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Discussion / Argumentative Essay

Intercul­tural Competen­ce - Negotiat­ion: Interact­ions of members, intercul­tural Rules

2.369 Words / ~3 pages sternsternsternsternstern Author Monika S. in Feb. 2015
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Intercultural Competence - Negotiation: Interactions of members, intercultural Rules

I


1. The strengths and weaknesses of how members of the negotiation interacted with each other.

Body Language: Bence, in my opinion kept good eye contact. You can tell from his posture that he was relaxed and listening. His facial expressions was very friendly, nodding his head when he was interested in a comment, showing approval and smiled to keep the atmosphere relaxed.


Organisational skills: In this category Bence showed signs of strengths and weaknesses. As the Chair he was constantly writing notes, made sure each person spoke and was heard. Bence should have been more firm with time management, giving each one a time limit and pointing out step by step our tasks.


Verbal communication: He did not use any “Tabus” in my opinion. Always using phrases such as “What do you think ” “Do you agree with…” “Can we…”


Body Language: In this category i think that Fernando was the weakest. On a normal day his body language would have been accepted. But during the meeting he was not sitting correctly for the first couple of minutes. His hands for most of the time were either covering his face, rapped around his chest, or under the table. Other than that his facial expressions were good and kept a friendly face through the meeting.


Verbal communication: He did not use any “Tabus” in my opinion. One thing that he could work on more is his pronunciation and loudness. When asked a question Fernando would most of the time look down at his paper while talking instead of directing his words directly at us. Due to this, and also his Spanish background, it was sometimes hard to understand what he wanted to say.

Other than that he was very affirmative with his decision, showed us from the beginning that he was interested in making the movie and kept a respectful tone throughout the negotiation.


Body Language: Raffi kept a straight face the entire meeting. He kept eye contact but never changed his facial expression. Body was in an upright position the whole time. I am not sure if his body language was proper in this situation, some what of a pokerface . He was not easy to read.


Verbal communication: I believe this was part of the instructions given to us in the middle of the negotiation, but Raffi was to affirmative with what he wanted to do. He implied that he is wasting his time at this meeting if we were not going to approve of this movie and to decide quickly so he could leave if not. This of course in a real life situation would be a strong “Tabu”.

Other than that Raffi kept a good tone while speaking, did not have a big pronunciation problem, looked around as he spoke and directed his words to us. This showed us that he knew what he wanted and was sure of his decisions.

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Body Language: In the beginning of the meeting you could tell that Heinz was uncomfortable and a little tense. He was playing the role of an american technician. To get into that role was very hard for him i can imagine. Other than that Heinz kept eye contact, his face were relaxed most of the time. In uncomfortable situations he would change the positioning of his hands and adjust his back.

Over all it was just nerves, and i was well aware of that, but it never hurt his persuasion skills.


Verbal communication: Heinz was pretty good at being an american. The sarcasm while talking was noticeable and overconfidence was also dominant. He had the typical “I know what I am doing, and I am the best” attitude, but at the same time never showed disrespect or said anything out of context or not proper.


2. Which intercultural rules applied to the negotiation? List 3-5 and reasons why.


“How can I verbally communicate effectively?”

At a first meeting, formalities and appropriate greetings are usually expected: such formalities could include a handshake, an introduction to yourself, eye contact and discussion around a neutral subject such as the weather or your journey may be useful. A friendly disposition and smiling face are much more likely to encourage communication than a blank face, inattention or disinterested reception.

In our case, we already had the chance of working with each other for three days, so we were comfortable around each other to a certain extent. Although we knew each other we still lacked the correct verbal skills while playing our parts in the negotiation.


Our group consisted of four nationalities, each one playing a specific role. Heinz was the american technician, who as soon as he started talking, made us all feel that nothing in the world can ruin this production; a “no worries” kind of attitude. The problem was that they all were on-board with making the movie, except me. How am i to persuade them otherwise? By understanding their methods of negotiation i could have turned things around and maybe found a common ground to agree on.

“How can I insure punctuality, deadlines and milestones?”

This is something that our performance lacked. Time influences the pace of negotiations and the punctuality in meetings. For negotiators, it is important to have advance information on the opposite party's behaviour regarding time. This will help them plan their time as well as have patience and not to get irritated during the process. The Chair should be in control during a meeting.

Yet due to running out of time, i heard the final decision before i was able to digest and agree with the information.

“How can i do a Clooney?”

