Nowadays, international negotiations are fast becoming a major activity in an increasingly globalize economy. To be successful in the negotiation, negotiators are required to have efficient and effective communication skills. Since communication is stemmed form people’s perception and cognitions and have large effect on negotiation outcome. Negotiators have to notice the difference of perceptions between both parties toward to the across cultural aspect. Therefore, they can avoid the cost that result from perception bias and apply appropriate tactics.
Also, they need to approach both verbal and non-verbal communication which in turn could have an important impact on the negotiation process. This essay begins by describe the concept of perception and how it links to the negotiation. The impact of perception to the negotiation is discussed next. The final section of this essay link to the cross cultural aspect and explain how verbal and non-verbal communication affect the achievement of negotiation goals. Perception, cognition and communication are essential processes that manage how individuals construct and interpret the interaction that takes place in a negotiation.
In other word, negotiation is a type of interpersonal communication, which itself is a subset of the broader category of human perception and communication. Perception and cognition are the basic building blocks of negotiation since people’s social actions are conducted by the way people perceive and analyze the other party, the situation and their interests and positions (Lewicki, 2003:147). Negotiators approach every negotiation guided by their perceptions of past situations and current attitudes and behaviors.
Their expectations of the future behaviors of other parties and subsequent outcomes are based in huge part on their cognitive information, gained through direct or vicarious experience and observations (Lewicki, 2003:147). Kimberley (2003:85) states that perception expresses the process by which individuals gather sensory information and assign meaning to it. It begins when environmental stimuli are received through people’s senses. Mashane and Travaglione (2003:74) suggest that perception involves deciding which information to notice, how to sort this information and how to interpret it within the framework of people’s existing knowledge.
In communication content, the process of ascribing meaning to messages received is strongly influenced by the receiver’s current state of mind, rile, and understanding or comprehension of earlier communications. Other parties’ perceptions, the environment, and the receiver’s own dispositions all affect how meanings are ascribed and if the receiver can determine exactly what the other party is saying, and what is represent. (Lewicki, 2003:148). Perception influences the way people see others, and the evaluations people make of them and of their behaviors (Devito, 1997:35).
Mashane and Travaglione (2003:74) also state that perceptions influence people’s emotions and behavior towards those objects, people and events. Therefore, in the negotiation process, both parties should be gain a good understanding of the other side’s perception, reduce the conflict and perceptual distortion. Indeed, they have to be aware of the difference between their perceptions so that can apply appropriate negotiation tactics so that can achieve their goals successfully. These relevant issues are discussing as following.
The divergent perceptions of two parties in negotiation may generate conflict and create negative emotions which can affect the outcome of negotiation. By comparison, the two or more parties that involved in a negotiation have different interest. When two parties negotiate in a cooperative project, their various interests may come into conflict over key point inevitably, whether it is a fair price in buyer-seller relationships, a fair licensing agreement, or an equitable workplace arrangement (Habib, 1987).
The conflicts may also come up with differences in the perceptions of the decision making environment, or preferences for particular actions, behavioral styles and goals between the parties (Fisher, 1974). In addition, the conflict and bargain that occur during negotiations has inherent affective component, and affective or emotional reactions such as distress or anger are often experienced during the negotiation process (Walton ; McKersie, 1965). For example, since the Japanese and U.
S negotiators may have conflict result from different perception they have, Kumar (1989) proposes that U. S negotiator the may be prone to experiencing frustration and the Japanese may be prone to experiencing anxiety. The anxiety of the Japanese negotiators results in increasing frustration on the part of the U. S. negotiators, leading to a vicious circle of increasingly negative feelings and influence the effect of negotiation. It is clearly that how the parties perceive is critical to the success of any long-term business relationship and goal achievement in the negotiation.
