some reflections of vietnamese and american cultural values on vietnamese-american business negotiation = các giá trị văn hóa việt nam, hoa kỳ phản ánh trong đàm phán thương mại việt-mỹ tt

This shows the importance of understanding how differences in cultures, sexes, experience, and characteristics could affect Vietnamese – American business negotiation.. This study, there

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgement ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

Table of contents……… iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… ……… 1

3 Scope of the study……… 2

4 Methods of the study ……… 2

5 Significance of the study ……… 2

6 Organization of the study……… 2

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1 Culture ……… ……… 4

1.1 What is culture? ……… 4

1.2 Components of culture ……… 4

1.3 Cultural values ……… 6

1.3.1 Vietnamese cultural values ……… 6

1.3 1.1 Collectivism ……… 7

1.3.1.2 Harmony ……… 8

1.3.1.3 Respect……… 8

1.3.1.4 Duty and honor……… 9

1.3.2 American cultural values……… 9

1.3.2.1 Individualism……… 10

1.3.2.2 Self-reliance……… 10

1.3.2.3 Equality……… 11

1.3.2.4 Competition ……… 12

1.3.2.5 Materialism and hard work……… 12

2 Communication……… 13

2.1 What is communication? 13

2.2 Cross – cultural communication……… 13

2.3 Potential problems in cross – cultural communication ……… 14

3 Negotiation ……… 14

3.1 What is negotiation? 14

3.2 Negotiation as a form of communication……… 15

3.3 Elements of negotiation……… 17

3.4 Business negotiation……… 18

3.5 Characteristics of business negotiation……… 18

3.6 Cross - cultural business negotiation……… 19

3.7 Potential problems in cross cultural business negotiation……… 21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 1 Research method……… 22

2 Data collection instrument ……… 22

3 Data collection procedure……… 23

4 Informants……… 23

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 1 Presentation and analysis of the data……… 25

1.1 The negotiators – the actors of a negotiation……… 25

1.2 The size of negotiation team……… 26

1.3 Negotiation approach……… 28

1.4 Negotiating style ……… 28

1.5 Risk taking……… 29

1.6 Goal of negotiating ……… 29

1.7 The role of attorneys in the negotiation……… 30

1.8 Conflict management……… 30

1.9 Decision-making ……… 31

1.10 Activities accompanying the negotiation ……… 33

2 Similarities and differences between Vietnamese and American in business negotiation and the cultural explanation….……… 34

2.1 Similarities……… 34

2.2 Differences……… 36

3 Potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation and some suggested solutions………

39 3.1 Potential problems……… 39

3.2 Some suggested solutions……… 39

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 41 1 Conclusion……… 41

2 Limitation of the study……… 42

3 Suggestions for further study……… 42

REFERENCES……… 43 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

During the last few decades, the increasing globalization of the economy has resulted in the tremendous growth in international market As international business opportunities open, negotiations also increase There have been so many studies about negotiation skills across cultures, but they only focused mainly on developed countries Just few studies have been conducted in the Vietnamese market

Located in the Southeast Asian region, the developing country Vietnam attracts a lot of foreign direct investments, especially after becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007 Among various foreign investors are those who come from the United States The U.S.-Vietnam Trade Agreement signed in July 2000 has created opportunities for US investors in Vietnam and also given Vietnamese businesses access to the U.S market on the same terms as other nations With the increasing development in US – Vietnam trade relation, the negotiations between Vietnamese and U.S partners grow to

be a norm This shows the importance of understanding how differences in cultures, sexes, experience, and characteristics could affect Vietnamese – American business negotiation However, to cover all those differences in a study of this size seems to be overloaded This study, therefore, attempts to explore only one side of cultural differences - Vietnamese and American cultural values and to find out how they influence on Vietnamese – American business negotiation

2 Aims of the study

This study aims to investigate the potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation and the Vietnamese and American cultural values that cause those problems To be more specific, the objectives of the study are:

- to find out typical Vietnamese and American cultural values

- to understand the nature of a cross cultural business negotiation

- to examine the potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation

- to analyze how cultural values influence the negotiation process and outcomes These aims are formulated into 3 following research questions:

1) What are the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and American business negotiation?

2) How are Vietnamese and American cultural values reflected in Vietnamese – American business negotiation?

3) What are potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation?

