Intercultural Communication - East meets West in Shoe Manufacturing Negotiations

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, grade: 67%, Queensland University of Technology (Intercultural Communication and Negotiation Skills), language: English, abstract: This paper analyses the case 'East meets West in Shoe Manufacturing Negotiations' in order to identify the main intercultural issues and communication problems between the U.S.A. and China in order to avoid and resolve these issues in the future. The main problems identified in the case study resulted from extreme cultural differences and little knowledge of the other culture. To relate these issues with theory, two models of national culture have been chosen. With the help of Hofstede's model and Nardon/Steers' model the issues have been analyzed and linked to intercultural differences. It was found that the problems in the case study can be explained by these models and are therefore resolvable. The U.S. team is recommended to take action, e.g. learning Chinese and studying Chinese culture, in order to develop a good relationship with their Chinese counterparts to reach their business goals.