In Western countries husband and wife share their personal space, they walk side by side in the street, but in Arab countries, husband always walk ahead of their wives, even at the dinner stable, husband and wife do not sit together.
In some Middle Eastern and Asia countries, you will see it is very crowd in buses, banks and other public places, for these cultures demand very little society distance. They have unique orientations towards space and privacy. A mixing of these orientations can cause communication problems. In China, many public places such as bank has one meter line， but Chinese don't always pay attention to it. If a Western is in front of you in a bank, you pass the one meter line and are close to him or her. You may cause a misunderstanding, you will be said to invade his personal space.
3.2 Time orientation
Time orientation refers to some cultures preference for a long-term or a short-term outlook on life and work (Rouses, 2002). Some cultures are much more future-oriented than others. For example,Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan have a future orientation. At the other end of the continuum we find those such as Pakistan and some West African cultures where the focus is more present and past-oriented than oriented towards the future. These cultures tend to have a great respect for tradition. Canada, Germany, and the United States are in the middle. Compared to North Americana the British tend to emphasize the past much more.
In cultures characterized as monochromic，time is assumed to be linear. it is like an arrow, straight and clearly pointing in one direction. Time is divided into segments that can be modularized and scheduled so that only one thing needs to be handled at one time. Any change or turbulence in this sequence will make the sequential person more uncertain. Time is perceived as a resource that can be spent and saved, wasted or lost and lateness deprives the other of precious minutes in a world where time is money. Many western cultures such as those of Germany, Canada, the United States and the Scandinavian countries tend to be predominantly monochromic cultures. For example, Americans tend to make their schedules very tight, squeezing a lot of activities into thin time slots. It is rude to be even a few minutes late because the whole day's schedule of events is affected.
Polychromic cultures perceive time in the opposite way. People hold a cyclical view of time and conduct various activities in parallel. Many things can and do happen at the same time. They tend to put more importance on completing their current business or communication than in terminating it abruptly in order to start the next. Time commitments are more of an objective to be achieved if possible than a rigid schedule to which one must stick. Plans change frequently and relatively easily compared to monochromic cultures. Many Latin American cultures are characterized by a tendency towards polychromic time. Interestingly, according to Hall and Hall (1987), Japanese culture tends to be divided between monochromic time that is used when dealing with foreigners, and polychromic time that is invoked when dealing with other Japanese.
3.3 Interpersonal relationship
This cultural dimension deals with the manner in which people present themselves to others. On the negotiating table, Chinese people, as they put a strong emphasis on maintaining relationships, are expected to be particularly motivated to protect face of others as well as be concerned that their own face be accepted. Given this sensitivity, they seek harmony and communicate that they respect partners as capable and worthy. Their collectivism in general and their understanding of social face lead them to be hesitant about engaging in aggressive interaction that may challenge the face of others. They regard conflict and confrontation as unpleasant and undesirable. So they want to avoid conflict and, once engaged, use compromise and accommodation to deal with conflict. In contrast, people in the English speaking societies, like United States, value frankness, freedom of expression, independence and the traditions of debate as the way to foster direct and straightforward expression. For example, American culture is known for its assertive and aggressive communication style because it has a long history of valuing non-conformity, individualism, competition, and freedom of expression is bound to encourage assertive behavior. They tend to express their points directly and frankly without thinking about the ensuing confrontation to the Chinese party.
During negotiation, if conflict arises, aggressive behavior from either party can damage the face of the other. Since not giving face to a person is perceived as denying that persons pride and dignity, the Chinese are mindful about the implications of antagonism and aggression and will normally be hesitant about engaging in such behavior. In addition, the adoption of face-giving and face-saving behaviors in conflict situations is valued as a means to maintain a sense of harmony.
4. Analysis of the factors of cultural differences
The culture restricts the behavior and manner of enterprises in international business negotiations and their method and means for controlling the progress of the negotiation. The impaction of different cultures will increase the uncertainty of the international business negotiations and the difficulty of reaching an agreement. And understanding the cultural differences and surmounting the cultural obstacles become the core links of lifting the effect of enterprises in international business negotiations.
Firstly, values are one of the most important factors, which conclude six elements. The first dimension is individualism and collectivism which describes the relationship between the individual and the collectivity that prevails in a given society. They impact the negotiators on thinking, methods and patterns of negotiation, as well as the result of the negotiations. The second is power distance which defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally. People from different countries put different weights on status consistency among prestige, wealth, and power. It impacts the negotiators on decision-making process, and the atmosphere of the negotiation. The third is personal space. The piece of the universe we occupy is contained within an invisible boundary surrounding our body. The forth is time orientation which refers to some cultures preference for a long-term or a short-term outlook on life and work. It has been characterized by Hall and Hall (1987) as either monochromic or polychromic. They also impact the process and patterns of the negotiations. The fifth is interpersonal relationship which deals with the manner in which people present themselves to others. The last one is uncertainty avoidance which is defined as the extent to which people within a culture are made nervous by situations which they perceive as unstructured, unclear, or unpredictable, situations which they therefore try to avoid by maintaining strict codes of behavior and belief in absolute truths. High and low uncertainty avoidance cultures impact the result of the negotiation.
Secondly, language is the basic tool of the negotiation. Language is a set of symbols and the rules for combining those symbols that are used and understood by a large community of people. It impacts the negotiation in terms of verbal and nonverbal language. The high and low-context orientations influence the whole process of the negotiation. Adding the nonverbal language factor, the three factors resolve the success of the negotiation.
The last but not the least is the thought patterns, which are termed ways of thinking. Under the same circumstances, each individual in one culture may think in a slightly different way on the same question. Furthermore, the same individual may also think in a slight different way in the same question under different circumstances. It concludes linear and linkage thought patterns. They make impacts on negotiating styles and the result of the negotiation. Therefore, it is somewhat important to localize international business negotiations, learn to think on the side of others, and promote mutual understanding. Through the elimination of cultural barriers, the favorable cultural conditions can be created by the concerned efforts so that business negotiations can be effectively carried out.