3 Scope of the study

Dealing with all cultural factors affecting negotiation is too broad for a study of this type Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate only some typical cultural values of the two target countries: Vietnam and the United States; and to find out how they are reflected in Vietnamese-American business negotiation

4 Methods of the study

The study used mixed methods to find answers to the three research questions The instrument for data collection in this study was the questionnaire The data collected from questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively for descriptive statistics Considerations and comments will be made inductively

5 Significance of the study

This study points out the cultural values of the two countries that have influence on Vietnamese – American business negotiation and tries to find out some potential problems

in that case The results of the study will be of some contribution to the literature of international business negotiation from cross-cultural perspective Moreover, the findings and comments of the study are believed to be useful for raising the cultural awareness of Vietnamese and American businessmen when they meet up in a negotiation so that they can achieve success when they do business in the United States or Vietnam

6 Organization of the study:

This minor thesis consists of 5 chapters:

The first chapter is the introduction which reveals the rationale, significance, aims,

methods, scope and organization of the study

Chapter 2 is the theoretical background centering on some typical cultural values

of Vietnam and the United States, the cross cultural business negotiation with potential problems

Chapter 3 discusses the methodology of the study

Chapter 4 deals with findings and discussion, and implications of the study given

by the findings

The last chapter is the conclusion, limitations and suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Culture

1.1 What is culture?

Culture is an abstract term which is very hard to define The meaning of the word

―culture‖ causes a lot of debates by anthropologists as well as many other social scientists There are up to now hundreds of definitions of ‗culture‘ and different people define it in dissimilar ways But the most general understanding of culture is that it is learnt, not inherent

Culture may be understood in the sense of ―high culture‖ as the appreciation of art, music, literature and so on, or ―low culture‖ as normal life with daily activities of human

beings According to UNESCO, culture is an "aggregate of distinctive, spiritual, material,

intellectual, and emotional traits, which characterizes a society or a social group It includes, alongside with arts and literature, ways of life, basic human rights, systems of values, customs and traditions, and faiths" This is the definition that helps to articulate the concept of cultural dimension of development Geert Hofstede (1984:22) describes culture

as the ―collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group

or category of people from another.‖ Therefore, the behavior of a person can only be understood from the knowledge of the culture that he belongs to

Due to the fact that all negotiations take place in a socio-cultural environment, the culture of such a place will greatly influence the way the negotiators act, behave or perceive communications, both verbal and non verbal during negotiations Therefore, the definition ―Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values‖ by Levine and Adelman (1993:xvi) is the most suitable one for the scope of this study

composed of six elements: beliefs, values, norms, roles, role conflict and status

- Beliefs: these are general, vague opinions held about the world and about the

nature of society They vary by society and sometimes by subcultures, e.g the ancient

people were encouraged to think that the Earth was the centre of the universe and all other planets moved around us

- Values: these are vague beliefs about what is right and correct in the world They

imply that there are certain appropriate forms of action which ought to be taken, e.g life is precious therefore, it is wrong to kill anybody

- Norms: these are socially expected patterns of behavior (Actions that are

regarded as normal) A norm of the British society is to say ―Hello!‖ on meeting someone,

or to stand in a queue without trying to push in front

- Roles: Social roles are patterns of behavior expected of certain people according

to the occupation or position they hold in society

- Role conflict: There are innumerable social roles – father, mother, child,

shopkeeper etc All of us occupy a number of roles, which are generally complementary, but sometimes they may conflict

- Status: This refers to the position of a person or social role in society according to

the amount of prestige received from others In different societies/cultures, status varies

Myron W Lustig and Jolene Koeste (2006, 86) have the opinion that culture involves four components: beliefs, values, norms and social practices

- Beliefs: A belief is an idea that people assume to be true about the world Beliefs,

therefore, are a set of learned interpretations that form the basis for cultural members to decide what is and what is not logical and correct

- Values: Values involve what a culture regards as good or bad, right or wrong, fair

or unfair, just or unjust, beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, valuable or worthless, appropriate

or inappropriate, and kind of cruel Because values are the desired characteristics or goals

of a culture, a culture‘s values do not necessary describe its actual behaviors and characteristics

- Norms: Norms are the socially shared expectations of appropriate behaviors

When a person‘s behaviors violate the culture‘s norms, social sanctions are usually imposed Like values, norms can vary within a culture in terms of their importance and intensity Unlike values, however, norms may change over a period of time, whereas beliefs and values tend to be much more enduring

- Social practices: Social practices are the predictable behaviors‘ patterns that

members of a culture typically follow Thus, social practices are the outward manifestations of beliefs, values and norms

1.3 Cultural values

In the scope of this study, only the component ‗values‘ is focused among the

components of culture mentioned above In the view of philosophers, value is a very common concept It relates to economy, politics, morality, art, religion, science, culture and even the common connotation and essence of gains and losses, kindness and evil, beauty and ugliness, pros and cons in every field of daily life

Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as good or evil Different cultures reflect different values At the simplest level, cultural values are commonly shared concepts about what is right or wrong, possible

or impossible, true or false and so on In other words, they may be seen as the commonly held standards of what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, right or wrong, workable or unworkable, etc., in a community or society Values determine thought

patterns, standards of morality and behaviors Each culture has its own value system which

may be very different from that of another culture

1.3.1 Vietnamese cultural values

Known as a once war-torn nation, Vietnam has a complex culture influenced by many foreign invaders over the centuries However, it can be said on the positive side that, this history of war has contributed to shape the Vietnamese character Long years of fighting against foreign intruders have served to unify the country, fostering a sense of nationalism and pride

