The Communication Aspect of Business Negotiations in the Intercultural Context

摘要

In the current era of social processes all over the world, the demands on the culture of communication increases, but on the other hand we are more aware of differences in thinking and acting of individuals coming from different cultural backgrounds. These facts are reflected in the international business negotiations, which require some specific abilities and knowledge influencing the successful result of mutual communication from negotiators. In fact, it is impossible not to communicate. There is communication everywhere and all the time. Within the context of this topic, we put a question: How can we communicate properly and successfully with a foreign business partner? In that connection, the cultural background of our business partner is important. There arise frequent misunderstandings during business negotiations because of the partner's different cultural background, which is reflected in their thinking and acting. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance and direct connection of intercultural literacy as one of the conditions for successful communication in negotiation processes. The paper presents some theoretical starting points for the topic; it offers the views of the problem of interculturality by several theoreticians, and tries to reply the questions directly connected with intercultural business negotiations: what is the impact of my partners' culture on their behavior and thinking? Is intercultural communication only a product of communication in a foreign language, or is it something more than that? What does the intercultural competence of the negotiator mean, and how can it be acquired?.