Negotiation is an important part of the daily transactions in the business world. Negotiation involves passing of information or discussing issues to reach an agreement. Through negotiation, people are able to settle differences without having an argument. In any business transaction, disagreements are inevitable and hence need for negotiation to come with a agreeable position to both parties. In a negotiation process, all the players strive to have a position that best fits their organization(Garrett ,2005). However, it is important to note that in effective negotiation process, principle of fairness is paramount where the parties seek mutual benefit.

Negotiation is important from time to time since it helps in solving conflicts and disagreements which arise from differing wants, needs beliefs, and aims of people come together for a common goal (Hannan, 2003). To achieve the desired outcome it is useful to have a structured negotiation approach. For example in a business situation a meeting has to be arranged for the involved parties to meet and negotiate and come up with a common agreement. The negotiation process involves different stages.

Preparation is the first stage in any negotiation. A decision is made as to where and when the meeting will take place. It is useful to set a limited time-scale to avoid the continuance of disagreements. The negotiators also have to prepare for the negotiation (Berghoff, 2013). A good negotiator should have good preparation skills and be competent. Undertaking preparations will help o\avoid excess conflict and wastage of time during the negotiation process.

Discussion is another stage of negotiation. At this stage, members of each side present their case as they understand the situation. Skills useful at this stage include listening, clarifying and questioning (Saner, 2008).  It is sometimes helpful to make notes for future reference in asking questions and in clarifications. Listening is very important since when disagreements arise people tend to talk too much and listen very little. All sides should have equal time and opportunity to present their own case. After the discussion, interest, goals and viewpoints of all sides should be clarified. This can be listed in form of priority since this will help identify and establish a common solution.

All parties in a negotiation seek to win. Thus it is important for all parties to focus on a win-win outcome so that all parties can be well off. A win-win solution is deemed to be the best conclusion but not always possible though it should be the crucial goal (Saner, 2008). At this point it is also good to consider other compromises and strategies. Compromises are positive alternatives which will often accomplish more benefits the earlier positions.  Once all the viewpoints are considered, an agreement in then reached. It may be written down either into details or in general terms.

From an agreement, an action course is implemented to convey the decision. If an agreement has not been reached, another meeting can be prepared. This will avoid wastage of time from meaningless arguments which may damage future business relationships (Berghoff, 2013). Any new ideas should be considered and the problem or situation discussed afresh. It may be helpful also to invite an outside party to mediate.

In any negotiation it is important to take into account the elements attitude, knowledge and interpersonal skills. A negotiation can be affected the parties attitude towards the mater under discussion.  The interpersonal skills of different people should also be considered since people have their own ways of communicating (Hannan, 2003). The more knowledge a person has about the matter to be discussed the more prepared the person is. The different ways of negotiating issues should be understood since different situations will require different methods.

In the modern day business environment, negotiation is very vital. Countries hold negotiations to mutually benefit their economies through exchange of complementary goods and services. This has greatly benefited the developing countries since negotiations have led to the reduction or removal of tariffs thus reducing the transaction costs. Negotiations have also led to increased exports from different countries thus improving the exchange of goods and services.

Culture is the completeness arts, institutions, beliefs, human work and thought that are socially transmitted. Business deals with cross borders and cross-cultures. Culture greatly affect how people communicate, think, behave and even how they negotiate. It also influences the type of transactions they engage in and how they negotiate them. The world cultures are much diversified and this makes it impossible for any negotiator however prepared or experienced to fully understand all the encountered cultures(Hannan, 2003). Language barriers pose a great threat to cross-cultural negotiations since the use of negotiators may distort some information. Some negotiators may give their views into details while others may just generally give their view. This will pose a problem to those who are used to toomuch detail.

The purpose of a negotiation may be viewed by different cultures differently.  Some cultures consider the ultimate goal of any negotiation to be a signed contract while others consider the goal to be the creation of a relationship between the involved parties (Saner, 2008).  Therefore it is important to determine how all parties involved view the purpose of a negotiation. This will enable a negotiator realize the best strategy to use to win the other parties.

Due to different cultures, business people tend to approach deal making any of the two basic attitudes. These attitudes include a win-win attitude or a win-lose attitude (Berghoff, 2013). Understanding what type of negotiators involved is paramount in a negotiation. Also different cultures dictate different personal styles. Some cultures entertain formal, business like styles while others prefer the informal more friendly styles. All cultures have their own formalities which has their own meanings. The same formalities may mean something different in other cultures (Hannan, 2003). Thus it is safer and more efficient to adopt the formal stance and change to an informal posture if the situation dictates so, than assuming an informal style very quickly.