In the early history, the country was dominated by Chinese for almost 1000 years Consequently, the Viet people and culture were subject to constant Chinese influence and significant attempts of assimilation Therefore, Vietnamese culture is said to have foundations in Confucian and Buddhist philosophies transmitted mainly from Chinese source In addition, it was traditionally the agricultural society that formed the Vietnamese character, which was characterized by the village community with many of its primitive vestiges retained The thoughts of farmers absorbed deeply into the Vietnamese agricultural society and their positive aspects made up the typical features of the traditional

Vietnamese The basic administrative and social unit of the society was the village with affairs run by notables and the state rarely interfered The village culture highly valued emotional ties and attachment to relatives and community as well as help extended to each other especially to the less fortunate members In this way, it fostered the sense of collectivism

Despite all the complexity of the structure of the Vietnamese cultural system as such, the core distinctive values of Vietnamese culture are still recognizable

1.3.1.1 Collectivism

This cultural value means that the interests of the community or the group are considered to be more important than the interest of the individual Asian cultures place a higher value on the group and tend to see individuals in terms of their membership in and obligation to groups The Vietnamese are no exception Being a collectivist society, the needs of the group in Vietnam are placed before the needs of the individuals The concerns for family and community will almost always come before business or individual needs

This is explained by Ellis C (1996) in her book Culture shock! Vietnam: A strong sense of community felt by all Vietnamese is an intrinsic part of their make-up and ethnographers believe it stems from their long reliance on wet rice agriculture The people had to cooperate and work together on intra-village irrigation systems to get the benefits of a good harvest This created a sense of unity…

An expression of this value is the Vietnamese people‘s allegiance to their family There is a fact that family is the cornerstone of the Vietnamese society Vietnamese people cherish the complete and stable family, maintain harmony and avoid confrontations They usually live in extended families which may include three (or more) generations: grandparents, parents and children By virtue of the principle of collective and mutual responsibility, each individual strives to be the pride of his family Children are taught from early childhood to obey their parents and readily forget himself for the sake of his family‘s welfare and harmony The elder generation always tells the younger generation what they should or should not do Before making a decision, the younger generation often asks for their parents‘ opinions

1.3.1.2 Harmony

Harmony is normally defined referring to the natural world as a cultural emphasis

on fitting harmoniously into the environment (unity with nature, protecting the

environment, world of beauty) More appropriately, it may refer to non-assertiveness in

social relations For Vietnamese culture, according to Hunt P.C (2002), the concept of harmony is based largely on the teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism Total harmony is achieved by creating harmony within oneself and one’s family, as well as in the outer world of humanity and nature He also states that observing moderation and avoiding

extremes are some ways an individual can do to produce harmony That‘s moderation and

avoiding extremes in verbal communication, daily life activities, consumption of food and drink and in social interaction This helps ensure their physical safety and they can adhere

to the moral imperative to keep their dignity unimpaired

1.3.1.3 Respect

Hunt P.C (2002, 4) supposed that ―respect is the foundation of Confucius‘ teaching and it is the guiding principle of interpersonal relationships in Vietnamese society.‖ Vietnamese are expected to show respect to people who are senior to them in age, status, or position At home, they should show respect to their parents, older siblings, and older relatives This is expressed by obedience in words and action Respect is part of the concept of filial piety Insults to elders or ancestors are very serious and can often lead to severed social ties Outside the family, respect should be paid to elderly people, teachers, clergymen, supervisors and employers, and people in high positions through language and demeanor Puffer (2004, 204) explained that ―By giving respect, one gains respect The essential principle is: Show other people more respect than they apparently deserve; simultaneously expect and assert less respect than you deserve.‖

1.3.1.4 Duty and honor

Duty and honor are among the highest cultural values Individuals are instilled from childhood with the values of honor, hard work and loyalty to the family Individuals have the ultimate duty to carry themselves with the utmost dignity in all circumstances so as to not bring shame to oneself and the family To lose face dishonors oneself and one‘s family The duty and role of each immediate and extended family member is well defined These duties and roles govern the actions of the individuals and are the sacrifices one makes to one‘s family For example, the role of the parents is to raise their children properly Their duties are not limited to providing food and shelter, but require them to educate and instill the children with moral values The children in turn have the duties to obey their parents

and never to question their authority or teaching When the parents get older, it is the duty

of the children to take care of them (Hunt, P.C., 2002:4)

1.3.2 American cultural values

The United States, the home of a variety of immigrants from different races all over the world, is a vast and diverse nation It is these immigrants that have brought along with them the peculiarity of their own culture, diversifying American native one Being called

