This chapter will review how culture impacts upon negotiations and how these negotiations might be managed. It will include discussion of

• how to develop a cultural awareness to help prepare for a negotiation

• cultural differences in approach to negotiation, influenced by individualism and collectivism, forms of communication, decision making and perspectives on time

• an agreement-focused perspective

• how to manage a cross-cultural negotiation, issue strategy and process dimensions, including negotiation scripts

• cross-cultural differences in managing the tasks of negotiation

• becoming an effective cross-cultural negotiator.

On a business trip to Manila the author's first meeting there was to be hosted at a restaurant. Establishing business relationships in the social environment of a restaurant is what one expects there: it is a recognised characteristic of doing business in Asia. Another occasion, when he went overseas to discuss a possible joint venture, was also hosted at a restaurant, not in Asia this time, but in New Zealand. What then of the Asian characteristic of doing business in a social environment? How Asian is it?

A senior executive from an Australian engineering company was on time for his morning appointment in Lagos with the CEO of a Nigerian company interested in a joint mining venture. He was kept waiting all day in the reception area without even being offered a coffee. Because Africans supposedly have a different notion of time, the advice is to ‘Be punctual, even though you may be kept waiting’ (Acuff 2008, p. 289).