some reflections of vietnamese and american cultural values on vietnamese-american business negotiation = các giá trị văn hóa việt nam, hoa kỳ phản ánh trong đàm phán thương mại việt-mỹ

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---  --- LÊ THỊ VÂN NGA SOME REFLECTIONS OF VIETNAMESE AND AMERICAN CULTURAL VALUES ON VIETNAME

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-  -

LÊ THỊ VÂN NGA

SOME REFLECTIONS OF VIETNAMESE AND AMERICAN CULTURAL VALUES ON VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN BUSINESS

NEGOTIATION

(CÁC GIÁ TRỊ VĂN HÓA VIỆT NAM, HOA KỲ PHẢN ẢNH TRONG

ĐÀM PHÁN THƯƠNG MẠI VIỆT – MỸ)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60.22.15

Hanoi, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -  -

LÊ THỊ VÂN NGA

SOME REFLECTIONS OF VIETNAMESE AND AMERICAN

CULTURAL VALUES ON VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN BUSINESS

NEGOTIATION

(CÁC GIÁ TRỊ VĂN HÓA CỦA VIỆT NAM, HOA KỲ PHẢN ẢNH

TRONG ĐÀM PHÁN THƯƠNG MẠI VIỆT – MỸ)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Linguistics

Code : 60.22.15

Supervisor: PHAN THỊ VÂN QUYÊN

Hanoi, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgement ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

Table of contents……… iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… ……… 1

3 Scope of the study……… 2

4 Methods of the study ……… 2

5 Significance of the study ……… 2

6 Organization of the study……… 2

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1 Culture ……… ……… 4

1.1 What is culture? ……… 4

1.2 Components of culture ……… 4

1.3 Cultural values ……… 6

1.3.1 Vietnamese cultural values ……… 6

1.3 1.1 Collectivism ……… 7

1.3.1.2 Harmony ……… 8

1.3.1.3 Respect……… 8

1.3.1.4 Duty and honor……… 9

1.3.2 American cultural values……… 9

1.3.2.1 Individualism……… 10

1.3.2.2 Self-reliance……… 10

1.3.2.3 Equality……… 11

1.3.2.4 Competition ……… 12

1.3.2.5 Materialism and hard work……… 12

2 Communication……… 13

2.1 What is communication? 13

2.2 Cross – cultural communication……… 13

2.3 Potential problems in cross – cultural communication ……… 14

3 Negotiation ……… 14

3.1 What is negotiation? 14

3.2 Negotiation as a form of communication……… 15

3.3 Elements of negotiation……… 17

3.4 Business negotiation……… 18

3.5 Characteristics of business negotiation……… 18

3.6 Cross - cultural business negotiation……… 19

3.7 Potential problems in cross cultural business negotiation……… 21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 1 Research method……… 22

2 Data collection instrument ……… 22

3 Data collection procedure……… 23

4 Informants……… 23

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 1 Presentation and analysis of the data……… 25

1.1 The negotiators – the actors of a negotiation……… 25

1.2 The size of negotiation team……… 26

1.3 Negotiation approach……… 28

1.4 Negotiating style ……… 28

1.5 Risk taking……… 29

1.6 Goal of negotiating ……… 29

1.7 The role of attorneys in the negotiation……… 30

1.8 Conflict management……… 30

1.9 Decision-making ……… 31

1.10 Activities accompanying the negotiation ……… 33

2 Similarities and differences between Vietnamese and American in business negotiation and the cultural explanation….……… 34

2.1 Similarities……… 34

2.2 Differences……… 36

3 Potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation and some suggested solutions………

39 3.1 Potential problems……… 39

3.2 Some suggested solutions……… 39

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 41 1 Conclusion……… 41

2 Limitation of the study……… 42

3 Suggestions for further study……… 42

REFERENCES……… 43 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

The increasing globalization of the economy has resulted in the tremendous growth

in international market As international business opportunities open, negotiations also increase There have been so many studies about negotiation skills across cultures, but they only focused mainly on developed countries Just few studies have been conducted in the Vietnamese market