Leaving with grace after a meeting is very important. Thanking everyone for there cooperation and showing gratitude and respect are key roles in concluding every meeting. I believe for me that was a big problem. I usually don’t consider this an issue in my daily life but during this performance i faced one big problem. UNDERSTANDING! Due to time management and last minute quick conclusions i was left “dumb-founded” and i couldn’t reply back because our time was out.

What i did, instead of doing a “Clooney”, was apologise for my my stance through the meeting because i was not onboard with making the movie, like the others. Considering i was the only girl in the meeting this was not a good idea. I should have calmed down, thought it through and found a quick way to say thank you gracefully.




The Chairperson in our group was Bence. He was responsible for ensuring that the meeting ran effectively and efficiently.


The first eight minutes of the meeting was all about introductions. Bence started off by introducing the topic and goal, and then asked each one of us to “shortly” describe our role. I think that a lot of time was spent on this, considering that the night before a party took place in order for us to get aquatinted. Of course a short introduction should always be given at the beginning of each meeting.

In our case though, Bence should have monitored this situation a little bit more and stopped each one of us. A better solution would have been if he had stated a specific time for each task, creating awareness to each persons time-limit.


To sum it up, organisation, planning, conducting and preparation are important and will affect the meetings success.


Another point that is important that the Chair takes full control over is the responsibility of starting and ending on time and involving members in the decisions and discussions. One thing that i found he did and succeeded in doing to the fullest was how he involved us all and never took up to much of the “spotlight”. We were all aware that he was the head of the group but not in a dominating, fear of rejection, kind of way.

Like I stated before, the first 30 minutes of the meeting was very repetitive, at all not good for time management. When he finally realised that everything was kind of going in circles he took his stance and directed the meeting to the board, were he started writing down our options. Only then did we start making progress, which if had happened earlier would have had a much better outcome on the meeting.


His body language was proper, sat at the head of the table to show decision making power and kept eye contact with every member.


4. What you could improve about your own performance?


Everything fell into place after watching the video. During the performance I felt heavy and uncomfortable in my own skin. This feeling calmed down a little towards the end, but i was still aware that i was being watched and heard because of the “importance” of this meeting. I am usually not afraid to speak up and speak my thoughts, but at that moment i felt that the discomfort of my body took over the situation and affecting how i talked and what i wanted to say.

Surprisingly, i never thought of this before.



During the first eight minutes each one had to introduce them selves. When it came time to me i realised that what was saying was not the problem as much as the pace that was saying it in. Simply put, I talk to much. An important rule that we learned through these three days was paraphrasing, summarising things in order to not dull out a situation and control time management.

This went on through the whole meeting. I repeated a lot of the same things i said which resulted in poor persuasion skills. I did not and could not persuade the group to agree with me. The Chair, Bence, of course understood me to a certain degree, but the rest were far better persuasive then I was because they had better paraphrasing and persuasive methods.


Due to prolonging my decision and opinion on the matter, the Chair along with the rest of the group took an action without me agreeing on it. They simply could not wait for me to decide.


After the sudden conclusion and running out of time, i did not gracefully do a “Clooney”. What i did, instead of doing a “Clooney”, was apologise for my stance throughout the meeting because i was not onboard with making the movie, like the others. Which is a big “NO” for anyone in any negotiation, especially a woman in between only men. I should have just taken a minute while the others thanked and showed gratitude to think and calm down.

Then gracefully thank the Chair and my colleagues for their cooperation. Not every meeting will go my way, or come out with the results that I expected. To apologise for my ideas is not necessary. I did not disrespect anyone therefore i did nothing wrong. I also came to my own conclusion that i was fired just because i didn’t not meet eye to eye on the final decision.

5. For you, which element of this course which you will continue to focus and develop on for your own improvement?


I am definitely a talker. As well, I know from prior conversations that family, friends and colleagues think I sound like a know-it-all. I’ve tried to simply remember to stay quiet and let other people talk, but then I get excited about something and forget. There isn’t a precise formula, obviously, for how to manage this; different meeting contexts call for different behaviour.

But because I know this is a problem, I have got to start somewhere, and the idea here is to recalibrate my norms about how much talking is appropriate so that I can start thinking about it in a different way. For starters, I can decide to speak up only when I believe that what I am going to say will truly advance the conversation in some way. No more summarising for others (let them ask if they don’t understand something), and no more speaking just to share my thoughts.



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