1. Teaching the art of negotiation in
cross-cultural situations at University
An essay on the “International exercise to increase
awareness of cross-cultural issues by U.S. negotiators”
Professor: Guillermo A. Sánchez Prieto
Grégoire KRIEG
Universidad Pontificia Comillas
Departamento de Gestión Empresarial
Business Negotiations in Global Markets

2. Business Negotiations in Global Markets Professor Guillermo A. Sánchez Prieto
Teaching the art of negotiation in cross-cultural situations at University
2009 - 2010 ICADE
1
Introduction
Teaching “business negotiation” to a class of University students is certainly not as
easy as a simple stroll in the park. The subject can only be understood and acquired when the
student empathises or identifies with its underlying notions and concepts. How can a teacher
facilitate the learning process? The authors Timothy C. Johnson and Jay B. Burton1
have
sought out to answer this specific question by using negotiation simulations in the currciulum
of their respective classes. It has yielded interesting results that one must take into
consideration if he wishes to pursue an effective methodology of teaching negotiation in
cross-cultural situations.
The essay will start off with a brief summary of the authors‟ negotiation simulation. I
will then continue with a personal judgement on the relevance or interest of this specific
exercise by not only commenting on the feedback that the authors‟ collected but by also using
comparisons with my experiences in the Business Negotiations in Global Markets classroom.
Finally, I will suggest improvements for somebody who is faced with the difficult task of
teaching the art of “business negotiation” to students.
Summary of the exercise
The exercise is about a simulated negotation between a US manufacturer of magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) machines and a Brazilian hospital. In order to briefly explain the
details of the exercise, I will list its important caracteristics in the following table:
Composition of
teams
Each team consists of 3 students. The US manufacturer holds 3 American students whereas
the Brazilian hospital has 3 Brazilian students.
Price objectives
for each team
The Brazilian team‟s price objective for the basic MRI unit is set at an equivalent of
$750,000. The Americans‟ objective was $1,200,000.
Role-playing in
US team
- Sales Representative: wants to sell basic unit and earn a commission
- Regional Sales Manager: make the sale but limits price concession, avoids an
arbitration clause, and avoids a contract in reais
- Product Sales Specialist: sell options to the basic unit, sell a service contract that covers
technical problems with the equipment
Role-playing in
Brazilian team
- Radiology Department Manager: reluctant to commit much to a new vendor and
equipment
- Chief Radiologist: wants to buy two machines
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO): wanted a contract with a lower price than the quote,
with an arbitration clause, and stated in reais
Schedule Session 1: the Brazilians are introduced to the exercise whilst the US team do not meet
Session 2: the negotiation exercise. It ends when both parties agree and sign the final
contract form or when they exceed the time limit (60 min.), even if no agreement is reached
Session 3: a debriefing takes place. Participants commented on breakthroughs and
deadlocks of the negotiation.
1
Johnston, T.C., Burton, J.B., 2009, „International exercise to increase awareness of cross-cultural issues by U.S. negotiators.‟ Journal of
International Business Research, Volume 8, Number 1, pp. 79–89.

3. Business Negotiations in Global Markets Professor Guillermo A. Sánchez Prieto
Teaching the art of negotiation in cross-cultural situations at University
2009 - 2010 ICADE
2
Before my personal analysis and judgement, I would to comment and highlight a few
caracteristics of the authors‟ simulation exercise:
1. Price objectives for each team
They can be compared to the positions that each team will negotiate on. Indeed, the use of
price or money is a position that is measurable and that represents the value conferred to the
MRI unit. One should not therefore confuse the price objectives as being the parties‟
respective interests in the negotiation. For example, the Brazilian hospital might need
supplementary MRI‟s in order to fulfill their interest of providing a better service to their
patients.
2. Conflicting positions between teams
An important gap of $450,000 exists between the price objetives of each team and it sets
up a difficult and challenging negotiation. The higher the gap between the teams‟ respective
price objectives, the more tense the negotiation on positions will be. Futhermore, the Regional
sales manager on the US team and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) on the Brazilian team
are given completely opposite objectives. This magnifies the difficulty of reaching an
agreement if team players focus too much on strictly not conceding their positions.
3. Conflicting positions whithin teams
The exercise adds conflicting role-playing within teams and the most notable conflict is
between the Radiology Department manager and the chief Radiologist. The former is said to
be reluctant to commit to a new vendor or equipment because he is responsible for the success
or failure of the machine‟s use and performance. This also adds additional realism to the
simulation as businesses do not always hold employees or directors with common goals.
4. Handicaps (language barrier)
The negotiation was carried out in English and the Brazilians had a diverse level of
English speaking ability. In order to offset the language handicap held by the Brazilians, they
received the role-playing instructions at session 1, one day prior to the negotiation exercise.
During this first session, the Brazilian students were assigned roles according to their level of
English. However, no teams were formed and no communication was made between Brazilian
participants about their respective roles.
The American students received information about the negotiation only 30 minutes before
it took place.

