Determinants of facework in intercultural negotiation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether culture has a global influence, or if culture plays a more refined role in influencing communication. Specifically, this study compares two perspectives on the effect of culture on communication behaviour during negotiation. One perspective assumes that culture plays the dominant role, while another perspective argues that culture and other aspects of an interaction combine to influence communication choices. To compare these two perspectives, transcripts of intercultural negotiations between Taiwanese and US Americans were analyzed to compare the two cultures in their use of self‐positive, other‐positive, self‐negative, and other‐negative facework. Results suggest that the second perspective more accurately portrays the process of facework in negotiation. Specifically, contextual factors of the interaction have a stronger influence than shared cultural values on the overall use of facework. Implications for understanding the influence of culture on communicative behaviour are discussed.