Question number 3

If I consider myself as Juan Sanchez from his perspective the following points are explained bellow

1. Principal

As per the case Mr. Jonathan is the owner of Builders Construction. As he is the president of the
company all the decision are taken by him. And it is obvious that the decision are taken by him will be
considered as company decision. For this reason I considered him as the principal of this case. He took
the decision to go international for sake of his company to survive in the market.

2. Agents

In the case it is mentioned that Mr. Jonathan Builder hired Juan Sanchez as a negotiator.

Mr. Jonathan hired Juan for his working experience and for his special skills. Though Juan have no
experience working with the German’s before. Mr. Jonathan has his full confidence over Juan and gave
him the responsibility of negotiations with German authority. From the German side, Helga Schmidt is
the agent they hired for the negotiation of ISD. She will negotiate with Chinese authority for an output.
For Martinez Construction Union Board they hired Ralph Prescott as their agent to negotiate with
Chinese party over their concern about employee and workers job cuts.

3. Constituents

Constituent is one or more parties who has designated someone on behalf of them and they may not
take any participant during the negotiation

In this case Mr. Jonathan Builder assigned Juan Sanchez on behalf of him and he did not participate
during the negotiation. He gave all the responsibility of negotiation to Juan. Helga Schmidt choose ISD
as an constituent in the case. On the other hand Martinez Construction is the constituent of Ralph
Prescott as it hired him to be the MC Union Representative.

4. Team member

Mr. Michael Builder Is the team member of Juan’s team. He is a USA business graduate and he is the
project manager of this project acquisition. The second team member was ISD representative and MC
Union Representative are the third team member.

5. Audience

An Audience is any person or group of people who are not directly involved in or influenced by a
negotiation, but who have the ability to observe and respond to the ongoing activities and who can at
times give the negotiators response, guidance or condemnation. In Juan Sanchez’s point of view the
audiences were non-physically present. The workers and the employees of MC firm was the audience
and they have a negative point of view over international acquisition for job cuts. It will have a impact
on Juan’s team.
The audiences that are directly depended on the negotiation was the employee of Martinez
Construction because their job are depended on the negotiation. The non- depended audience are the
consumers of Martinez Construction because they of no financial gain in this negotiation and they will
not even know what is going to happen during the negotiation process.

However, Michael is the bystanders here and being a team member of Juan and he is directly affected
by the outcome and it was his idea to go international for the sake of the company. Similarly Mr.
Jonathan cannot be call an audience because he has a direct impact of the negotiation outcome .

Question number 1

In the case we have already seen cultural differences between the Chinese party and German party. It is
understandable that because of nation difference both party will behave as per their culture. Chine
culture is relationship focused. They firstly try to build a relationship with the strangers and then start
their dealing on the other hand Germans are deal focus. They only think about their deal. They don’t like
wasting time over unimportant discussion.

From Germans perspective

1. Germans always deal focused. So maintain the time is very important to them. If any business
party is not in time they find lack of interest towards the deal and they understand that the
party has lack of their dedication toward the deal. That is the reason when Juan’s team reach 15
minute late in to the negotiation table they got annoyed with this type of behavior.
2. German people are ready to do business with the strangers. They don’t find any problem doing
business if they don’t know anybody. They are always good to go. So they did not reqired any
kind of pre conversation before doing any kind of deals rather they talk about deal from the
beginning. So they remind Juan’s team about the deal and start talking about it. They find it
necessary to do any kind of chit-chat or city tour and other gesture.
3. Germans are pretty much straight forward and they don’t like wasting time over conversation.
They don’t find relaxing conversation logical. From the beginning they like to talk about the deal.
Once it is finished then they might talk a little bit relax way. But the talking about the deal is
their first priority
4. German negotiators don’t care about emotions very much. They are pretty much direct while
saying anything. They don’t think about the opposition very much or what they will think about
it. If Juan’s team shows this type behavior they will become emotional in the German
negotiators eyes.
5. German negotiators are very unlikely to response uncertainty. If Juan’s team did not give any
favorable response or positive vive over the conversation the deal is kind of over for them.

