Research On Chinese And American Business Negotiators' Preferences For Conflict Management Models

With the rapid development of economic globalization , international business negotiations are on the dramatic increase. However, differences in economy, politics and culture often intensify the conflicts between negotiating parties. Conflict management, as one important branch of management, has attracted a number of scholars to conduct researches on it. Nevertheless, up till now, studies integrating conflict management and intercultural business negotiation are still at the embryonic stage whether in managerial or in intercultural circles.The present thesis takes Chinese and American business negotiators as objects of research, and with the aid of classic conflict management theory it reveals that differences between the two countries' negotiators' conflict resolution styles really exist: Chinese business negotiators rely more on nonconfrontational styles while American businessmen confrontational styles. By reviewing relevant theories about cultural dimensions and via the approach of comparative study, the paper aims at making an in-depth cultural analysis of conflict management models preferred by Chinese and American negotiators from three aspects, namely, individualism vs. collectivism, hierarchy vs. egalitarianism, high context vs. low context. What is more, effort is also made in the current thesis to study the real cases and the results of questionnaire survey, through which the author finds that preferences for conflict management models are not fixed and unchanging. The research shows that negotiators from Chinese and American business circles do have their distinct preferences for conflict management styles and the cultural values account for these differences, but with the development of the times, there is a tendency for the discrepancies to be reduced by degrees.The present study has its significance in pragmatic values. The analysis of Chinese and American business negotiators' preferences for conflict management models (PCMM) conduces to their better knowledge about both their own and the opposition's conflict styles, thus enhancing negotiators' communicative competence and ensuring the success of negotiations.