Category: Module 4: Building Trust and Tracking Relationships

Part 3: Face and Diplomatic Negotiation

  By ,

What is Face?

Watch the interview with Stella Ting-Toomey on the concept of face.

 

 

 

 

Face Orientations and Cultural Dimensions

Using your knowledge of cultural dimensions and negotiation strategies, take this tutorial on face. First, some definitions.

Face is a critical concept in interpersonal and intergroup communication. It is even more significant in conflict, especially intercultural conflict and negotiation.

Face is “about identity respect and other-identity consideration issues” either within or outside the actual encounter. It is related to our emotional attachment to our “social self-worth and the social self-worth of others.” It is our social “face” that we present in any interpersonal or intergroup interaction.

Face threat or face loss occurs when someone else violates our expectations about respect for our identity. Facework involves the linguistic and paralinguistic behaviors we used to maintain or repair face threat or face loss. (Ting-Toomey, 2005)

Let’s look at the conflict styles and facework strategies that can be used to maintain or repair face.

From: Ting-Toomey, S. (2005).

Face Movements and Interaction Strategies

When interacting with others in negotiation, we may choose different face movements, depending on whether we want to “maintain, defend, and/or upgrade self-face or other-face.” Interaction strategies involve high-context and low-context communications as well as conflict styles in negotiation (dominating, avoiding, integrating, etc.).

From Ting-Toomey, 2005

More Facework: Group Graded Assignment

1. Read this page on Repairing Communication Breakdowns

2. Go through this Apologies Lesson presentation on intercultural issues with making apologies. Discuss together how you would deal with the scenarios given in the presentation. Then do the group assignment at the end.

Reference this page:
Ting-Toomey, S. (2005). The matrix of face: An updated face-negotiation theory. In W. Gudyhunst (Ed.) (2005). Theorizing about Intercultural Communication. Thousand Oaks: Sage. pp. 71-92.

Part 2: Mindful Listening and the Middle Way

  By ,

Interactive Lesson

What do cultural dimensions have to do with mindfulness and communicating across cultures in negotiation?

To be mindful communicators, individuals need to recognize the value systems that influence others’ self-conceptions. They need to be open to a new way of identity construction. They need to be prepared to perceive and understand a behavior or problem from others’ cultural and personal standpoints. Mindful communicators need to be on the alert for the multiple perspectives that typically exist in interpreting a cultural collision episode (Ting-Toomey, 2004).

We recognize and study cultural and personal dimensions in our negotiation case:

  • value systems
  • self-conceptions
  • identity construction
  • cultural and personal standpoints
  • multiple perspectives

TingAnd apply that knowledge to linguistic and paralinguistic practices in negotiation:

  • mindful attention
  • listening
  • reframing
  • collaborative dialogue

In this lesson, you’ll interact with material for each of the four practices above. Then you’ll put it all together for a Strategy for Negotiation Mindfulness in the Graded Assignment.

Mindful Attention

Mindful attention begins with understanding our own mindfulness strengths and areas needing improvement.

Take this mindfulness survey. Record your scores for:

  • Observation
  • Description
  • Acting with awareness
  • Accepting self without judgment

Keep your notes for the Graded Assignment.

Listening

Listening is more than just hearing. How can we listen deeply to understand our counterpart’s negotiation orientation and frame.

Listen to this video, then take the quiz

TED Talk on Listening

After watching the TED talk on listening, take this quiz.

Use this information in your Graded Assignment.

Reframing

Reframing is a way to diffuse emotional language and change the assumptions underlying the negotiation orientation of the counterparts.

Read Framing and Reframing_Handbook of Global and Multicultural Negotiation. Use this Reading Guide_Framing and Reframing to help you.

Listen to this video, then take the quiz

What did you learn about reframing?

After watching the video on Reframing, take this quiz.

Use this information in your Graded Assignment.

Collaborative Dialogue and the Middle Way Approach

Joint decisions shift the focus from separate interactive actions to group actions. Collaboration emphasizes direct communication of interests, aspirations, expectations, beliefs, and visions of the future. Open communication allows for enhanced creativity in the actions negotiators take and the decisions they make. Negotiators can invent new strategies, create new alternatives, and develop new ways of implementing agreements. (Smutko)

The principles of collaborative dialogue and the Middle Way approach are overlapping and complementary. They emphasize collaboration, mutual interest, open and respectful communication, and creativity.

Read this page on Collaborative Dialogue and the Middle Way

Graded Assignment: Mindfulness Strategies

  1. Write a self-assessment of your mindfulness strengths and areas needing more improvement. Use your scores from the mindfulness survey, above. In the conclusion, describe how you will use observation, description, awareness, and judgment, as well as mindful listening, in the negotiation. This should be approximately 300-500 words.
  2. Imagine the cultural and personal dimensions of your team and of your counterparts in the negotiation, as well as both sides’ potential concessions and BATNA. Create a dialogue between you and one or more counterparts regarding an issue in the negotiation. Your dialogue can include both collaborative and competitive approaches, but you must employ mindful speech, reframing, and collaborative dialogue and Middle Way approach for your side of the negotiation. With one or more team members, record this dialogue and upload to sans space. It should be no longer than 2 minutes.

References this page

Collaborative Dialogue: L. Steven Smutko, Natural Resources Leadership Institute, NC State University. 2005, http://www.ncsu.edu/nrli/decision-making/projects/documents/NegotiationCollaborativeProblemSolving.pdf

Ting-Toomey, S. (2004). Translating conflict face-negotiation theory into practice. In D. Landis, J. Bennett, & M. Bennett (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural training (3rd ed., pp. 217-248). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Part 1: Thinking about Intercultural Dimensions

  By ,

Interactive Lessons

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Follow this link to the Hofstede Centre website. Professor Geert Hofstede “conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture.”

Cultural Dimensions Comprehension Check

Take the quiz after you have already reviewed the Hofstede website and have a thorough understanding of the information on the website.

High Context & Low Context Cultures

This webpage High Context vs Low Context Cultures provides a list of behaviors generally found in high and low context cultures. As the website notes: “… few cultures, and the people in them, are totally at one end of the spectrum or the other. They usually fall somewhere in between and may have a combination of high and low context characteristics.”

High-Context vs Low-Context Quiz

After studying the webpage on high and low context, take this quiz.

Expert Interviews

Watch the interviews and take the quizzes

Example of Power Distance

Power Distance Quiz

After watching Dr. Hofstede talk about power distance, take this quiz.

Long-term vs Short-Term Orientation

Long Term vs Short Term Quiz

After watching Dr. Hofstede discuss time orientation, take this quiz.

Indulgence vs. Restraint

Indulgence vs Restraint Quiz

After watching Dr. Hofstede discuss indulgence vs restraint in cultures, take this quiz.

Team Assignment: Case Study

View the video on the meeting between ROK President Park and Bill Gates. Also, read the articles below. With this information and what you have learned about cultural dimensions in this lesson, work with your team to develop a set of behavior protocols for the negotiating team to follow in order to show respect for both their own culture and that of the other side–without compromising the strengths of your position.

Submit your team’s set of protocols HERE.