Economic Communication and Gestures
The cultural differences, especially the disparity between the eastern and western countries, really exist and furthermore play an important role in doing business. It will greatly influence the advancement of our business. Cultural difference will serve as a bridge in the business communication and management in cross-cultural environment if it would be better grasped.
Take the transnational corporation for example. With the rapid development of the transnational corporation and the increasing business activities in a global scale, together with the related management in a culturally diversified environment, people in transnational corporation have to deal with those from different cultural background, which may cause the misunderstanding, sometimes even conflict or may hinder the further cooperation in the business.
In order to understand each other better, it is necessary to identify the specific roots of misunderstanding. –
2.2.1The Gestures in the Business Negotiations
Gestures in commercial intercourse can be traced to ancient times.
In ancient China, people used some special gestures in bargaining. The ancient Chinese all wear the clothes with the long sleeves, so they might lay down their sleeves and negotiated the price inside the sleeves through a series of special gestures, without any verbal communication. It is a very interesting trade process of touching each other’s finger to negotiate the price: the buyer and the seller negotiated to each other’s face, put their hands into each other’s sleeves, and touched each other's fingers inside their sleeves in order to negotiate the fair price. Finally, the two sides applauded to show the complete agreement of the transaction, and never go back.
Nowadays, in order to have a success business negotiation, knowing each other’s background is quite important. Besides, right gestures can make the negotiation go on well, but, if a gesture uses in a wrong time or occasion, it may brings some embarrasses. Here is another example.
Masako Seto and Bob Jones were attending a business conference in Singapore and had arranged to meet each other in the lobby of the hotel. When Seto, the Japanese, saw Jones, the American, he placed both hands on his knees and bowed deeply from the waist. He did not see the American’s hand being extended in friendly greeting and poked in the eye.
Jones saw that had hurt Seto and was deeply embarrassed. Apologizing profusely, he reached over and grabbed Seto’s shoulder: something that is never done in Japan. Seto, in order not to lose face, shook Jones’s hand off.
Seto felt tat he had lost face in a public place and was insulted that someone could have touched him on the shoulders. Jones also felt upset because he had poked Seto in the eye. But he was also upset by the fact that the Japanese had not accepted his hand in friendship.[ 《a mistaken greeting》]
Masako Seto and Bob Jones’s business story tells us that using the correct gestures in the right occasion is very significant, so as to eliminate the misunderstanding in the business meeting. It is also quite necessary for us to know the differences between the Asian and Western business etiquette.
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