International Organizational Behavior 2e Chapter 3 Activities Page 1
CHAPTER 3
MANAGING CONFLICT WITH EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION AND NEGOTIATION
CHAPTER ACTIVITIES
DEVELOPING YOUR INTERNATIONAL CAREER – Researching a Foreign Language
Purpose and Instructions
The goal of this exercise is to examine a few basic elements of a language with which you
are not familiar and to recognize problems that foreign nationals might have as they apply
their basic language tools them to English.
It is unlikely, for example, that many students (or professors!) are very familiar with
languages such as Afrikaans, Arabic, Dutch, Farsi, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, Swahili,
Turkish, or many others, and this site will provide many such choices.
Once you choose a language, you should begin to gather information that will give you a bit
of insight into some basic features of the language and those individuals who speak it. In
particular, we recommend that you discover the following (with possible supplements
provided by your instructor):
• What are the origins of the language? How is it related to other families of language?
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• What is unique or specific to the language (e.g., its grammar, syntax, accent marks,
etc.)?
• What types of challenges might native speakers of this language face when
communicating to English speakers? That is, what are some transfer issues if they
tried to speak in English (e.g., their tones, accents, sounds that are wildly different)
and if their communication was translated into English by others?
• Do you have any recommendations for communication training or a possible set of
guidelines or advice to give speakers of this language?
Once you’ve chosen a language and considered the above questions, you can begin your
research. There are several good sources to begin your work on this assignment:
nearly two hundred such dictionaries offer complete translation of phrases that you
here are a large number of links to language families and many language meta-sites.
Some of these will be helpful for the background research required in this
assignment.
o Other sources for your research
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MAKING THE CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING: Improving International
Communication at Teknovus Inc.
The communication challenges were formidable, many centering on the need to respond
better to clients’ needs. International management expert, Mary Brannen, a professor at the
prestigious Insead Business School, located in France, has advised companies such as Cisco
on multicultural problems like these faced by Teknovus. Her experience suggests that many
integration problems in cross-national operations are exacerbated by the mistrust and
frustration that comes with long-distance communications across different languages. The
Teknovus experience seemed to fit the mold. Firm executives targeted customers in Japan,
South Korea, and China for their semiconductors because of the importance of the product
in the advanced telecom systems of these countries. To jump start the business, Teknovus
only occasionally problem-solve with their engineers. Yet, because of the nature of the
product application (fiber-optic communication networks), it was necessary for the Asian
telecom staff and the local carriers that operate the networks to seek help from Teknovus’
engineers. Tensions rose on both sides, especially among the engineers at headquarters
who expressed frustration over repeated changes made to the technical specs from the
various overseas offices in Korea and China, among others. The engineers did not
understand the reason for the requests – requests that required significant attention and
time and which could have been avoided in the initial design go around. As a result, when
overseas customers requested new features or bells and whistles, Teknovus engineers
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having spent 14 years based in China and Japan, most recently as a general manager for a
telecom firm. Thus, Mr. Caltabiano fit the position “specs” well. But, it was not the technical
side per se where changes were made by the new CEO. Indeed, over the last two years he
Assignment Questions
1) Given what you know from your reading in this chapter, what do you think Mr.
Caltabiano did to improve communications, which in turn had these positive effects
on firm performance?
3) In your answer to #2, please consider the different communication modes (written,
verbal, and nonverbal) as sources of both the communication problems and the
possible solution.
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DEVELOPING YOU INTERNATIONAL CAREER – Characteristic Negotiation Styles
around the Globe
Purpose and Instructions
The purpose of this exercise is to become knowledgeable about how people in different
cultures and countries negotiate as well as why they seem to prefer a particular style. The
answers to the ‘why’ question can help one avoid difficulty in negotiation or if it occurs can
help you manage your way out of that trouble.
please work to find at least three important cultural values that are said to characterize
your country. Try to find some specific behaviors that follow from these values – behaviors
you could observe if you visited that country. These values and behaviors may drive some
of the negotiation tactics used by business people in your assigned culture. Try to list as
many of these as you can while you tie them to underlying cultural values.
Several web sites might be useful in your research. Your instructor might also suggest
other sites at which to find information. Consider the following:
• Global Negotiator This is a useful site for those interested in studying cross-cultural
• U.S. Department of State Country Background Notes. Like most pages maintained
by the Department of State, this one is informative and well organized and can
• The Economist Country Profiles. The Economist magazine is well known, but its
Based on your research, each group should:
• Meet with your group to discuss the cultural values of your location, and some of
the possible behaviors these values might produce in a negotiation setting.
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• Next, make some predictions about how negotiators from that culture act as a
result.
• Additionally, make predictions about how this style might mesh with those of
business people from the U.S. (or your own home country)
• Finally, come up with a strategic negotiating response for each of the predicted
negotiating behaviors.
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MAKING THE CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING – Conflict Crosses the
Border: Negotiations between Mexicans and Americans
Two companies were vying for a lucrative contract from the Mexican government. And,
both firms, one from the U.S. and another from Sweden, had already jumped several
hurdles in efforts to get the business. Each was invited to Mexico City to present proposals
to Ministry officials as a start to the process of negotiating the terms of the proposed deal.
Arrangements for a fancy hotel conference room were made so that they could make the
best possible presentation to the Ministry officials. In a demonstration of due diligence and
to impress their potential customer, they brought all the necessary equipment with them,
and had mailed outlines of the presentation to officials two weeks ahead of time. Likewise,
they proposed a detailed schedule and other arrangements in a memo to the officials along
with the presentation. For their part, the Mexican officials dutifully thanked the Americans
for their information and said they looked forward to meeting with them and finding out
more about their proposal and their firm. They provided information about the history of
their agency and the top members of the current Ministry.
The presentation began with informal introductions of the team members by the presenter.
The presentation itself was flawlessly delivered, thanks to endless practice put in. But,
about 20 minutes into the presentation, the Minister himself, with an entourage of other
officials, walked in. When he figured out what was going on, his demeanor turned
unpleasant. Angrily, he asked the Americans to start the presentation over; they complied
and started again. Once more, the presentation was going well until about 10 minutes later
when an aide arrived with a message for the Minister that was delivered in hushed tones.
Not wanting to anger him again, the American presenter stopped to wait until the message
was delivered. But, the Minister signaled for him to continue, and he did. But a few minutes
later, a number of audience members were talking among themselves. By this time, the
Americans were very frustrated, but slogged on and finished. At the end, when invited to
ask questions, the Minister’s only comment was to wonder why the Americans had focused
so much on the technical details – why had they told the Mexicans so little about their
firm’s history?
Over the next several days of their time in Mexico City, the Americans repeatedly contacted
the Mexican officials for follow-up. Were there additional questions about the specs? How
about the technical features of their implementation? What were the initial reactions and
was more information needed? They reminded Ministry officials of the schedule they
shared ahead of time and the fact that they needed to return to New York soon. In short,
they wished to start the negotiation process. The Mexican response was the same to all
these forays across the rest of the week: “we need time to examine your proposal among
ourselves here first.” The Americans got more and more angry; at the end of the week, this
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
1) Summarize how the reactions of each side may have been influenced by cultural
differences, including the culture issues at work here and the typical Mexican and
U.S. approaches to this issue. Put differently, what is your diagnosis of the problems
here and the reasons for the breakdown in the process?
2) Provide suggestions about how each side could respond better and adapt to the
other side in a more functional way?