In this second part of our two-part series on negotiating across cultures we look at how complex negotiating at the post-global table has become, and discuss the factors that even skilled negotiators need to be aware of to be successful in a post-global world.

If the global world added the factor of cultural relativism to the pre-global world's analysis of the process of negotiation, what happens to the equation when we enter the post-global world of today? 

Today, in addition to considering culture, we must add a third factor to the equation, that being the forces of globalisation, which powerfully affect our behaviours, including those at the negotiation table.  Today, these profound, universal forces of globalisation affect not only the traditional elements of negotiating, but the degree and ways in which cultures also affect the process.  In this new post-global world, we must understand not only the Newtonian mechanics of negotiation, and the 'Einsteinian' relativity of cultures, but the environment of quantum forces in which this is occurring.

Admittedly, the equation is getting complex, so perhaps updating some useful models could be helpful.  A traditional model of culture has been to visualise culture as an ‘iceberg’, where the tip of the iceberg – the small perceivable part – is tiny (about 10 percent) – when compared with the larger (about 90 percent) invisible part.

The visible tip above the surface represents the visible behaviours we demonstrate to each other, including those at the negotiation table; the invisible bulk of the iceberg, hidden under the surface, represents the deeper values, belief systems, traditions and ultimately history, that drive the visible behaviours we see.

At the negotiation table, the visible behaviours we reveal to each other around the elements, stages and climate of a negotiation are often the result of deeper cultural values that are hidden from view.  Fair enough, as far as it goes.  However, in a global world, all the icebergs floating around in the global sea are now impacted by universal forces of globalisation, which may be represented by the sun.

These forces of globalisation include global multinational corporate behaviours and values, technology, mass transportation, mass migration, the fall of national boundaries, the establishment of regional trade zones, the globalisation of mass culture and English.

When these forces impact individual cultures, when the sun shines on the various cultural icebergs floating in today's world, several phenomena occur:

• The visible tips change first; melting (or melding of cultures) at the deeper levels takes much longer and traditional values stay frozen a very long time.
• Superficial change at the visible level seems to be the same, while frozen values under the surface remain different, increasing the disparity between visible behaviour and underlying values.
• As icebergs melt, hidden deeper values under the surface rise to the surface, become exposed, and increase in their visibility.
• As icebergs melt, the attributes of one flow into another, albeit slowly, and in unidentifiable ways.

Successful negotiating in today's post-global world requires that we understand the impact that these post-global phenomena have on culture, just as we have had to consider culture's impact on the original investigation in the global world.  Forces of globalisation have changed the nature of culture's impact on negotiation behaviours, in identifiable ways.

Of stereotypes and archetypes

Culture in the pre-global world had four defining characteristics:

• any particular culture's attributes were easily stereotyped,
• These attributes were bound to the cultures in which they originated,
• These attributes were discreet and independent of the outside world, and...
• These attributes were used to define what made its people different from others.

• Any particular culture's attributes are archetypal, not stereotypical (that is, they represent human behaviours that are possible anywhere)
• These attributes are independent of the cultures in which they originated (that is, they can easily be found in many different cultures),
• these attributes are wholly dependent upon the outside world for their nature and their survival, and ...
• These attributes become a primary way to people of different cultures together.

Globalisation, therefore, has not made cultural difference irrelevant, or diminished its impact or importance, but it has changed how cultural differences need to be considered.  Rather than reducing or minimizing their relevance, globalisation, as we saw in the iceberg, in fact, raises deep cultural differences to a level of awareness, while making it appear as if similarities are developing at a superficial level.

The disparity between apparent homogenisation on the surface and severe differences rising from below can result in situations of extreme culture clash and dislocation. 

Toward a more complex equation

At the negotiating table, the skilled post-global negotiator needs to manage this quantum environment where cultural attributes may be rising and falling at the same time, in various degrees, depending upon the cultures represented at the table.

Skilled post-global negotiators must not only be able to recognise, respect and manage the cultural differences at the table, but must also be able to re-frame cultural differences into behavioural options that the other side may not have previously known, but which can satisfy their priority needs in new and different ways.

Most importantly, skilled post-global negotiators have to master all three factors in the post-global negotiation equation, in order to be successful in this quantum, post-global world.

November 2004

Dean Foster is President, Dean Foster Associates. He can be contacted through its European Head Office at: info@dfa-europe.com, +32 (0) 87 77 68 66, www.learnaboutcultures.com

He has written the four-part Global Etiquette Guide book series (which include "The Global Etiquette Guide to": Europe – Asia – Latin America – Africa & the Middle East), and the book 'Bargaining Across Borders'.