THE ART OF DEAL MAKING : Videotapes Help USC Professor Pinpoint Cultural Differences
When groups of American and Japanese executives met in Los Angeles not too long ago, the atmosphere at times was far from congenial.
The Americans wanted to talk about the numbers and details right away. The Japanese wanted to talk generalities.
The Americans were blunt and forthright in their refusals. The Japanese found the American frankness discomforting.
Luckily, these negotiations were not real--they were simulated business meetings that were videotaped by John Graham, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California.
Graham said the tapes and other research reveal significant differences in the way executives from around the world behave at the bargaining table. For Americans, being aware of the styles and adjusting for differences may lead to a better start in negotiations and possibly even more business abroad.
“Companies can be successful if they handle things properly,” said Graham, who had been witness to a disastrous business meeting with the Japanese that ended in failure. “If you don’t understand their behavior, you say they are not trustworthy.”
Graham notes that discussion about America’s trade deficit with Japan usually centers on dollar-yen value, marketing practices or the difficulty of Japanese trade laws. But, he said, “nobody talks about what happens in face-to-face settings.”
So, during the past 10 years, Graham and 10 other researchers around the world have studied the negotiating styles of 800 executives from 10 nations and 12 cultures. Graham, for example, accompanied American sales representatives in Japan on business meetings and has observed negotiations firsthand.
The final portion of the study was the videotaping of mock negotiations between six business people from each of several countries, including Japan, South Korea, Brazil, West Germany, Britain and the United States. The videotapes were then reviewed for numerous characteristics, such as the number of questions asked, the amount of time negotiators spent looking at each other and the number of times they touched each other.
“It all adds up to a picture of negotiating style,” Graham said of the information compiled from the videotaped sessions.
Of the groups studied, the Americans and Japanese often demonstrated extreme differences in negotiating styles.
Japanese More Reflective
“The Japanese and the Americans come to the negotiating table for two different purposes,” Graham said. “The Americans come to make a deal. The Japanese come to start a relationship.”
Americans tend to be more aggressive, up front and fast-paced--qualities that offend many Japanese.
When asked a question, “an American will start to answer the question as soon as you ask,” Graham said. In contrast, “the Japanese will sit and think about it awhile. It can be an uncomfortably long time when nothing is happening.”
The Japanese respect hierarchy. A definite pecking order is established between seller and buyer, and among members of the respective negotiating teams. For example, the seller’s firm is referred to as otaku (your company), the buyer’s firm as onsha (your great company).
Americans, on the other hand, tend to try to put everyone on an equal basis, Graham said.
The videotapes have also punched a few holes in Americans’ conceptions of the Japanese. “The Americans say that the Japanese are poker-faced,” Graham said. But he could not find evidence of that. In fact, he found the Japanese were apt to smile and frown more frequently than the Americans.
The Japanese also take longer at the negotiating table. During the simulated negotiating games, Americans were usually finished within 25 minutes. The Japanese took at 35 to 40 minutes.
Rooted in Culture
The main reason for the lengthy session is the Japanese emphasis on relationship building. While Americans are accustomed to 10 minutes of chitchat before a meeting, the Japanese sometimes take hours or even days of social interaction. “Something that will take a day in Cleveland will take a week in Tokyo,” Graham said. “They’re trying to size you up to see if you can be trusted. We worry less about that.”
The differences are deeply rooted in culture and geography, Graham said. “Japan is a crowded place. You have to get along with your neighbor.”
Japanese use relationships developed over time to ease friction when disputes arise. “We depend on the legal system. You can’t depend on the legal system to settle disputes” in many foreign countries, Graham says.
Graham warns that Americans should not assume that all Japanese demonstrate the same behavior as shown in the study. “Don’t stereotype,” he said.
He also said that U.S. executives need to anticipate different behaviors in different countries. Korean managers, for instance, get upset when Americans think of South Korea as another Japan, Graham said. Unlike the Japanese, Graham said, “a Korean client will tell you ‘no.’ A Korean client will get angry with you. A Korean client will get mad.”
The Taiwanese also tend to be more aggressive than the Japanese, and Chinese executives take a long time making decisions.
“I have learned to talk about one country at a time,” Graham said.
Perceived as Rude
The Germans, unlike the Japanese, have a clear-cut definition between business and personal relationships, Graham said.
In Brazil, Graham found, executives have a tendency to interrupt frequently and touch those to whom they’re talking. For an American, “the Brazilian guys seem kind of rude,” Graham said. But “that’s the way they talk in Brazil.”
Graham’s work has caught the eye of Ford Motor Co. Working with Graham, the auto maker plans to videotape some of its executives in simulated negotiations with individuals standing in as Japanese business people. The Ford executives will then view the tapes to see how they performed.
“It provides a mirror,” said G. Richard Hartshorn, who helps train Ford executives. “The executive can look at the video and can make a decision about his performance. It’s like a golf (training) video, or a tennis video.”
To deal with a wide variety of behavior, Graham advocates what he calls an international style of negotiation. It stresses flexibility and the gathering of information through questions. Executives, aware of any potential cultural differences, must adjust their behavior, he said.
Graham said the Japanese lead the Americans in gaining an understanding of the other’s culture. “They have developed a whole army of American experts,” Graham said. He noted that thousands of Japanese, fluent in English, live and work in the United States. In contrast, only a few hundred Americans living in Japan are fluent in Japanese.
Getting U.S. executives up to speed is “going to take a long time” Graham said. “But that’s what the Japanese have done.”
NEGOTIATING: A COMPARISON BY NATIONALITY
Bargaining Behaviors Japanese Korean Brazilian German British No’s 1.9 7.4 41.9 6.7 5.4
Bargaining Behaviors American No’s 4.5
Average number of times the word ‘No’ was used by each participant per 30 minutes of negotiation.
Bargaining Behaviors Japanese Korean Brazilian German British You’s 31.5 34.2 90.4 39.7 54.8
Bargaining Behaviors American You’s 54.1
Average number of times the word ‘you’ was used by each participant per 30 minutes of negotiation.
Bargaining Behaviors Japanese Korean Brazilian German British Silent periods 5.5 0 0 0 5.0
Bargaining Behaviors American Silent periods 3.5
Average number of conservational gaps initiated by each participant, 10 seconds or longer, per half hour.
Bargaining Behaviors Japanese Korean Brazilian German British Conversational overlays 12.6 44.0 28.6 41.6 10.5
Bargaining Behaviors American Conversational overlays 10.3
Average number of interruptions by each participant per half hour.
Bargaining Behaviors Japanese Korean Brazilian German British Gazing 1.3 3.3 5.2 3.4 3.0
Bargaining Behaviors American Gazing 3.3
Average number of minutes each participant looked at partners’ faces, per 10-minute period.
Bargaining Behaviors Japanese Korean Brazilian German British Touching 0 0 4.7 0 0
Bargaining Behaviors American Touching 0
Average incidents of each participant touching partner per half hour, not including handshakes. Source: “Culture, Negotiations and International Cooperative Ventures”; Graham, Campbell and Meissner
