Americans~

My most influential class at KAIST University is my Cross Cultural Management class taught by Professor Betty Chung. Our last lecture was a fish bowl simulation on negotiating with different cultures. There were 5 people seated in front of the class and our goal was to establish a company logo in 30 minutes. We all worked for company X, but worked from different countries. I represented the US and there were reps (exchange students from their home country) from Korea, Japan, Germany and Denmark. 

As soon as the simulation started, I took the lead role only because it is my nature to be assertive. (and we only had 30 minutes to accomplish this task) So within 25 minutes, we had come up with a company logo that we all unanimously agreed on. I thought we did a spectacular job. However, do my disappointment, our process in achieving this goal was not so successful. The comments from the class was that this meeting felt too rushed and more time could have been spent on brainstorming. The professor commented that I took the leading role immediately and wondered why no one in the group thought to stop me when I was moving too fast. Professor Chung had commented that "Anne, as an American tends to be very time conscious, negotiates with a lateral checklist, comes to a consensus on a democratic vote, and is very impersonal." At first I took it a little personally, but asked myself, "didn't we just accomplish our goal and everyone in our group agreed on it, so what's the problem??"

So here's the deal. Before any business is conducted in Asian culture, potential business partners spend time together to build a personal relationship. It is very common that the Korean business men will take their potential business partners for a night of non-stop drinking. This is just how business is done. And it is common for Asian cultures to negotiate spontaneously and not on a lateral checklist like an American. (Meaning they jump to another topic before settling one point)  And as for many Europeans such as Denmark, coming to a consensus on majority vote is not acceptable. Everyone in the group must be happy about the final outcome and every one's idea must be incorporated or else business is not settled. 

I sat in class thinking, "how ineffective is that??" 

In America, we are so programmed with deadlines and moving onto the next "big" project that we often do become a bit "impersonal." For instance, the Korean rep wanted to go around the room and have personal introductions before we began the meeting. I thought this was a great idea and gave each rep 30 seconds to introduce themselves. And before we voted on the final logo, Germany had stopped me and asked if we shouldn't spend more time on different ideas for the logo. She had thought there were more ideas to be explored. I argued that there is not enough time to discuss more ideas. (ooppsssss)

I have learned a huge lesson in class. Negotiating as an American with other countries is hard work. While I think that my style is most effective, it is just not done in other countries. In a way, I have to adapt to the cultural differences. This is much easier said than done...