―a melting-pot‖, America is the place where a various racial and ethnic groups have been combined together However, it is also regarded as ―a salad bowl‖ where those various groups have remained somewhat distinct and different from one another, making up a richly diverse American culture That‘s why the nation contains many regions and subcultures that account for a wide spectrum of cultural norms Although America's communal history is relatively short, many U.S.-born citizens inherently display values that are rooted in historical events As with any culture, Americans have their own

distinguishable values

1.3.2.1 Individualism

Individualism is the idea that the rights and freedom of the individual are the most important in the society The interests of the individual are considered to be more important than the interests of the group Whatever it may be called: individual freedom, individualism or independence, it is the cornerstone of American cultural values that nearly every American would agree upon as it permeates every aspect of American society

This value shows greatly the desire and the ability of all American individuals to control their own destiny without outside interference from the government, a ruling noble class, the church, or any other organized authority Or in Gary Althen‘s (1988) words, Americans ―have been trained since very early in their lives to consider themselves as separate individuals who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies They have not been trained to see themselves as members of a close-knit, tightly interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or other collectivity.‖ This is

expressed mostly in the tradition and spirit of self-reliance which influence greatly the young generation It is said that the way they are raised teaches them to become independent and individualistic in their everyday lives American children usually have their own bedrooms Even very young children are given opportunities to make their own choices and express their opinions They are taught to be financially independent at a

young age in order to get more freedom For the youth, making friends, marriage or other personal affairs are their own businesses, and they need not get their parents‘ permission

At the same time, parents do not interfere with their children‘s privacy, including marriage, work and hobby

1.3.2.2 Self-reliance

Self-reliance is seen as the price paid for individualism Americans believe that

individuals must learn to rely on themselves to keep their freedom ―They own nothing to any man, they expect nothing from any man; they acquire the habit of always considering themselves as standing alone, and they are apt to imagine that their whole destiny is in their own hands‖ (De Tocquevill, 2003) That is why Americans take credit only for what

they accomplish as individuals They get no credit for having been born into a rich family but pride themselves in having climbed the ladder of success, to whatever level, all by

themselves Wanning, E (1999) in ―Culture shock! USA‖ also said that ―In American, reliance is the fundamental virtue Each person is a solo operation, and independence is considered the birthright of the every child Our highest aspiration is self-fulfillment, and it’s only the unencumbered person who can become his true self.‖ What is more, an

self-expression of American self-reliance is that children usually leave home at the age of 18 and then they will make most of their own decisions without their parents‘ help Generally speaking, the youth ages from 18 to 21 tend to solve their economic and emotional problems by themselves, for they think that depending on parents is ashamed of

1.3.2.3 Equality

―All men are created equal‖ is one of the most famous quotations from the

Declaration of Independence, and the value of equality is considered fundamental to the American spirit This concept has given rise to some of the nation's deepest beliefs, aspirations, and rights It is so cherished that it is seen as having a religious basis Americans believe that all people are created equal and that all should have an equal opportunity to succeed, ―no one is born superior to any one else.‖ (Althen, G., 1988) Although it is not always achieved, Americans strive for equality They commonly use the first names of their elders, professors, and lawyers—a lack of deference to age and authority that is commonly mistaken for disrespect or laziness by foreigners Similarly, their sensitivity to disparity and unfairness causes them to be outraged when someone receives special privilege due to their family's wealth or notoriety ―The idea of equality

makes it difficult for Americans to understand hierarchical patterns of organizations abroad.‖ (Steward, E.C et al, 1991) They cannot believe the fact that ―the loyalty of members of an organization may be the primary principle that explains otherwise unintelligible actions and promotion.‖ Noting the absence of an emphasis on both achievement and equality, American may fail to recognize the characteristics that determine who are the high – status opinion molders and decision-makers (Steward, E.C

et al, 1991)

Equality of opportunity receives emphasis in American culture Americans are usually individually interested in achievement and expect rewards commensurate with their accomplishments It is clear that the cultural values predispose Americans to function most effectively on an interpersonal level of equality That‘s why the theme of equality is

―running through all American social relationships‖ and ―as an ideal, the value of equality

of opportunity remains pervasive in the culture‖ (Steward, E.C et al, 1991)

1.3.2.4 Competition

Steward, E.C et al (1991) claimed that ―Competition is the primary method among Americans for motivating members of groups.‖ Because of the emphasis on the individual, Americans can be competitive, and to be called a high achiever in the U.S is quite a compliment Besides, ―Americans have a deep faith that in some fundamental way all people (at least all American people) are of equal value‖ (Althen, G., 1988) This spirit

of equality makes them ensure that the race for success is fair for everyone no matter who

he is or he is rich or not This leads to the fact that competition is a typical feature of Americans They believe that competition brings out the best in any individual and in any system It almost is seen as a race in which a person must try his best to achieve success Consequently, people who are more competitive seem to be much more successful than others and they are honored as ―winners‖ in comparison with the ―losers‖ Even a child has his own pressure of competition in life such as taking part in strong programs of competitive sports provided by the public schools and community groups That is one way they learn to compete successfully

