppliers. Poorly conducted negotiations can reduce the value of the settlement for every party involved in the negotiation. The analytical and bargaining skills in these situations can have an important and positive impact on the outcomes of negotiations.

Negotiation is a complex activity that requires time and effort. It is a dynamic process involving two or more people who are interdependent in the realization of their objectives. People use negotiations to make decisions and to resolve conflicts, if there is no other clear and well established procedure. The complexity, efforts, argumentation, and conflict that often characterize negotiations may make people uncomfortable and even fearful of resorting to this form of decision making. However, it is impossible not to negotiate! Hence, one needs to learn how to manage conflict and how to negotiate effectively.

The skills required for managers, engineers, computer scientists, project managers and other professionals include effective communication, collaboration and negotiation. Recent changes in the workplace and beyond make the negotiation approach to decision making more important than before. Commerce and trade, including electronic commerce, involve negotiations and bargaining.

Globalization of trade and internationalization of services and production make negotiation even more important, and--at the same time--difficult due to distance, time and cultural differences. New communication and computer technologies introduce negotiations of, and with, intelligent software agents, bargaining on virtual markets, negotiations via Web, as well as group decision and negotiation support systems used in negotiation planning, analysis, and conduct.