The Impact Of Cultural Differences On Sino-German Negotiation Styles

With the deepening globalization of the world economy, cross cultural businesscommunication has become unprecedentedly important and frequent. Especially afterChina's entry into WTO, various types of cross cultural business negotiations ondifferent levels have played an increasingly important role in Chinese social andbusiness life. Germany, the largest trading partner of China in Europe, is conductingmany business negotiations with China almost everyday. However, due to the vastdifferences between Chinese and German cultures, their different negotiating stylesoften lead to communication failures in negotiations and sometimes even break downof the whole negotiation. In order to guarantee a successful business negotiationbetween Chinese and Germans, understanding how the cultural differences betweenthem impact their negotiation styles becomes indispensable for these negotiators.The thesis attempts to identify the differences in negotiation styles between Chinesenegotiators and German negotiators. After reviewing relevant studies and theories onChinese and German cultures as well as on cross-cultural communication, the authorputs forward four analytic dimensions: relationship-oriented versus task-oriented,achievement-oriented versus ascription-oriented, monochronic versus polychronic anddirect ways of approaching conflicts versus indirect ways of approaching conflicts.Based on these four dimensions, the author analyzes the negotiation styles of Chineseand German negotiators and proposes four hypotheses. According to the datacollected from questionnaires handed out to negotiators, the author tests the fourhypotheses and analyzes culture's impact on their negotiation styles.The author's hypotheses are mostly justified by the results, but there also occur someunexpected ones. For example, the German negotiators are found to have the tendencyof mutual face maintenance. Finally, the author points out the limitations of the studyand puts forward some recommendations for future Chinese and German negotiators.