The American negotiation culture

The American negotiation culture takes its roots in the American educational tradition of the business communication skills development. Americans consider confidence-building between the parties as first and one of the most important parts of any negotiations. They show friendliness and a positive attitude towards their partners, but they strive for leadership and are focused on winning as well. Negotiations in their point of view are competition in which they want to win. At the same time, the American negotiation culture supposes a deceptive tactics to achieve the goal, but using this tactics the American negotiator finds it insulting to be accused of lying. Despite the strong basis in social sciences and education, the Americans do not pay much attention to the national identities and cultural contexts of their negotiating partners. Also they have a negative attitude towards direct critical remarks. Americans behave harshly towards a weaker, insecure partner, but they reckon with “strong-arm” and resourced capabilities of the other side. They respect calm, self-confident, assertive interlocutors. Speed, risk appetite, efficiency and clear verbal communication are the values within the American negotiation culture. The American negotiators are committed to achieving a concrete, meaningful result in the course of negotiations and pay great attention to details in the legal execution of agreements. They are often outspoken in communication and, independent in making decisions. At the same time they are always well prepared for negotiations and rely on good experts. Though, the American negotiators also strive to use body language effectively.