Negotiation Between Countries - USA vs NIGERIA
WEEK 3- HAND IN ASSIGNMENT
INTRODUCTION (COUNTRY OF CHOICE)
In this hypothetical case of Negotiation with another country I will like to choose a country from the Anglo-Americans: (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand). I’ll choose to negotiate with USA to be specific.
DIFFERENCES IN CULTURE BETWEEN USA AND NIGERIA
The fundamental cultural differences between my country Nigeria and USA is what I want to address here. I want to do that from three different fronts, namely;
Cultural differences in communication
The patterns of communication between the countries are different even though both countries communicates basically in English language as an accepted language of communication. Communication in this sense can be verbal or non-verbal. Non-verbal also includes written communications. Nigeria has over 400 languages but English language is the accepted lingua franca. The United States has other native languages but English is still the accepted language of communication.
Though I will communicate in English with my American business partners but I must also understand that the way the Americans write and pronounce some words is different from the way we write and pronounce our words in English language. The American counterparts for instance will write the word “favor as favor” but I will write the word “favor as favour” because Nigeria was colonized by the British, so we take our language after the British pattern of writing and communicating.
Nigerians are exclusion minded in communication; we will tend to see how the conversation does not align with what we already know and would usually want the American counterpart to align with our own position of knowledge. The American partner will rather communicate based on an inclusive mindedness; they will rather want to know how what I am saying makes sense. American look for the sense in the conversation, does the numbers tally, are the figures correct, so they have a broader view to the conversation.
INTRODUCTION (COUNTRY OF CHOICE)
In this hypothetical case of Negotiation with another country I will like to choose a country from the Anglo-Americans: (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand). I’ll choose to negotiate with USA to be specific.
DIFFERENCES IN CULTURE BETWEEN USA AND NIGERIA
The fundamental cultural differences between my country Nigeria and USA is what I want to address here. I want to do that from three different fronts, namely;
Cultural differences in communication
The patterns of communication between the countries are different even though both countries communicates basically in English language as an accepted language of communication. Communication in this sense can be verbal or non-verbal. Non-verbal also includes written communications. Nigeria has over 400 languages but English language is the accepted lingua franca. The United States has other native languages but English is still the accepted language of communication.
Though I will communicate in English with my American business partners but I must also understand that the way the Americans write and pronounce some words is different from the way we write and pronounce our words in English language. The American counterparts for instance will write the word “favor as favor” but I will write the word “favor as favour” because Nigeria was colonized by the British, so we take our language after the British pattern of writing and communicating.
Nigerians are exclusion minded in communication; we will tend to see how the conversation does not align with what we already know and would usually want the American counterpart to align with our own position of knowledge. The American partner will rather communicate based on an inclusive mindedness; they will rather want to know how what I am saying makes sense. American look for the sense in the conversation, does the numbers tally, are the figures correct, so they have a broader view to the conversation.
References: Grove, C. & Hallowell, W.; (1994): Culture at Work: Managing, Communicating & Negotiating Across Cultures online at http://www.mish-group.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Culture-at-Work-Managing-Communicating-and-Negotiating-Across-Cultures.pdf accessed on 28th August, 2014 Geert Hofstede, (1991); Cultures and Organizations, McGraw-Hill: London, 1991. Mpicket (2010) Negotiating with Americans; An International Perspective for Chinese Business Executives http://www.slideshare.net/mpickett/negotiating-with-americans; A power point presentation accessed on 28th August, 2014 Wachtel, D; (nd) Negotiating Skills; http://www.negotiations.com/articles/negotiating-skills/ accessed online on 28th August, 2014 © Copyright 1996 – 2014.