negotiation: human behavior
In
addition to considering the effects of cultures,
which play a large part in the problems of cross-border
negotiation the negotiator needs to also understand the basis of human
behavior. This requires an understanding of psychology and anthropology.
There
are a number of concepts which can prove invaluable as an aid to understanding,
depending on the circumstances and the individuals you are dealing with. Firstly
you need to remember that homo sapiens are a complex social species and as
a developed primate retains aspects of the behavior exhibited by other members
of the order. Anthropology is relevant to the
social behavior of human beings, i.e. groups and teams. In addition it is
important to understand that the behavior of individual human beings is subject
to both instinctive behavior, which is common to the species and learned behavior
which is the product of environment and its interaction with the inherited
characteristics of an individual, via the process of learning and experience.
The behavior of individuals is also affected by disease, drugs, pollution,
stress, group dynamics, sexual desires, and a number of external influences.
For example INFORAX
reports that THC, the active chemical in marijuana, changes the way in which
sensory information is processed by the hippocampus, which can effect memory
and attention.
Inherited
characteristics play a part in the behavior of individuals and the key characteristics
are intelligence and gender. Other characteristics which the individual which
the individual may perceive as important are race and size, though the definition
of race is in practice largely concerned with cultural issues. Size affects
an individual's status; for example there is a positive correlation between
the height of UK males at 16 and their later earning ability.
It
is also important to remember that the human brain is a very malleable organ,
and ideas-concepts-habits-perceptions become fixed in the brain. Earl Miller
at MIT says .."The
bottom line is, our experience changes. We physically rewire our brain as
we process our environment". The Chinese also developed the processes
of reprogramming people, in "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism"
Robert Jay Lifton described the process of brainwashing as used by the Chinese
on Westerners and Chinese intellectuals, where an acceptance of the ideas
of Chinese Communism replaced previous sets of ideas, for a proportion of
their victims. The Cultural Revolution saw the application of the same process
on a national scale.
With all these different influences on people it can be extremely difficult to wholly understand the behavior and reactions of those you are negotiating with. Their mental models may differ dramatically from your own, not only because of cultural factors, and it may be difficult to understand them and impossible to empathize with their view of the World. People are not always easy to deal with and not all sets of ideas are equally acceptable.
It's always worth reading Gulliver's Travels, for a view of the follies of others (it's more difficult to see the follies of your own culture).