Chinese are Relationship focus

 1. Time is always a bit flexible for Chinese they don’t mind arriving late for the meeting if it is
informed earlier. But for The Germans meeting the time I everything they rater come early for a
meeting which may Chinese negotiators find a little bit aggressive.
2. Chinese people always like to greet first. They expect a better hospitality. When Juans team
reach for the negotiation they expected a warm greeting and the behavior of Germans defiantly
hurt them a lot
3. Chinese have different business culture. They start the conversation with some informal chit-
chat have some warm drinks such as tea or coffee then slowly they will start talking about the
deal. But when Germans push them for direct deal related conversation they find them a bit
selfish and it is annoying in their point of view.
4. Chinese people never welcome any labor in their business deal. They got quite shock when they
see German union representative in the meeting. They find it unusual and they did not take it
positively
5. A deal never come to a conclusion to the Chinese negotiators. They always keep a space for the
further discussion. They believe in long term relationship for the benefit of the both parties. But
in the German point of view when it is over they give the full is top in the deal.

Question number: 2

In the case we have seen that there was an impasse between Juan and the German party. It is not
always bad if impasse arise in a negotiation or it cannot be resolved. For resolving this impasse Juan
should follow the steps that are described below.

1. Reduce tension and synchronize de-escalation of hostility

Juan has to be ready to do business with strangers. Creating a good relation always may not work.
Even a stranger can have a good deal. Juan has to understand the mentality of the German people.
Even he and his team are a stranger to the Germans but they are ready to do the negotiation. He
has to control his tension over a stranger. Strangers are not bad always or it is not like that Juan
cannot have a good negotiation with them. It completely depends on their team skills. If they are
skillful negotiator they can have the maximum output from the deal even though they are a stranger
and it other hand if Juan’s team is not skillful they cannot have a good output aftr building a good
relationship with the negotiator.

Juan has to respect their feelings. Germans are not emotional at all rather they are very much
professional. They might nor greet you or ask you for coffee and tea before a meeting. They will
directly go for the conversation and start discussing with the issues. Juan cannot expect a very warm
welcome from them at all. Secondly Juan has to respect their time sense. They are very punctual
and on time. He have to understand if he is not in time it will create a bad impression for him and
about his team in their eyes that they might not be serious for the deal.

2. Improving the accuracy of communication

In the case it is pretty much clear that there was a communication gap between Juan and the
German party. Juan was not aware about the Germans culture and their way of behavior. That
creates a negative idea about Germans in Juan point of view. Juan got upset with the Germans
welcoming behavior and he found it rude. Juan should understand the German culture and need
to know about them. That will give him a understanding about the German. He should know first
with whom he is going to negotiate. Just not knowing the opposition create an impasse and
gave a bad idea before negotiation.

Juan should have appear with them with serious mentality by obeying Germans time sensitivity.
Juan arrived their 15 minute later which German did not find good and gave a wrong idea about
Juan’s team but the reality is for Juan acquisition is very important for sake his company. So
being on time is very important which Juan denied.

Reference

1. Neidel, B. (2016, March 4). Negotiations, Chinese Style. Retrieved from

https://www.chinabusinessreview.com/negotiations-chinese-style/
2. Graham, J. L., & Lam, N. M. (2014, August 21). The Chinese Negotiation. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2003/10/the-chinese-negotiation
3. How Germans Negotiate. (2017, February 6). Retrieved from
https://www.usip.org/publications/2002/12/how-germans-negotiate
4. Armbrecht, A. (n.d.). German vs Chinese: what are the cultural differences? Retrieved from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/10/german-vs-chinese-what-are-the-cultural-
differences/
5. Praxenthaler, T. (n.d.). GRIN - Business Cultural Differences between China and Germany.
Retrieved from https://www.grin.com/document/421164