Business Negotiation:a Perspective Of"Rhetorical Situation"

As the economy develops and the globalization speeds up its steps, the impact of business negotiation on the whole global economy is getting more and more significant. How to achieve the agreement of negotiating parties? What elements should be noticed during the process of business negotiation? What strategies can be used to realize the optimum of profits? These questions have aroused general interests of scholars, who have already done plenty of achievement on business negotiation. With the development of interdisciplinary study, more and more researchers combine business negotiation with other subjects. This paper restudies business negotiation from the perspective of western rhetoric, which can provide a different angle for business negotiation study, shedding some light on improving negotiating skills.In the Greek time, persuasive public speaking was the core of western rhetoric. Nowadays, with the development and change of the social life, the researching scope of western rhetoric has been widened, with a notable feature of pluralism. Where there is language and communication, there is rhetoric. Business negotiation is a communicating process conducted in certain environment with the aim to persuade the counterparts. Therefore, applying western rhetoric to the study of its practice is doable.This thesis attempts to consider business negotiation as a rhetorical process, applying ’"Rhetorical Situation" theory to study the impact of situation on business negotiation. First of all, this thesis makes a general review on the previous research of business negotiation and new Western Rhetoric respectively. Then it makes a discussion on the study of rhetorical situation macroscopically and microcosmically, finding that Bitzer’s theory, which is considered as microcosmical, is more suitable for concrete analysis of rhetorical activity. Thus this paper analyzes the practical cases of business negotiation from Exigence, Audience, Constraints and Timing, four elements of rhetorical situation. As rhetors, negotiators should define the exigence of negotiation first. An exigence is a problem or urgency waiting to be solved. It reflects the purpose of an action. So, the negotiators should make clear about the purpose of negotiating actions, namely, to realize "identification" of negotiating parties. Meanwhile they need to take advantage of the emotion and backgrounds of audience, keeping improving the capacity of using reasoning appeal, ethical appeal and emotional appeal, making proper responses to the situation, seizing the right timing to achieve this purpose. In addition, the ability of using verbal and nonverbal tactics for persuading others should also be attached importance to.Through applying the New Western Rhetoric, the author makes qualitative study which is regarded as the methodology of this thesis on business negotiation. The study of this thesis is conducted from a new perspective of western rhetoric. By the detailed analysis of concrete business negotiating cases, the methodology and findings of this thesis can be used as a source of reference for business negotiation and its practice.