【文章內容簡介】 would be interesting,” Knowing that he had only a few days left in Beijing, George wanted to nail down a time “When can we meet ?” asked George. “ Ah, this week is very busy,” replied Mr. Li. “It sure is,” said George, “How about 10 o’clock ? Meet you here.” “Tomorrow at 10 o’clock?” asked . thoughtfully. “Right.” Said George. “I’ll see you then？‘, why don’t you e by tomorrow.” Was the reply. “OK.” Responded George, “It was nice meeting you.” The next day at 10 o’clock he approached ’s pany’s exhibit only to find that had some important business and was not able to meet with George. He called back later in the day and was told that was not available. Individualism versus CollectivismIn individualistic culture, individuals are expected to take care of themselves and to value their needs over that of the collectivethe group, munity and duties are defined by laws. Society regards individual achievements and legal institution protects individual rights. Task is put before relationship.Individualistic culture, such as USA, is more selfcentered and emphasize mostly on their individual goals. People from individual cultures prefer clarity in their munication and they tend to municate efficient in a direct way. In business munication, they try to improve strengthen the connection with their counterparts not for establishing a longterm relationship but to gain more benefits.Collectivism emphasizes mon interests, cooperation and interdependence. Relationships are based on mutual selfinterests. Maintaining harmony within groups is obtained at all cost.Collectivist cultures in Asia like China, regard other panies with less collectivistic philosophy as cold and not sustainable. Collectivistic cultures have a great emphasis on groups and take the terms of “we”. In a pany of collectivistic culture, harmony and loyalty is regarded important and thought to be maintained. Besides, confrontation is considered to be avoided. It is regarded as impolite to disagree with somebody in public in China. If you don’t agree with someone, you would choose a more personal atmosphere to do it for “saving his face”. Instead of saying “no” is not good for the harmony of a group. The relationships between employees and employers are based on trust and harmony. The wealth of the pany and the group are more important than the individual one. Results versus RelationshipsNegotiators from relationshiporiented culture place high value on friendly relationships and are not fortable with a strong resultdriven negotiation process. Business in China is not about doing business between organizations, but about doing business between people. You have business when you have established an interpersonal relationship. Chinese negotiators will naturally take a people –oriented approach toward negotiations。 they do business with you, not with your pany. Results, rather than relationships are paramount. American negotiators concern about the price, quality and guarantees of the producing each other and then are eager to get down to the issue under negotiation directly. Let’s look at a real story: An American team called Can wall, which is a wallpaper printing equipment manufacturer, went to Jiangsu to negotiate a sale with a new Chinese wallpaper production pany. In the first two days when the representatives from the American pany arrived in China, they were showed around some places for relaxation by representatives from the Chinese pany. In the third day, the negotiation meetings began. But actually, the Chinese pany spent a lot of time talking about some issues unrelated to the sale. The American representatives didn’t know why the Chinese pany talked about so many things unrelated to business. This case is an example of munication failure. The Chinese pany preferred to spend much time on establishing of relationship, whereas the American pany tended to discuss the sale issues at the beginning of a negotiation. The Chinese were relationship oriented, while the Americans were result oriented. In the negotiation, the Chinese pany tended to establish a good relationship at the cost of time. The American pany tended to establish a good relationship at the cost of time, The American pany tended to achieve the goal of a task despite rather than spent a long time establishing relationship. Time OrientationMany in the West, especially Americans are driven by the clock. They live by schedules and deadlines and thrive on being punctual for meeting and efficient in doing business. American negotiators are known for their speed and strive for getting through the content of the negotiation as efficiently as possible. Americans usually arrive five minutes earlier for a business negotiation and begin their business at the appointed time. They always seem to be in a hurry and under pressure for results. Due to the deadlines set by their leader, American negotiators tend to give away more than it should be just in order to finish the task on time and move on to the next item. So, it is easy for them perceptions in nature. In the Asian countries, like China, people have different view on time from that of the United States. Time is not money but a weapon. To many Asian negotiators, how much time is required to closed a task is not as important as the job itself. Producing an agreement in a short time may be one of the least concerns in negotiation, the Chinese generally believe that enough time should be invested into building warm relationship before really staring the issue under negotiation. They view time as endless and they are longtime oriented. They are patient and do not run for the deadlines. So, Chinese negotiators seldom make concession until the last minute of negotiation. Very often, it takes more time to closed a negotiation in Asian countries than that is done in the west. There is an example:The sales manager of WCG, an American hightechnology service pany was in China to present new proces