1.3.2.5 Materialism and hard work

Materialism is simply a focus on or desire for material goods, and what Steward, E.C et al (1991) claimed to relate to ―a belief in the inviolacy of private property, a value commonly asserted to be at the root of the Constitution and the American conception of

democracy.‖ Therefore, Americans suppose that ―materialism is natural and proper‖ when people criticize them for ―materialistic‖ and ―so concerned with acquiring possessions.‖ (Althen, G., 1988) What‘s more, they even ―consider it almost a right to be materially well off and physically comfortable.‖ (Steward, E.C et al, 1991)

Obviously, Americans‘ hard work is attached to the value of material possessions They believe that in life, one can improve their status through hard work and human endeavor Values such as thriftiness, hard work, and ingenuity resulted from the time when people first settled in the western United States There was so much land and so many opportunities, but it was dangerous and difficult These conditions led to an adopted mentality of "work hard or perish" that has withstood the test of time and been passed down through generations

According to Beisler (1997), communication is the transmission from one person to another of a message which is understood by the receiver as the sender intended This definition stresses on both the speaker and the hearer, somehow it is similar to the concept

of Levine & Adelman (1993): Communication is the process of sharing meaning through verbal and non verbal behavior

Berko‘s (1989) definition seems to be more specific when he supposed that the process of communication is a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional one

in which feelings and ideas are expressed in verbal and non verbal messages Communication occurs in intrapersonal, interpersonal, and public levels Human communication is dynamic, continuous, irreversible, interactive and contextual

2.2 Cross – cultural communication

When people from different cultures communicate with each other, they normally get problems And the term ―cross cultural communication‖ is formed to give out the

solutions for these communicative problems It is likely that cross cultural communication

is very complex because different languages spoken and non verbal barriers usually carry different meanings in different cultures

According to the free encyclopedia Wikipedia, ―cross cultural communication is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate,

in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures.‖(http://en.wikipedia.org).Whereas, Levine and Adelman defined cross- cultural communication as ―the process whereby one‘s culture affects interaction with a person from another culture.‖ This definition emphasizes the impact of culture on the way one communicates with other people This concept is expressed with more details by

Nguyen Quang in his book Intercultural communication: ―Cross-cultural communication is

the communication (verbal and non-verbal) between people from different cultures: communication that is influenced by actual values, attitudes and behavior; the influence of culture on people and reactions and responses to each other‖ (1998:3)

2.3 Potential problems in cross – cultural communication

It is undeniable that there may be many difficulties, misunderstandings or communication failures in cross – cultural communication as people of different backgrounds communicate with different styles They often use their own cultural values

to interpret and evaluate others‘ speech or actions Their different cultural values may lead

to misinterpretations and misunderstandings which may even result in a total breakdown of communication Consequently, this can also be the cause of confusion, anger, disappointment and culture shock

3 Negotiation

3.1 What is negotiation?

In the book ―Cross- cultural business negotiations‖ (1999), Hendon et al claimed

that ―negotiation is the process by which at least two parties try to reach an agreement on matters of mutual interests.‖ He also added that negotiation is ―a decision-making process that provides opportunities for the parties to exchange commitments or promises through which they will resolve their disagreements and reach a settlement‖ and ―two or more parties striving to agree when their objectives do not coincide.‖ According to Sarkar (2010), ―negotiation is conceived to be a process of interactions involving two individuals

or groups reaching a joint agreement about differing needs or ideas.‖ It can also be viewed

as a type of social interaction for obtaining a mutual commitment among two or more parties who have different purposes or concerns which are considered to be important to them In cross-cultural negotiation, it is more complex due to differences of communication styles, traditions, cultures, political systems, customs, and ideologies of the two or more parties

Knowledge of trade, economics, international businesses, politics, sociology, psychology, marketing, sales, communications, and even in conflict resolutions is applied

in negotiations Negotiation takes place when there is an economic transaction or a dispute

‗Negotiatus‘ in Latin root and ‗negocios‘ in modern Spanish both refer to ‗businesses‘ Negotiation is implied to provide different parties with equal opportunities and convenient environment so that their conflicts could be minimized and a mutual agreement could be established after exchanging information, discussing in a conclusive manner (Sarkar, 2010)

3.2 Negotiation as a form of communication

According to Hendon et al (1999), the negotiation process proceeds as an interplay

of perception, information processing, and reaction; whereas Stulberg (1993) supposed that process as an obligatory argument resolution process in which two or more parties classify problems, suggest and evaluate ways of solving these problems that all the parties mutually accept Therefore, negotiation is demonstrated through communication Negotiation and communication are inherently intertwined; negotiation cannot occur without some means

of communication Negotiation communication is different in comparison to other dialogue forms as it is used to exchange information, change behaviors, or persuade people by concentrating on achieving commitment from the other parties to perform in certain ways (Stulberg, 1993)

