The 7 Variables of Culture during Chinese and American Business Essay

The 7 Variables of Culture during Chinese and American Business Negiotiations in a Corporate Law Firm - Essay Example â€Å"Negotiation is a process whereby two or more parties--be they individuals, groups, or larger social units--interact in developing potential agreements to provide guidance and regulation of their future behavior. Such negotiation can be conducted between nations; between companies; or between any two or more parties that need to cooperate or bargain to attain certain common or conflicting ends.† (Phatak & Habib, 1996) Most of the international negotiations are between two companies or two nations. Because of lot of differences like social, cultural, linguistic, environmental legal and technological, international business negotiations is not an easy task. Both the parties should have considered lot of factors before arriving at an agreement. The cultural dimensions of international business negotiations are defined by former professor of Eastern Michigan University, David A. Victor in his famous LESCANT model of cultural variables. They are Language, Environment, Social organization, Contexting, Authority, Nonverbal behavior, and Temporal conception. (The cultural variables for development of models of culture) Language is an important entity in every business negotiations especially in international business negotiations. The views and opinions of each party can be communicated properly if both the parties don’t have a language barrier. Language fluency and accent can affect a business deal. Both the parties must understand clearly what others are trying to communicate or convince. English is an international language or global language used in almost every country and in most of the international business negotiations it is used as the medium for communications. The competency of Chinese people in English language is less compared to some other countries like India, Japan or Pakistan. â€Å"English has no legacy in the land of China. In fact, China had a long history of deliberately avoiding contact with the