Cross-Cultural Interactions

Theoretical background

In their seminal article regarding international negotiation behaviors, Sawyer and Guetzkow were among the first to posit that negotiators' behaviors and outcomes can be influenced by situational constraints, i.e., cross-cultural negotiations versus intra-cultural negotiations: 

Support for their supposition has come from a broad array of disciplines. The cross-cultural communication and psychology literature suggests that people behave differently with members of their own culture than with members of foreign cultures. Research in nonbusiness contexts has demonstrated that when individuals interact with people from different cultures, the differences between them become salient. Moreover, when people in interpersonal situations confront these actual differences, they tend to exaggerate them. And, when differences become very apparent, some research suggests that relationships among managers deteriorate. Perceived similarity, not difference, has been the important predictor of satisfaction with work relationship. 

Mishler reports that in international exchanges: "The greater the cultural differences, the more likely barriers to communication and misunderstandings become". Some researchers have even questioned whether "managers from significantly different cultures such as Japan and the United States can ever completely understand each other". Studies in the following five research areas are particularly relevant.