Businessmen negotiate in order to arrive at a mutual agreement founded on demand and supply Means of communication include face-to-face spoken, written, or telephone forms All participants hold various implicit or explicit favorites and view their desired outcome as their profit goals and their behaviors should be adapted to those of the negotiation partners Therefore, negotiation is said to be a social interactive process In order to succeed in an international business negotiation, all these aspects should be carefully taken into consideration

Long-term business relationships can be built with good communication in the negotiation In contrast, negative effects such as relationship breakdown, costly renegotiations, and drawn out processes may be consequences of poor communication So, what decides a good negotiation communication? An effective negotiation communication must lead to an agreement on the semantic level, which means that it should be free of misinterpretation of common symbol transmission Moreover, negotiation messages of a participant should be utterly perceived by the others, or say another way, the pragmatic level must be attained Also, each communicative act brings specific validity claims such

as appropriateness, truthfulness, truth, and comprehensibility that must be evaluated by the recipient Perfectly, if the recipient rejects any of validity claims, he or she will take part in

a conversation with the sender to deal with the communicative breakdown

Good communication in business negotiation should exhibit high levels of coherence and transparency, a mutually positive assessment of the interaction, and the absence of communicative misunderstandings on all semiotic levels A shared perception

of the terms and spirit of the deal result in the implementation of any commitment obtained

by the parties (Schoop, Ostertag, et al, 2010)

Negotiation communication involves a particular duality: a balance between competition and cooperation need to be found among negotiators Since negotiators are mutually dependent and their goals can never be reached unilaterally, and because they often try to build a long-lasting business relationship, problem-solving activities such as a concession behavior and rational argumentation are carried as a way to obtain a mutually agreeable resolution to sustainable cooperation Simultaneously, negotiators are trying to win over the resource distribution and usually see their goals as mutually aggressive Thus, negotiators often employ tactics and strategies such as threats or persuasion

Another significant characteristic of communication in business negotiations is the relevant series of rules and standards Social constraints affect negotiators‘ strategies, behavior, and decisions Negotiators are also influenced by standardized business process that identify communication media and communicated content as well Nevertheless, communication in business negotiations is astonishingly rich and provides a diversity of actions in which values and norms are moved forward or reinterpreted animatedly

Negotiation communication‘s key components are argumentation and bargaining While argument involves claiming normative validity or factual truth with the aim to

persuade (and, therefore, supposes a willingness on the other party‘s part to agree to the better argument), bargaining, in contrast, includes promises and threats with an intention to change behavior Despite the seemingly distinct modes of actions for negotiators, it is found that these modes regularly intertwine in real negotiations The reason why they are not separable is the social requirement of subjective claims Furthermore, negotiations are contended to include an agreement part and an information part, which support the theory

of a double-level of language, involving a formal and an information communicative layer Communication in business negotiations include two distinct but interwoven modes that should be taken into consideration for an effective negotiation communication Communicative action and strategic action can take place in parallel, and both support successful negotiation processes Strategic actors, for example, may wisely act like communicative actors to save face or persuade the other party if that is likely to be the most potential strategy (Schoop, Ostertag, et al, 2010)

3.3 Elements of negotiation

Paul R Horst (2007) introduced four basic elements of negotiation as following:

Actors (negotiators): In a negotiation, the actors are members of some forms of

culture, whether it is national, ethnic, professional or any of a multitude or combination of other types of cultures As such, their cultural background, which includes the values associated with and shared by that culture, will play a significant role on the negotiation especially how they ―perceive issues, other actors, and their intentions.‖ The culture itself may determine who the negotiator will be For example, in some cultures, women may not

be allowed to participate in a negotiation

Structure: The structure of a particular negotiation also holds examples of how

culture can influence the negotiation process The structural dimension includes variables such as the size of the negotiation team, the number and type of issues, power distribution between the parties, the organizational setting

Strategy: The strategy used by negotiators is another area of where culture holds

an influence on the negotiation process Strategy is the actor‘s orientation used to achieve their goals Certain cultures, based on their values, do not shy away from a confrontational approach and aggressive tactics This could lead the negotiators to adopt a more competitive style of negotiations Other cultures may adopt a much less confrontational style in order to avoid direct, aggressive conflict This culture may adopt a more

collaborative orientation toward the negotiations The approaches used to deal with the uncertainties or risks within the strategy framework may also be affected by differing cultural preferences Some cultures might approach a negotiation from an inductive style whereas the others prefer deductive style

Process: This is the actual interaction between parties These interactions are the

methods or tactics that the parties use to communicate; that is, the way they exchange information, seek out methods to create options, or find room for maneuver and concessions The manner in which the parties are communicating and the area of communication style are important elements in the negotiation process The potential for misunderstandings caused by the hidden messages transmitted by a high context negotiator complicates the negotiation process, especially if negotiating with parties from a culture that is ambiguity adverse

