新東方優美背誦短文50篇 Unit26:International Business and Cross-cultural Communication

26. International Business and Cross-cultural Communication

The increase in international business and in foreign investment has created a need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and skills in cross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not been well trained in either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the same level of success in negotiation in an international arena as have their foreign counterparts.

Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching an agreement. It involves persuasion and compromise, but in order to participate in either one, the negotiators must understand the ways in which people are persuaded and how compromise is reached within the culture of the negotiation.

In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are perceived as wealthy and impersonal. It often appears to the foreign negotiator that the American represents a large multi-million-dollar corporation that can afford to pay the price without bargaining further. The American negotiator’s role becomes that of an impersonal purveyor of information and cash.

In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have been identified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, while undermining the negotiator’s position. Two traits in particular that cause cross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part of the American negotiator. Furthermore, American negotiators often insist on realizing short-term goals. Foreign negotiators, on the other hand, may value the relationship established between negotiators and may be willing to invest time in it for long-term benefits. In order to solidify the relationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for the time involved in getting to know the other negotiator.

國際商業和跨文化交流國際貿易和海外投資的增加產生了對具有外語知識和跨文化交流技巧的經理的需求。
然而，美國人在這兩方面未得到良好的訓練，因此沒有在國際談判中象他們的外國對手一樣成功。談判是為了達成協議而反復交流的過程。它包括說服和妥協。
但是為了去進行說服和妥協，談判者必須懂得在談判的文化中怎樣說服人和怎樣達成妥協。在國外的國際商務談判中，美國人被視為富有和不帶個人情感。
在外國談判者看來，似乎美國人代表著一個龐大的擁有數百萬資財的大企業，不用進一步地討價還價就能出得起價錢。
美國談判者的角色變成了一個沒有個人感情的信息及現金的供應者。對在國外的美
國談判者的研究中，我們找出了損害談判者能力的幾個特點，或許證實這個已成定式的看法。尤其引起跨文化誤解的兩個特點是美國談判者的直截了當和缺乏耐心。
此外，美國談判者經常堅持實現短期目標，而外國的談判者會珍視建立談判者之間的聯系并愿意為長期利益投入時間。
為了鞏固這種聯系，他們會選擇非直接的交流而不計較投入用于了解對方的時間。明顯地，價值觀的不同和理解上的差異影響了談判的結果和談判者的成功與否。
美國人要在國際商務談判中扮演更為有效的角色，他們就必須投入更多的努力提高跨文化的理解力。