FABIZ

IIIrd year, EN, Business Negotiations

Craciun Doina-Veronica

Group number 132

Title of the article

Cross-cultural negotiations revisited: Are Asian generations X and Y

members negotiating like their elders?

Author / authors of
the article

VIEREGGE, Michael ; QUICK, Simon

Publishing year

2011

Review / Journal

Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal

Volume, Number
Pages
ISSN / ISBN
Abstract

Vol. 18 Iss 3
313-326
1352-7606
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore possible changes in national
culture for generations X and Y members from selected Asian national
cultures and the impact on crosscultural negotiations.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretivist epistemology is combined with an ontology of
subjectivism for this exploratory study which does not seek generalization.
Emphasis is placed on the development of new survey items by members of
generations X and Y for Hofstede's dimensions. An online survey
yielded n=224 responses. Data were collected from members of generations
X and Y, but also Baby Boomers as the control group, to test differences.
Findings
For national culture dimensions, only individualism/collectivism tests for
significant differences between Asian GenY and Baby Boomers. GenX and
GenY show little interest in preopening relationship building and focus on
positioning and compromising.
Research limitations/implications
The study is exploratory in nature and future studies should revisit this
topic. The items developed to measure national culture might be biased by

FABIZ
IIIrd year, EN, Business Negotiations

the 39 focus group participants. Future studies should consider

differentiating Asian groups.
Practical implications
Western negotiators need to prepare for multiple scenarios when entering
negotiations with Asian partners. Depending on the age of the Asian
negotiator, emphasis on different phases of the negotiation process needs to
be reevaluated.
Originality/value
This research holds immediate lessons for crosscultural negotiations.
Results support that generations X and Y members in some Asian cultures
do not differ from their elders across all Hofstede dimensions, however they
display different negotiation behaviors.
Asian generations
X and Y, National cultures, Crosscultural
negotiations, Globalization
URL (www)
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/13527601111152842
The paper focuses on Asian population, more exactly Generations X
and Y and Baby Boomers. Its purpose is to make a comparison
between negotiation styles of Asian Generations X and Y and their
elders, the Baby Boomers, to see if there are any differences.
Subject of the paper Asian culture is quite a stable one, but in the global expansion of
business, changes in cultural differences in negotiations become to
Objectives
arise. This is why cultural understanding is very important when you
have to negotiate in a business. Asian markets suffers quite an
expansion over the last years, and all business people need to know
how to negotiate with the younger generations, X and Y, in order to
avoid business failure.
Design
They carried out a survey and got 235 responses from 17 different
Methodology
national cultures and had an approximate 30% rate of response, from
Approach
800 contacts. But, because of incomplete questionnaires responses,
in the end they were only left with a sample of n = 224 participants of
which 126 were Generation Y, 69 were Generation X and 29 were
Baby Boomers.
The quantitative data was collected using an online survey strategy
( on Zoomerang) on 39 focus group participants from six Asian
cultures.
In order that the comparison between the generations to be made, survey
forms were not only sent to members of generations X and Y, but also to
Baby Boomers. The authors used culture clusters to group the participants
from different national cultures.
Key words

FABIZ
IIIrd year, EN, Business Negotiations

Then, the data was analyzed using the Excel XLSTAT statistical software.
Results
Implications
Value

The mean scores for all the three generations were compared to five
original Hofstede dimensions (power distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism and collectivism, masculinity/feminity, long-term
orientation). The comparisons showed that there were no statistically
differences between the Gen Yers and Gen Xers, nor between Gen
Xers and Baby Boomers.
However, between Gen Yers and Baby Boomers there could be
observed a statistically significant difference. This difference
consisted in the fact that participants from Gen Y scored higher for
individualism than the Baby Boomers, even though the scores
reported for that are of moderate value.
Another finding was that generations X and Y do not differ from their
elders in time spent in different phases of negotiations.
They split the negotiation process in several phases and analyzed
the behaviors of the three analyzed categories of persons based on
these phases.
The phases are:
Opening/relationship building
Positioning
Persuasion
Compromise
Agreement
Based on these phases, they found out that in the
opening/relationship building phase has lost the importance for the
participants from Asian cultures and is now more comparable to the
time spent by Westerners.
The time spent on positioning has not changed dramatically, but is
still higher than the time allotted by US negotiators.
In the persuasion and compromise phases on the other side, a
change can be seen in the fact that those two phases have gained in
importance and are now closer to the ways Westerners would
negotiate.
And, finally, the agreement phase is not as important as it
previously was anymore.
Also, Asian generation X and Y members seem to be more
individualistic than their elders, this leading to diminishing the gap
between themselves and the Western societies for this dimension.
The results suggest that the generations do not differ significantly
across the cultural dimensions and that the research statement can

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IIIrd year, EN, Business Negotiations

be accepted.
The authors mention that the study prohibits the generalization of the
results and they advise that the practitioners in cross-cultural
negotiations should adjust their preparations for negotiation.
As Asian cultures are becoming more and more involved in business
with Western cultures, the need for cultural understanding is vital in
order to avoid business failures.
Business people learn how to negotiate with people from other
cultures and how to address to them in order to make a deal.
The fact is that the gap between Asian and Western cultures started
to diminish as the entire world has entered in a process of
globalization. So, facing this new modern world which is in the
process of transition from culture to globalization, we shall pay more
Your opinions and
attention to the changes that arise in the cultures that used to have
comments regarding
strong patterns and unwritten rules passed from generation to
the article
generation. The Internet plays an important role in the globalization
as it is easier for people to get in touch with each other, to form same
lifestyles and to become interested in similar things.
This is what this study tries to emphasize, that even the Asian
cultures are now beginning to change and adopt a more western
style in the negotiation process.
Overall I find this study very interesting, though the information it
provides is quite general, it is quality information for those interesting
in cross-cultural negotiations.