A Study On The Impacts Of Cultural Difference On Lesotho-China Business Negotiations

Due to the increased globalization of business activities through emigrants and international negotiators,organizational leaders,CEOs and managers need to be knowledgeable about cultures that they are interacting with.Studies have shown that the rapid increase of globalization and workplace diversity has created a growing necessity for international negotiations,as a result negotiations are considered as an essential starting point for any global relationship,this is mainly because negotiations reflect the primary communication to initiate and build upon the corporate relationship.Culture is considered as a catalyst for the process of communication.As a result,different countries have different cultures,and then cultural differences are formed.This research focuses on the impacts of cultural difference on Lesotho-China business negotiations.Lesotho participates in a number of international cooperation platforms as a result this kinds of platforms occur both at bilateral and multilateral parameters geared towards social development and economic growth as well as international and support.China has been playing an increasingly significant role in nowadays business world.China has diplomatic and international cooperation with Lesotho in a number of platforms like China-Lesotho Cooperation and Forum on China Africa Cooperation.With the increasingly frequent business cooperation between Lesotho and China,the conflicts between the two countries have been gradually prominent.Among them,the main problem caused by this conflicts are cultural differences.The two nations lack an adequate understanding of their social and cultural environment.There is a lot of misunderstandings in terms of the way of doing business.All these contradictions and conflicts arising from cultural differences are difficult to be properly resolved,as a result,some of the businesses operations are not carried out effectively and efficiently.Therefore,to achieve healthy development of Lesotho-China cooperation,attention to cultural differences must be taken into consideration and take practical actions to solve the problem of cultural differences.As a result,the need to better understand both Basotho and Chinese pattern of business negotiation is becoming prominent.Researchers have indicated that the international business negotiations are affected by different cultural dimensions brought to negotiations.The aim of this research is to investigate the cultural difference between Lesotho and China in business negotiations and to investigate how cultural difference affect Lesotho and China business negotiations.This study integrates the main theories of culture and negotiation which consists of the key model of cultural orientation and international business negotiation framework.This study used Brake et al theory which is a key model for cultural orientation.This theory is based on the ten cultural orientations which affect negotiations variables.The researcher used Salacuse’s ten aspects of international business negotiations framework which consists of ten cultural responses to each negotiation factor,this was mainly to enable the researcher to differentiate cultural differences between the two countries.In order to determine and understand the cultural difference clearly between the two countries,a survey was used as a data collection method in order to collect information especially from people who have experience in business negotiations.Both reliability and validity of the surveys were tested and the correlation and significance test was done using a statistical software for data science(STATA).The reliability test was done using Cronbach’s Alpha,and validity test was done using Pearson correlation,and correlation and significant test was also done using Pearson correlation for both surveys.A matrix of correlation was used for both survey to identify the difference between the two countries and again the Pearson Chi Square test of independence and multiple regression model were used to determine whether there is a statistically significant relationship between culture and negotiations.The findings indicate that there is cultural difference between Lesotho and China in business negotiations.Based on Salacuse international business negotiation framework which consists of ten negotiation factor and two cultural responses to each negotiation factor,which was used to investigate the difference between the two countries,the difference between these countries is based on personal styles,communication,agreement building,team organization and risk taking.Based on personal styles,Basotho adopt formal style while Chinese adopt informal style,when it comes to communication,Basotho adopt direct while Chinese adopt indirect communication.When it comes to agreement building,Basotho prefer top-down approach while Chinese prefer bottom-up approach.When it comes to team organization,Basotho prefer one leader while Chinese prefer group consensus and when it comes to risk taking,Basotho are risk takers while Chinese are risk averse.All the confrontation of these cultural differences in the same negotiation between the two countries lead to friction which lower the pace of negotiations.Again the findings indicated that there is a statistically significant relationship between culture and negotiation.