3.4 Business negotiation

A business negotiation is considered to be a formal event that happens at the common bargaining table where negotiators discuss over performance and price or a complicated term of partnership business Accordingly, it is an increasingly important requirement for businessmen if they wish to expand their enterprise horizons to improve and better their negotiation skills In global business context, negotiations are the focal point of international diplomacy The wise implementation of negotiation can support a party‘s concern and help get rid of unexpected alternatives such as litigation, trade wars, or prolonged conflict settlement process under the WTO system In the broad context of trade relations, international negotiations may involve negotiations over sales, tariffs, prices, or qualitative negotiations over general rules about safety and environment, health, labor, or other emerging conflicts and effects of trade related agreements (Sarkar, 2010)

3.5 Characteristics of business negotiation

―Negotiations do not happen in a vacuum.‖ They occur in a certain environment, and its elements such as surrounding, time, and place can intensely have an effect on the course of discussions In international transactions, in which one‘s environment might be definitely new to the others, a blockade to reaching a mutual commitment might be constituted (Salacuse, 2010)

As an author with great interest on international business negotiation, Ghauri (2008) provided a list of characteristics that he supposed to be common to all business negotiation situations:

- There are two or more parties The negotiation as a process is considered to occur between individuals, within groups and between groups

- There are one or more issues to be resolved

- There are various positions, which define responses of the negotiator on a particular issue

- There is a conflict of needs and desires between two or more parties, which then search for a way to resolve the conflict

- The parties negotiate by choice This means that they negotiate in order to get a better deal with negotiating in comparison by simply accepting what the other side voluntarily gives them or lets them have

- A "give and take" process is expected, this means that both sides modify or move away from their opening statements, request or demands

- The parties prefer to negotiate and search for agreement rather than to fight openly, they prefer to invent their own solution for resolving the conflict

- Even if the outcome is not the one expected at first, each party must retain hope that an acceptable outcome can be reached

- Successful negotiation involves the management of tangibles such as the price, the terms of agreement as well as the resolution of intangibles, which are the underlying psychological motivations that directly or indirectly influence the parties during the negotiations

3.6 Cross - cultural business negotiation

Globalization is an important factor that increases the volume of negotiations in person among members of different cultures (George, Jones, et al, 1998) Negotiation is commonly a communication process by which different parties look for their own interest advancements through commitment on some future transactions These negotiations could

be open when parties from different countries set up a round table meeting to discuss their preferences, or they might be implied when two engineers from different companies meet

up at the project side to talk about their upcoming equipment arrival In international business, negotiation is an invasive, continuing process and is essential to all kinds of business activity Accordingly, global businessmen have to negotiate in their daily activities (Salacuse, 2010)

Cross cultural business negotiation is one of many specialized areas within the wider field of cross cultural communications It is suggested that people from different countries perceive decision-making situations differently owing to the cultural characteristics of their nation, so negotiation approaches vary accordingly Additionally, negotiators‘ feelings, moods, and emotions also play in information processing in cross cultural negotiations While there is not much difference in the experience of primary moods and emotions, their demonstration and correlates are likely to be affected by both universal and culturally-specific factors These factors include individual differences, cross-cultural differences, and context Of which, cross-cultural differences are controlled

by internalized cultural values and norms, emotional expression, and linguistic style (George, Jones, et al, 1998)

Cultural differences in an international negotiation are a possible obstacle to successful transactions It is the fact that international business activities not only take place across one‘s border, but also across the cultures Culture has a powerful impact on people‘s thought, communications, and behaviors It also has an effect on their negotiation styles Effective international businessmen should understand and control the effect of cultural differences to ensure the success of their negotiations (Salacuse, 2010)

In international business, the success or failure of negotiations, especially for venture, is prominently and largely determined by the perceptions of cultural values Hofstede (1980) figured out the following elements which are regarded to be significant in the global business negotiations including a variety of cross-cultural issues ―Negotiating goal and basic concept, protocol, communication, risk-taking propensity view of time: decision-making system: form of agreement, power distance, personal style, coping with culture.‖ Before deciding to enter into any international business negotiation, traders should consider these issues including a variety of cross-cultural and cross-cutting issues (Sarkar, 2010)

joint-3.7 Potential problems in cross cultural business negotiation

Cross cultural negotiations are not easy tasks There is a great separation among negotiators who come from different cultures: physical features, different language, different way of defining business goals, perceiving the world, expressing thinking and feeling, and showing or hiding motivation and interests (Ghauri, 2003) That‘s why many potential problems often occur during cross-cultural negotiations According to Frank (1992) and Hendon et al., (1996, p 241), those problems may be:

- Insufficient understanding of different ways of thinking

- Insufficient attention to the necessity to save face

- Insufficient knowledge of the host country, including history, culture, government, status of business and image of foreigners

- Insufficient recognition of political or other criteria

- Insufficient recognition of the decision-making process

- Insufficient understanding of the role of personal relations and personalities

The conflict and compromise that happens during negotiations has an intrinsic affective element, and touching or sentimental reactions such as suffering or upset are usually felt in the negotiation process In addition, the negative escalation causes increasing mistrust, regular arguments, and protective strategies which can lead to utter attacks and defense On the base of the above potential problems, this research will try to find out the specific potentials problems in the case of Vietnamese- American business negotiation

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

1 Research method

This study seeks to find answers to the following research questions:

1) What are the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and American business negotiation?

