Making MNC Competitive Through Effective Cross Cultural Negotiations

Abstract

An organization exists in the context of other entities (such as other organizations and governmental, political and social entities) in its organizational environments. The organization’s focal entities become its task environments that require its immediate attention and it has to interact with all such entities so that it is able to satisfy their expectations from it, and, in turn, by pursuing its strategy, it achieves its own goals. This is the model that describes the situation of any organization, including a multinational corporation (MNC) in its international and multi-cultural setting. Often, the negotiation process for meeting an organization’s needs may involve managing inherent conflict, disagreement or competing for constrained resources, thus making negotiation an arduous process. The very basis of give-and-take interactions and negotiations across different cultures, that typify an MNC in its multi-cultural setting, becomes the foundation for cross cultural negotiations. Such negotiations provide the MNC the method of communicating with its diverse entities and seek the services from them for it to achieve its goals. Because an MNC operates in an international and multi-cultural setting, its many entities are of diverse nature and cross cultural communication and negotiation skills become the critical. The inter-organizational interactions of an MNC in its international and multicultural setting become the basis of its day-to-day operations.