Among various foreign investors are those from the U.S The U.S.-Vietnam Trade Agreement has created opportunities for US investors in Vietnam and given Vietnamese businesses access to the U.S market With the development in US-Vietnam trade relation, the negotiations between Vietnam and U.S partners grow to be a norm This study attempts to explore one side of cultural differences - Vietnamese and American cultural values to find out how they are reflected on Vietnamese-American business negotiation

2 Aims of the study

- to find out typical Vietnamese and American cultural values

- to understand the nature of a cross cultural business negotiation

- to examine the potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation

- to analyze how cultural values influence the negotiation process and outcomes These aims are formulated into 3 following research questions: 1) What are the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and American business negotiation? 2) How are Vietnamese and American cultural values reflected in Vietnamese – American business negotiation? 3) What are potential problems in Vietnamese – American business negotiation?

3 Scope of the study

The focus of this study is to investigate only some typical cultural values of the two target countries: Vietnam and the United States; and to find out how they affect Vietnamese-American business negotiation

4 Methods of the study

The study used mixed methods to find answers to the two research questions The instrument for data collection in this study was the questionnaire The data collected from questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively for descriptive statistics

5 Significance of the study

The results will be of some contribution to the literature of international business negotiation The findings and comments of the study may be useful for raising the cultural awareness of Vietnamese and American businessmen when they meet up in a negotiation

so that they can achieve success when they do business in the United States or Vietnam

6 Organization of the study:

This minor thesis consists of 5 chapters: introduction, theoretical background, methodology, findings and discussion, and conclusion

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Culture

1.1 What is culture?

1.2 Components of culture

1.3 Cultural values

1.3.1 Vietnamese cultural values

1.3.1.2 Harmony

1.3.1.3 Respect

1.3.1.4 Duty and honor

1.3.2 American cultural values

1.3.2.1 Individualism

1.3.2.2 Self-reliance

1.3.2.3 Equality

1.3.2.4 Competition

1.3.2.5 Materialism and hard work

2 Communication

2.1 What is communication?

2.2 Cross – cultural communication

2.3 Potential problems in cross – cultural communication

3 Negotiation

3.1 What is negotiation?

3.2 Negotiation as a form of communication

3.3 Elements of negotiation

3.4 Business negotiation

3.5 Characteristics of business negotiation

3.6 Cross - cultural business negotiation

3.7 Potential problems in cross cultural business negotiation

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

1 Research method

The methods used to process the collected data are both qualitative and quantitative All the considerations, comments and assumptions are based on the analysis

of statistic data and reference to relevant publication

2 Data collection instrument

Questionnaire is the instrument to collect data The questionnaire consists of two parts Part one is about personal information such as age, gender, nationality and especially experience in Vietnamese – American negotiation Including 15 questions, part two aimed

to collect information on their attitude and perceptions of what happen in a negotiation The questions were arranged in the order of the main elements of a negotiation

3 Data collection procedure

The questionnaires were delivered to American and Vietnamese business people in face-to-face meetings and conversations, and via email

4 Informants

22 American and 22 Vietnamese business people were finally selected as eligible informants Among these, only 8 Vietnamese and 3 American are female The ages of all the informants range from 26 to 60 They are employers or employees in different types of company or business group Their fields vary from sales, import/export to agency, etc

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1 Presentation and analysis of the data

1.1 The negotiators – the actors of a negotiation

While the Americans appreciate negotiating skills (64%), expertise (64%) and especially experience in negotiating with the counterpart (82%) and position (27%), the Vietnamese place most emphasis on negotiating skills (91%), then position (46%) and both expertise and experience in negotiating with the counterpart (both 36%), seniority

(32%) 91% Americans do not care much about the balance in status, position and age of negotiators of the two parties However, there is an opposite view of the Vietnamese in this situation: a half requires a balance between two parties and the rest suppose that it doesn’t matter

