Being Tough Doesn’t Always Pay Off: The Culture of Honor vs Dignity in Negotiation

Abstract

Early work on cross-cultural negotiation has focused on East-West differences. In the current study we investigate the negotiation scripts employed by Middle Eastern negotiators, more specifically Iranian negotiators, in an intracultural interaction, compared to North American negotiators. We examine how the Iranian worldviews, beliefs, norms, and social behavior influence their goals and aspirations, negotiation tactics, and ultimately final outcome. We formulated our hypotheses based on the theory of honor-dignity cultures and illustrate how the importance of preserving and maintaining honor influences the Iranian negotiation strategies in business dealings. Our results illustrate that consistent with the culture of honor, Iranian negotiators are more likely to be competitive, express emotions, and employ distributive tactics compared to Canadian negotiators. Moreover, this competitive mindset leaves Iranian negotiators at a disadvantage as the overall joint gain is significantly lower than Canadian negotiators.