Negotiations:

“It is not the crook in modern business that we fear, but, the honest man who does not know what he is doing,” so goes the saying.
Don’t you know that there are true believers in this world who accept honestly anything that the other side tells them; or who get excited or easily convinced by whatever they see or hear?
Aren’t there, on the other hand, those who gloss over everything they hear, see, or told and never seem to be interested in either of these except to remark lightly on them in a strange or tourist manner?
By the way, this is true in all walks of life, be it in diplomacy, business, education, or even in the arts. Then, where could one find the critical observer who does not play a zero-sum game in any circumstances?
When we talk about negotiations, we first think generally about the concept, then about the environment, and lastly about enabling people to lead and handle negotiations competently. In other words, negotiations cannot be managed by the philosophy of the crook man, neither by the goodness of the honest man as in the above quotation. It cannot either be left to the wit of the non-grasper or to the excessively indulgent critic.
People may ask why it is important to pay so much attention to negotiations, while settling a case or solving a problem through negotiation only takes muscle and energy of the negotiators. To attempt to answer this question is to come closer to the understanding of the concept of negotiations and the grounds they evolve.
First of all, when one negotiates, that person is obviously engaged with another person or persons in the discussion of matters in order to come to an agreement. The negotiation could involve a sale of certain commodities, or a loan of money, or it could involve the bulk purchases of commercial items, or it could be on the change of commercial documents. Outside the commercial arena, negotiations could take place on state affairs, namely on education, health, or transportation matters, or on the issues of war and peace, etc. So, conceptually, negotiation is about reaching at an agreement over an issue through mutual exchange of opinions.
Exchange of opinions is a laden factor since it is guided by differing perceptions of the negotiators as emerging from their environments respectively. Environments, on their part, could be internal and external geographically as well as organizationally. Organizational environments are again influence by cultural factors of the negotiators.
It is this complex phenomenon that leads us to identify our negotiators to fit in the different environments that are characterized by different cultures..
One may ask again, why one should be worried about cultural variables as long as the negotiators are within the same geographical enclave; or as long as the organizations exist in close proximity of each other within, say, Addis Ababa or Jimma, for that matter. This is a kind of good question. However, the fact of the matter could be different from and complex in its peripheral implication. Although, the organizations could be of Ethiopian origin and located within the capital city, chances could be that they are governed by two different organizational cultures. If one is likely to win the case, that person should be prudent enough to know in advance the likings and the dislikings as well as the attitudes and behaviours of the other organization.
But, negotiations are not limited to matters of national origins alone, but, they sometimes involve with matters of external origins and evolving in external organizations operating internally, which may be influenced by their own environmental cultures.
While the above two cases evolve within the same geographical enclave, chances are that negotiations, sometime or most of the time, take place outside of a country. International businesses come into the picture and with them the global prerequisites of negotiations surface of necessity. Then, the effect of globalization compels a nation or an organization to make ready its negotiators in the art of conducting international dealings. It is then and there that a student of communication, diplomacy or international business excels with tours de force all his peers in bringing back home a win-loose situation at best or a win-win situation, at least.
(to be continued).