2) How are Vietnamese and American cultural values reflected in Vietnamese – American business negotiation?

3) What are potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation?

In this research, the methods used to process the collected data are both qualitative and quantitative All the considerations, comments and assumptions are based on the analysis of statistic data and reference to relevant publication These methods are used

because by ―using more than one method within a research program, we are able to obtain

a more complete picture of human behavior and experience Thus, we are better able to

…achieve our research goals more quickly.‖ (Abbas & Teddlie, 2003: 189)

2 Data collection instrument

According to Frazer, L & Lawley, M (2000), questionnaire is ―a formalized set of questions for obtaining information from respondents‖ and ―a well-designed and administered questionnaire can provide the data necessary to address research questions.‖ Verma & Mallick (1999) also had the same idea: ―The questionnaire is often a vital tool in the collection of data‖ and ―it can provide data economically and in a form that lends itself perfectly to the purposes of the study.‖ With the above advantages, questionnaire is used as

an instrument to collect data for this research An undeniable strong point of using questionnaire is that it gives respondents a chance to see the written form of the questions and answer them at their own time Therefore, feedback from a large number of respondents can be quickly collected because the process of completing questionnaire doesn‘t take much time

The questionnaire is first formulated in English and then literally translated into Vietnamese Therefore, the two versions have exactly the same content The questionnaire consists of two parts In part one, respondents were asked to give their personal information such as age, gender, nationality and especially their experience in Vietnamese – American negotiation Including 15 questions, part two aimed to collect information on their attitude and perceptions of what happen in a negotiation Respondents can choose the suitable answer to each question or give their own ideas in the space provided if their idea

is different from the ones provided or if they want to make their choice more explicit The

questions were arranged in the order of the main elements of a negotiation: questions 1 and

2 relate to the ―actors‖ – the negotiators of a negotiation The aim of these two questions is

to find out the criteria that Vietnamese and American firms base on to select their staff members to participate in a negotiation, and the attitude of the negotiators towards the other party members‘ status, position or age Questions 3 and 4 test the characteristics of

the structure of a negotiation - that is the size of the negotiating team Questions 5 focuses

on the preferred negotiation approach of each party and question 6 is to see ―whether negotiating a business deal is an inductive or deductive process‖ (Salacuse, 2004); and the attitude on risk-taking is mentioned in question 7 The last group including questions from

8 to 15 help to find out the goal of each party when coming to the negotiating table, their relationship-building, trust-building, decision-making and non-verbal communication

3 Data collection procedure

The questionnaires were delivered to American and Vietnamese business people in face-to-face meetings and conversations, and via email There is a fact that gathering sufficient number of American and Vietnamese negotiators or people who have experience

in the field was extremely difficult I had to make use of all the personal relationships that I have as well as of my friends, colleagues, former classmates, neighbors, relatives … in order to get enough data for the research

4 Informants

As mentioned above, the questionnaires were delivered to many people and 22 American and 22 Vietnamese business people were finally selected as eligible informants Among these, only 8 Vietnamese and 3 American are female The ages of all the informants range from 26 to 60 They are employers or employees in different types of company or business group Their fields vary from sales, import/export to agency, etc But what they have in common is that they all have experience in Vietnamese – American business negotiation The majority of American informants are still working in Vietnam and the rest are in the U.S., whereas all the Vietnamese ones are in Vietnam

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1 Presentation and analysis of the data

1.1 The negotiators – the actors of a negotiation

Question 1 focuses on the criteria for selecting negotiators of each party

64

32

9 36

64

46 27

36 82

0 10

Chart 1: Selection of negotiators

Notes on options:

A: negotiating skills D: position

B: seniority E: experience in negotiating with the counterpart

C: expertise F: (others)

As can be seen from chart 1, Vietnamese companies seem to require more criteria

when they choose their representatives to take part in a negotiation All the criteria

provided are selected with slight differences While the Americans appreciate negotiating

skills (64%), expertise (64%) and especially experience in negotiating with the

counterpart (82%) and position (27%), the Vietnamese place most emphasis on

negotiating skills (91%), then position (46%) and both expertise and experience in

negotiating with the counterpart (both 36%), seniority (32%)

One American respondent added that ―the criteria will depend upon who the other

negotiator is.‖

Question 2 is about the negotiators‘ attitude toward their counterparts‘ status,

position and age