Intercultural Stereotypes in Business Negotiations

Nowadays we live in the world of globalization and rapprochement of nations and it is common to notice the impact of cultures on people’s lives. Intercultural stereotypes are impactful in all communication contexts, thus the question is frequently discussed in scientific publications. This study focuses on how intercultural stereotypes influence the possible outcomes of business negotiations and investigates ways to deal with them. The findings reveal that intercultural stereotypes emerge frequently in the process of business negotiations among representatives of different cultures, which can cause numerous problems, challenges and inability to reach the anticipated results of negotiating. However, ways to prevent them from appearing exist. It is suggested that the participants who are aware of the existence of intercultural stereotypes as well as structure and the principles of successful negotiating, appear to be more successful in preventing intercultural stereotyping than those who do not possess this knowledge. The main methods used in this research paper are literature analysis and case study research methods which enable us to demonstrate the emergence of intercultural stereotypes and elaborate the ways to prevent it. In our research we made a research on how the employees of the international Spanish company perceive the representatives of Russia, analyzed their needs in terms of business communication and designed a training session to help the employees involved in negotiations with Russian partners overcome cultural stereotypes and enhance their knowledge about the representatives of Russian culture. The study concludes with implications, limitations and avenues for future research. Keywords: business negotiations, intercultural communication, intercultural stereotypes, cultural differences