Case Study of German & French car manufacturing Industry caker, (1981) and Springer, (1999) in Woywode, (2002) note that German management have strong bargaining partners in both work councils and labour unions, therefore they have to take interests of the labour representatives into consideration. According to Woywode, (2002) German employee representatives have strong motivations to ensure that the working group concepts used in the organisations are in tune with their own political agenda, and are actively involved in working group concepts. According to Lane, (1995) the French unions are organised by profession and usually have a clear political or religious direction.

German organisations the indirect activities, such as planning and control, are located at relatively decentralised levels of hierarchy. In French organisations planning and control are at a centralised level. Sorge, (1995a) in Woywode, (2002) says that German workers due to their advanced vocational education are better prepared than their French counterparts to solve technical and organisational problems in the process of production without the help of higher management. Woywode, (2002) says that due to the educational differences between the two countries, working groups in German car companies are expected to be characterised by a distinct work related activities such as controlling or planning compared to working groups in French car companies. As the differences at the local levels vary in the functioning of the car plants global companies who come from foreign countries usually adapt to local settings in order to get the best production results.

Whitley, (1996: 54) in Woywode, (2002) says that industrial relations is another institutional factor which has been shown to impact organisational structures and behaviour. Lassere, (1996) in Woywode, (2002) says that the German and French trade unions are quite different in their functioning and structure. Sorge, (1995a, 1995b, 275) in Woywode, (2002) states that in Germany the labour unions and employer associations work together in order to negotiate general terms of labour, salary, social security issues and working conditions.

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As Woywode, (2002) states educational differences leads to employee relations varying in different countries like in Germany and France which leads to organisations functioning in different ways and adapting to local conditions, political views and religious views. He further states how even trade unions play a role in the industrial relations in the organisation and how different union policies shape the organisations in various ways. He argues that organisations tend to adapt to local conditions to get the best production results and profit maximisation.

Negotiation Skills

Journal :http://www.fao.org/docs/up/easypol/550/4-5_negotiation_background_paper_179en.pdf

However, people from different community use the various cultural elements to guide their interactions with other people; this behavior is reflected by cross-cultural negotiation (Hofstede, 1980). The different purpose of a negotiation may be viewed by various cultural characteristics. In addition, peoples intention and behavior are varying in different cultural environment.

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Negotiation Skills

Cross cultural negotiation skills are vital in todays business. It is not just about closing deals but it also involves looking at all factors that can influence the proceedings. Cross cultural negotiation skills not only shows the people involved how to start from a strong position and find common ground with others, but also provides practical techniques for to use when talking and bargaining during business ( Kozicki, 2005). People from other countries and cultures do things differently. For alliances and mergers to succeed, these cultural differences must be taken into account when negotiating to reach a deal that will last and bring benefits to both sides. Therefore as these people play an essential role for the success of merging companies, it is crucial to have an understanding of different national and organisational cultures. Cross culture is an integral part of the overall corporate culture of the firm, which is applicable for all international alliance and merging partners (Luo,1999).Nations tend to lead a national character that influences the type of goals and process the society pursues in negotiations and this is why specifying and understanding cultural differences is vital in order to perform successfully in inter-cultural communication (Copeland, 1996).

The concept of individualism (independence) and collectivism (interdependence) also affects Negotiation. According to Deegan (2010), individualism pursues to focus on ones own motivation these entities bring the behavior with own judgment to reach the individual achievements and always lead to resource distribution as the primary goal. In contrast, collectivism pays more attention to identical goal of the whole group no matter in action or in decision-making; they are passive and not willing to appear differences within the group. People from different community use the various cultural elements to guide their interactions with other people this behavior is reflected by cross-cultural negotiation (Hofstede, 1980). People from other countries and cultures do things differently. For alliances and mergers to succeed, these cultural differences must be taken into account when negotiating to reach a deal that will last and bring benefits to both sides (Luo, 1999).