| When Americans and Japanese meet for business negotiations, they often bring different expectations to the negotiating table. This study explores how and why Americans and Japanese misunderstand each other in a contract negotiation by using the frames theory proposed by Gregory Bateson, Erving Goffman and Deborah Tannen. The analysis is based on observation of an actual process--from an initial meeting to contract writing--in which a Japanese television production company hired an American consultant. The approach for investigation is ethnographic: I closely examine spoken as well as written interactions of which I was the interpreter and liaison.; The central idea is that many Americans define business meetings as the time for "problem-solving." They use language to establish rights and obligations that govern their independent relationship, and therefore they negotiate solutions in order to adjust their differences. By contrast, many Japanese pursue "relation-building" in meetings. They use language to affirm similarities so that they can establish and strengthen an interdependent, rather than an independent, relationship with a prospective partner. As a consequence, for many Americans, a contract binds each party to specific acts, whereas for many Japanese, a contract offers the promise of an interdependent relationship.; In the meeting under study, when the American scholar tried to specify individual rights and obligations, the Japanese producer found that the interdependent relationship was threatened. On the other hand, when the Japanese tried to affirm a social bond, the American assumed that the Japanese was asking for more concessions. As a result, each party became locked into different cycle of reasoning. While the Japanese arguments moved toward attitudes and emotions, the American arguments went into more details of the arrangements.; When writing the contract, the Japanese producers tried to delete specific numbers in the contract because they believed that trust would work as the glue between the two parties. Their American attorney, however, encouraged them to spell out specifics in order to avoid future problems.; The study demonstrates that miscommunication and disagreement arise from different frames that Americans and Japanese apply when forming a professional relationship. |
