Customer Reviews

Bargaining Across Borders

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I found Mr. Foster's book to be an insightful analysis of the need for increased cultural sensitivity both in and out of the world of business. His descriptions of various cultural practices and norms are fascinating and informative. A highly readable book;I look forward to future works by this cross cultural expert.

My company recently entered into contract negotiations with a company in China. I found this book to be very helpful and informative as we went through this process.

This book provides a framework for thinking about foreign negotiations. Although it contains useful info about some specific foreign cultures, it is explicitly NOT a laundry list of dos and don'ts. If you are preparing to negotiate in a specific foreign cultural environment, you will still need to learn about that specific environment, but this book will give you a powerful means of approaching the material.

Basically, the author starts by raising readers' awareness of what it means to be "American" - what sorts of cultural assumptions we start from and habits we unconsciously develop. From there, he draws comparisons to other cultures. By making American readers more aware of ideas and habits they will tend to take for granted, the author opens his readers' minds to important issues in int'l communication. Interestingly, this book would be an excellent guide to negotiating in the United States for foreign businesspeople.

As the author points out, this heightened awareness gives practitioners the ability to deal with situations in foreign settings "on the fly" in a way that a list of specific behaviors and practices simply does not. You get more of the "why" than the traditional "how to," allowing you to spot issues as they crop up. However, there are plenty of specific tips for certain foreign settings.

I have M.A.s in Int'l Relations and Communications, and this is one of the better practical descriptions of the intersections between the two fields that I've come across, possibly the best. It is also consistent with the "principled bargaining" approach of Fischer and Ury, which is generally what U.S. businesspeople are taught. The table of contents is detailed, the organization breaks concepts into easy to remember chunks, and the index covers a great deal. So, this is a book you can come back to whenever you need a quick refresher, as well as an excellent starting point. I would recommend this book even if it meant foregoing something more specific to a particular culture, although both would be ideal.