Inter and Intra-Cultural Negotiation: US and Japanese Negotiators

In this study, the authors propose that culture provides scripts and schemas for negotiation. The implications for negotiation of two cultural values, individualism/collectivism and hierarchy/egalitarianism, are discussed. The primary hypothesis, that joint gains will be lower in intercultural negotiations between U.S. and Japanese negotiators than in intracultural negotiations between either U.S. or Japanese negotiators, was confirmed with data from 30 intercultural, 47 U.S.-U.S. intracultural, and 18 Japanese-Japanese intracultural simulated negotiations. Tests of secondary hypotheses indicated that there was less understanding of the priorities of the other party and the utility of a compatible issue in inter- than in intracultural negotiations. When information about priorities was available, intercultural negotiators were less able than intracultural negotiators to use it to generate joint gains.