Assess, don't assume

Description

When facing a cross-border negotiation, the standard preparatory assessments-of the parties, their interests, their no-deal options, opportunities for and barriers to creating and claiming value, the most promising sequence and process design, etc.- should be informed and modified by two classes of potentially relevant cross-border factors, the general and the negotiation-specific. Drawing on considerable literature in cross-border and cross-cultural negotiation, this paper develops the first two levels of a four-level prescriptive framework for effectively carrying out such assessments: 1. Common expectations for surface behavior: etiquette, protocol, and deportment, and 2. Deeper cultural characteristics and their implications for the negotiation process itself.

Description

When facing a negotiation that crosses national borders and/or cultures, the standard preparatory assessments-of the parties, their interests, their no-deal options, opportunities for and barriers to creating and claiming value, the most promising sequence and process design, etc.- should be informed and modified by potentially relevant factors. Drawing on considerable literature in cross-border and cross-cultural negotiation, a two-paper series develops a four-level prescriptive framework for effectively carrying out such assessments. The first paper in this series ("Etiquette and National Culture in Negotiation") described 1) common expectations for surface behavior, and 2) some implications of deeper cultural characteristics for the negotiation process itself, as well as cross-border caveats such as stereotyping and overemphasizing national culture to the exclusion of other factors. The current paper carries this analysis further by systematically analyzing a third and fourth class of factors that often prove critical in cross-border dealmaking: 3. The decision-making and governance processes that are the targets of influence efforts, and 4. The broader economic and political context for negotiation as well as salient "comparable" deals.

Subjects

Series Statement

• Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 10-050

Other Editions

• Assess, don't assume: Negotiating implications of cross-border differences in decision making, governance, and political economyHarvard Business School2009-01-01
• Assess, don't assumeHarvard Business School2009-01-01