Introduction
Stereotyping can be defined as the act of exaggerating, oversimplifying, or preconceiving ideas that a person is acting in a certain manner because he or she belongs to a certain group, gender, socio-economic status, or a certain race. Stereotyping has resulted in prejudice and discrimination of one group, race, or culture due to preconceived ideas that people from that group or race have certain undesirable behaviors (T. J. & Daggatt, 1990).
Impacts of stereotyping in business negotiations across cultural boundaries
Stereotyping can be associated with poor payment in women as compared to men. This is so because when it comes to negotiating starting salary, in most cases women shy away from asking for better pay as compared to the males who often state their starting salary higher than the females (Hendon & Herbig, 1996). This is because they believe that the males are highly competitive, manipulative and most of the time winning negotiation and thus attain good deals from their opponents.
On the other hand, women are said to be accommodating and always willing to save the existing relationships and thus will easily accept the bid offered by their opponent (Samovar, et al. (2000). If this were right, we can expect the males to attain better business deals and salaries as compared to the females. This has been seen in the case of England where men are being paid higher salaries than women.
Another impact of stereotyping in business negotiations across cultural differences is that there is discrimination and mistrust among the negotiating teams. When the negotiating teams are on the table, one team may seem to mistrust the other team based on their culture, for instance, in the case of England negotiating business with the Americans, the Americans may lose trust in the England people because of their past histories. This may lead to the business deals not maturing and bitterness to the England people (Hill, 2000).
Stereotyping may also result in cross-boundary wars. This can be seen in the case of due to the negative thinking on one side the other side may feel unrepresented in some issues that affect both the groups. This may result in one group rioting or fighting for the actual representation in the issue. The riot may cause more deaths and hatred among the two groups. For instance, in the case of England negotiating with the Americans, the England people may develop hatred toward the Americans and this may result in war between the two countries (Hendon & Herbig, 1996).
Stereotyping has also lead to the stagnation of the economy of a country. When there is stereotyping on a certain country, investors will not come to invest in that country. This will lead to the economy of that country coming down. For instance, in the case of where there may be political instability, many investors would not want to invest in a country that has political instability. This may lead to the economy of England deteriorating.
Stereotyping in business negations has also lead to the marginalization of a country or a group of people (Lafayette, 2001). This is so because when stereotyping occurs, its negative implication may influence the investment of other groups of people in that particular country. For instance, in case England has a president who is a dictator, the investors can not invest due to fear of being dictated on the kind of business one has to do. This makes that particular country be marginalized and people do not want to be associated with its citizens. Also if in England there are crashes due to foreign investment, the country may be marginalized as no foreign investor wants to invest in the country. Groups that have problems can also be marginalized, in that no businessman who wants to be associated with that group of people (Lesikar, et al, 1999)
Stereotyping in business negotiation can also lead to a group of people pulling themselves away from the entire community. For instance, if a certain group of people practices a certain act and the other people associate this with prejudice, the group may withdraw from all the other people. For instance, the England people who are known to be elegant in all manner and all places people may shy away from doing any kind of business with them. This may make the country marginalized as no particular investor want to be associated with people that are known to have a certain behavior (Locker & Kaczmarck. 2001).
Stereotyping in business negotiation may also lead to looking down on one group of people by other groups. This happens when a certain group, shows weakness to the other group or when one group sees the other as the weakest and thus takes advantage over the other group. For instance, when business negotiation happens between a developing country like Kenya and a developed country like England, the developed country England may look down on the Developing country, Kenya (Hofstede, 1998).
This happens because the developing countries always see themselves as the weakest and the developed countries see themselves as the superpower who can not be shown the way by the developing countries. This may result in the dictation of the developed countries to the developing countries. The final result is that the business may not be supported by the local and or the business deal may not at all commerce (Salacuse, 1999).
References
T. J. & Daggatt, W. (1990), The Global Negotiator. Harper Business.
Hendon, D & Herbig P. (1996), Cross-Cultural Business Negotiations. Westpost, CT: Quorum.
Hill, L. (2000), International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace. Richard D. Irwin.
Hofstede, G. (1998), Cultures and Organizations: Software of Mind. McGraw-Hill.
Lafayette, B. (2001), How to Do Business with the Japanese. NTC Publishing Group.
Lesikar, V., et al. (1999), Lesikar’s Basic Business Communication Von Hoffmann Press.
Locker, K. & Kaczmarck, K. (2001), Business Communication: Building Critical Skills. Von Hoffmann Press.
Salacuse, W. (1999), Making Global Deals: What Every Executive Should Know About Negotiating Abroad. Random House.
Samovar, L. et al. (2000), Communication Between Cultures. Thomas Learning Asian.
Tayeb, H. (1992), the Global Business Environment: Introduction. Sage Publications.