Considering the real communication, methods of communication vary across borders and cultures. Some cultures use indirect ways while others heavily rely on direct methods of communication. Indirect methods include facial expressions, body movements, gestures, figurative forms of speech and other body signs. The use of different communication methods in a negotiation may causes misunderstandings which will lead to friction.

The relationship between culture and negotiation is mainly viewed in terms of communication. Different cultures communicate differently and analyses things differently. Communication barrier poses a great challenge in cross-cultural negotiations (Saner, 2008). The use of indirect methods of communication may be viewed as lack of confidence or lack of insincerity in saying what they want. Some cultures are very emotional and this may cause a problem in decision making and communications.

There are different types of negotiations. One of the main types of negotiations includes the integrative negotiation. It is also known as win-win, cooperative bargaining or principled negotiation. In this type of negotiation, all parties seek to mutually benefit from each other. The end result is that all parties are winners (Berghoff, 2013). Thus the main goal of this type of a negotiation is to gather as much value for oneself and for other parties as well. It usually occurs in negotiations where different ideas are being discussed, for example in creating an agreement where each party offers different resources which are complementary to those of other parties. It is advantageous in that all parties are winners but disadvantageous in that the lack of competition may not produce the most optimal solution.

Another type of negotiation is the distributive bargaining. It is also known as zero-sum negotiation, win-lose or competitive negotiation. This is where parties compete for a certain fixed amount of value. One party wins while the other parties lose.  The type of bargaining mainly occurs in negotiations which are based on the sale of products where only the price matters, for example the sale of a real estate. A purely distributive bargainer must be ruthless, cunning, stubborn, deceitful, self-centered and above all manipulative(Garrett ,2005).The bargaining power of oneself is very important in this type of negotiation. These types of negotiation usually involve parties who have never previously had an interactive relationship.  It is advantageous in that the competition will produce good results to selling party. It is disadvantageous in that only one party wins and all other parties lose. Some of strategies used in distributive bargaining include not revealing important information and realizing owns reservation points. For this purpose, relevant information is concealed, half-truths are told and information is distorted. Another strategy is to get as much information as possible about the other parties. Know their strengths, weaknesses, reservation points, interests and needs(Saner, 2008). Such information can be obtained by analyzing actions, observing expressions, observing and interpreting nonverbal- languages and also getting information from other sources.   It is a fixed pie negotiation.

One of the actual negotiations that have taken place in Australia in recent years is the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement. China and Australia share a rapidly growing economic and trade relationship.  Both countries are committed to sustaining an impressive trade and investment performance they have attained over the last two decades. In the last two decades, China has become the greatest two-way investment and trading partner to Australia, and very important to Australia’s future economic growth.  The negotiations commenced ion 18^th April 2005. This was after considering a joint free trade agreement study which was completed in March 2005. The study concluded that through the negotiation of a free trade agreement, there would be substantial economic changes in both china and Australia (Garrett,2005). The negotiations were complex, and covered a number of issues including quotas and agricultural tariffs, services, manufactured goods, foreign investment and entry of people.

The key interests of the negotiation were the reduction or removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers that affect the cross-countries trade in goods and services. This would particularly reduce transaction cost and also improve efficiency. The negotiation also aimed at removing barriers that restrict services so as to improve trade flows of goods and services which are of interest to both parties. It was also seeking to increase foreign investment between the two countries. Generally the overall aim was to strengthen the future economic relationships. This negotiation was an integrative negotiation. This is because the two countries were seeking to benefit from the agreement. There were also different economic aspects to be discussed (Garrett,2005). The end result was that both countries became winners in that both countries improved their economies. If the countries had decided to expand their relationship, they would have realized even higher good results. This would have been achieved through sharing of ideas mainly in the manufacturing industry given that China is very much ahead in that industry.

Another negotiation in Australia was the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement.  It was initiated in 1^st January 2005. It covered investment and trade in all goods and services. It also committed to tariff elimination over some agreed timeframes. The agreement reached at contained arrangements to protect both countries industries. Due to special agricultural arrangements, exporters in Australia were able to benefit from the preference margin over other non-FTA competitors.  This was also an integrative negotiation since both countries benefited.

Negotiations are part of our day to day life. Human being engages in different types of negotiations in one way or the other. Negotiations are part of the day to day activities human beings undertake. These day to day negotiations may be integrative or distributive. It all depends with the issues involved and what is mostly considered in those issues (Garrett,2005). All parties can be winners in a negotiation or one party can win while the others lose. In both cases there has to be a final agreement between all involved parties. Different cultures have their own ways of negotiating and communicating. a good negotiator should be able to understand and adapt to different negotiating tactics. Negotiations are important in that they help in problem solving and also lead to new business ideas.

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