4. Business Negotiations in Global Markets Professor Guillermo A. Sánchez Prieto
Teaching the art of negotiation in cross-cultural situations at University
2009 - 2010 ICADE
3
Analysis and interpretation of the simulated experience
The exercise has shown that Business Negotiation classes can also hold a practical
experience that is analogous to laboratory sessions conducted during Chemisty or Biological
classes. Its purpose is great as it allows students to really have an “avant-garde” feel of what
the real business world is like. It allows you to role-play and discover the implications of
cultures on negotiations. In order to find a solution that satisfies both parties involved in a
negotiation, managing pressure during tense moments as well as perceiving the different types
power, interest and positions are very important. Moreover and most notably, it is a learning
simulation that gives the student the capabilities to eventually avoid making rookie mistakes
in his future professional career.
The authors‟ decision to modify an existing exercise into a negotiation that orientates
itself more towards a cross-cultural one can only be seen as beneficial for improving and
advancing research in the field of business negotiations.
The authors‟ decided to create a more cross-cultural simulation by organizing teams of
students with different nationalities that spoke different levels of English. When providing
feedback on the exercise, the teacher expressed pleasure at the fact that his students were
learning the implications of culture on negotiation talks. Furthermore, the student‟s feedback
added weight to the conclusion that they were indeed learning this effectively.
However, I believe that the exercise itself yielded disappointing and somewhat
contradictory results. When analyzing the surveys, nearly all the students (91%) said that the
exercise was efficient in showing the effects of culture on the negotiation process but nearly
half the students did not detect the actual differences in cultures between American and
Brazilian students. This shows notable flaws in the learning process as the students noticed
the importance of taking into consideration cultural difference in negotiation but that a near
half was not able to explain it with practical examples. As the old french saying goes, it seems
that the cart has been put before the horse and that the teacher‟s desire for more awareness of
cultural implications overpowed the actual teaching of what a culture meant and the practical
forms it could take.
Explaining what culture represents in its different shapes and forms is no easy task. It
can sometimes only be understood when having adapted to or immersed oneself in a different
culture.

5. Business Negotiations in Global Markets Professor Guillermo A. Sánchez Prieto
Teaching the art of negotiation in cross-cultural situations at University
2009 - 2010 ICADE
4
In this simulation, students were given insight on culture with Hofstede‟s cultural
measures by receiving a brief theoretical summary of the subject before the negotiation took
place. The practical factors in the negotiation that were said to give an additional cross-
cultural feel to the simulation were the different student nationalities and the different prices
or exchange rates. Personally, I feel that this was not sufficient to help a student distinguish
how culture could impact the talks and whether his culture‟s traits or traits of the culture of
the person with whom he was negotiating were having an influence on the dialogues.
First and foremost, having the capacity of detecting such traits demands a certain
experience in life that certain students might not have experienced yet. By this, I mean that a
student must have gone through the challenge to adapt himself to a culture that is radically
different than theirs by completely immersing themselves in a foreign country during a stay of
multiple months.
These types of experiences allow students to not only understand different point of
views to the ones he holds on specific subjects but it also allows him to learn about all the
different facets of social interaction in different countries, regions or cities.
In order to conclude, focus should be put on doing an exercise with students who have
experienced life and studying abroad. This conveys a greater perception of cultural
differences as well as an improved capacity of being tolerant of different approaches in
negotiating based on different cultural backgrounds and beliefs. In fine, the simulation would
speak more to the students as they would be able to detect many more practical forms of
cross-cultural factors that impact the negotiation.
Although, I was quite disappointed by what seems a lack in the exercise‟s actions
carried out to explain culture, I would like to stress that overall I belive that it is a simulation
of high quality. Indeed, in comparison to the negotiations that I have experienced in the
ICADE classroom, I feel that level of difficulty of this exercise is similar if not higher. The
most notable differences that seem to add more spice are the confictual role-playing within
teams, the focus put on the different levels of English of the students and the necessity of
exchanging rates to have a common perspective on the value of an MRI unit.

6. Business Negotiations in Global Markets Professor Guillermo A. Sánchez Prieto
Teaching the art of negotiation in cross-cultural situations at University
2009 - 2010 ICADE
5
Suggestions and improvements
My criticism of the simulation exercise in the previous section led me to judge the
explanation of culture during sessions before the negotiation as insufficient. In order to make
up for this lack in the learning process, I would suggest that the teachers concentrate on
highlighting examples of what culture englobes during these previous sessions. This should be
done by asking the students to intervene actively with their own examples from their previous
multiple month stays in foreign countries. The condition that every student that wishes to
enroll for the simulation exercise must have lived such an experience abroad should not be
imposed. However, a handful of these students would be useful as they would add interactivy
and energy to the classroom. One could also imagine asking every student to do a brief one
minute presentation where he could share to the class his observations made on a different
culture.
In the student feedback of the simulation, the American students felt that not enough
was being done or organized for them to meet and share moments with the Brazilian students.
Organizing more sessions where each student could share a bit more of his life and personal
observations to the class (cfr. stated in the previous paragraph) might provide more
opportunities for students to get to know each other and eventually strike a richer relationship
between each other.
General conclusions
I will end my essay by thanking the fact that I had the opportuniy to experience a
Business Negotiations class as I have gradually observed the importance of it not only in my
international business activities but also in my everyday life.
It is impossible to completely integrate the subject matter by simply reading a book or
various theories on Business Negotiations. The use of simulations is certainly useful and
productive as it allows students to be conscious about the impotance of perception, the errors
made from being overconfident and having unsufficient information and finally the
importance of seeing somebody not as a rival but as a partner.
The Business Negotiations in Global Markets class has given me an abundant thirst to
learn more about being more effective in future negotiations. I really enjoyed the classroom‟s
high paced rhythm as it was set up with numerous media and student interventions. I
encourage all teachers to follow the same rout when explaining their subject matter as it yields
enthusiasm and concentration throughout every class.