1.2 The size of negotiation team

The majority of both Vietnamese and American people agree that the team size has certain influence on the negotiation outcome, but 55% of Vietnamese think that the influence is very considerable while most of the American (72%) said that it is small The same percentage of both American and Vietnamese (18%) believe that the team size has no influence Almost all Vietnamese and American agree upon the advantage of a large negotiation team They highly appreciate the “making use of the smart of many brains” (55% Vietnamese and 64% American) and also care for the confidence of negotiators The difference here is that no American thinks about “expressing the power over the counterpart” while 13% of Vietnamese like this The same small number of Vietnamese and American people (5%) stated that there is no advantage

1.3 Negotiation approach

Up to 100% of Vietnamese people and almost all American ones (91%) choose the

Integrative negotiation (win – win) as their negotiation approach Only a few American

negotiators (9%) prefer the approach of Distributive negotiation (win – lose)

1.4 Negotiating style

The majority of Vietnamese people try to seek the initial agreements on very general principles Then during the negotiation process, they will discuss each specific issue This is inductive style In contrast, American people prefer deductive style when

77% of them decide to get agreements on each specific detail first and gradually come to the end with general agreements

1.5 Risk-taking

41% of Vietnamese informants are willing to take risks and the rest 59% try to reduce risk as much as possible Meanwhile 59% of Americans willingly take risks and 41% will avoid

1.6 Goal of negotiating

Both Vietnamese and American business people expect to build a long-term business relationship with the counterparts and the negotiation seems to become the first step in the process

1.7 The role of attorneys in the negotiation

A high rate of Vietnamese people (88%) underestimates the appearance of attorneys during the negotiation as they think more of the trust between two parties In contrast, the majority of American people (64%) more highly appreciate the role of attorneys in the negotiation to ensure the legality of the contract

1.8 Conflict management

Almost all American people and the majority of Vietnamese ones choose the solution-oriented approach to manage conflicts Only a small proportion prefer avoidance-oriented one, in which the percentage of Vietnamese people is much higher than that of Americans

1.9 Decision-making

Up to 86% of Vietnamese negotiators try to seek agreement from other team members before making decision whereas only 14% think that they can make decision independently This is completely opposite to the American negotiators when the majority

of them confidently believe that they can decide themselves and the minority has to consult the team before making their mind

1.10 Activities accompanying the negotiation

82% of Vietnamese people and 68% of Americans think that the relationship-building activity is essential The people who often give gifts to the counterpart make up

73% of the total of Vietnamese and only 45% of the total of American The majority of Americans (55%) think that it’s not necessary

2 Similarities and differences between Vietnamese and American in business negotiation and the cultural explanation

2.1 Similarities

In the selection of negotiators, both Vietnamese and American value some criteria like negotiating skills, expertise and experience in negotiating with the counterpart; almost all Vietnamese and American enjoy win-win approach or integrative negotiation; both Vietnamese and American desire to establish a long-term business relationship with the counterpart; they both think highly of building the personal relationship with the counterpart before starting negotiation; they use solution-oriented approach to manage conflicts during negotiation

Vietnamese are more concerned about saving face of the other party They desire a result that is good for both sides so no one will be hurt, no party has to “lose” They want

to express “harmony” by spending time building personal relationship Moreover, Vietnamese collectivist culture gives them a big desire for building relationship A long-term relationship, especially with counterparts from a big developed country like the U.S will bring Vietnamese business people with more chances of technology transfer that will

be used to create the products later (Cellich & Jain, 2004) The values of duty and honor make Vietnamese individual carry themselves with the utmost dignity in all circumstances

so as to not bring shame to oneself and his group This is expressed in their goodwill to find solution to manage conflicts during negotiation

For American, though their sense of “competition” is very high and they usually try

to compete and win at any price to get their interest, it does not mean that they want the other to “die” That’s why they still prefer a win-win negotiation in which they can win but their counterpart does not have to lose However, for American business people, it is likely that they find it necessary to build a long-term relationship as it will bring back more opportunities to enlarge their business or gain profits from the counterparts

2.2 Differences

- Vietnamese emphasize negotiating skills, position and seniority while Americans focus on experience, expertise Due to the hierarchy expressed in the “respect” for people who are senior in age, status, or position, Vietnamese choose members with seniority and