Negotiation as a Specific Form of Intercultural Communication

The world we live in is changing every day. Nowadays there is a tendency for globalization and many integration processes take place in various spheres of life. At some point of intercultural communication there can arise a need to negotiate. Due to the current situation, the necessity for competent organization and conduct of intercultural negotiations increases. The present study concentrates on characteristics of various cultures and their influence on the process of negotiation. As culture and negotiation are broad topics for analysis, we narrowed down our research to intercultural communication and negotiation in business sphere. The purpose of our research is to identify and describe cultural features that should be taken into account by the participants in order to succeed in intercultural negotiations. More specifically, we focus on Indian and Russian cultures as the relationship between the two countries is evolving and the interest in collaboration and partnership is growing. To achieve our objectives we applied such methods as theoretical analysis and case-study analysis that allowed us to illustrate the way culture affects negotiation. The literature review informs on the types cultures that can be distinguished and their characteristics, the process of negotiation and what aspects of it are affected by culture. The cases we analyzed demonstrate whether culture actually influences negotiations and what cultural features can be noticed in the process. The findings demonstrate that each culture has its own view on and style of negotiation and in order to reach success in negotiating, it is essential to gain insight into different cultures at the preparation stages. We also provide some recommendations for negotiating with Russia and India at the end of our work. Keywords: intercultural communication, negotiation, culture