The Importance of Adaptation for Negotiations in Arabian Countries

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, grade: 2,0, University of applied sciences Dortmund, language: English, abstract: This Seminar Paper will exemplify the importance of cultures for business life and especially negotiations. As the central theme I picked out German -Arabian negotiations, how the diverse cultures influence the development of those negotiations and how misunderstandings can be avoided. In his Inauguration speech in 1961 John F. Kennedy once said 'Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate'. Back at that time as well as now this statement captures the importance of negotiations for interpersonal relations. In this era of globalization which started already several years ago, it is becoming more and more important to understand the impact of different cultures on business, and of course private affairs. Through technical and social advances the world becomes more and more connected. Sharing of information becomes faster and easier, behavioral patterns change and the powers in the world are shifting. Because of all these processes it is important like never before to know why other people decide the way they do, and what brought them to that decisions. Only by understanding the opposite a negotiation will conclude in the best result. To find the right access to the topic the word 'negotiation' and the intercultural challenges are shortly explained at the beginning. For defining those challenges in greater detail the next and main part of this Seminar Paper is the analysis and the comparison of the two cultures: Arabian Culture and German Culture. At first a general comparison will show the main differences in the way of life, the way of thinking and behaving be-tween people belonging to these two cultural areas. Which of these aspects have great effects on negotiation style and eventually on the result of business negotiations is shortly portrayed next. To deepen those first impressions the two cultures are then be contrasted according to 3 of Hofstede's 5 cultural dimensions. The implication all those variations can have on a negotiation, are demonstrated at the end by showing a few classical misunderstandings in German-Arabian negotiations and giving examples how variety can be used as an example.