The Interplay of Culture and Gender in the Perceived Ethicality of Negotiation Tactics

This paper examines the interplay of national cultural values and gender-related behavioural norms in the context of business negotiations. In particular, it presents the methods and findings of a quantitative investigation carried out among business negotiators in the West Transdanubian Region in Hungary aiming to detect differences between male and female business negotiators' judgement on, and employment of ethically ambiguous negotiating tactics. With regard to the perceived ethicality of the tactics the findings seem to reveal strong masculine cultural orientation since female negotiators' judgements on the appropriateness of the tactics were very similar to those of their male counterparts. On the other hand, women claimed to use the tactics less frequently than men, which might indicate that female negotiators' behavioural norms and practices are more gender-bound than the values they hold. The paper also discusses the limitations of the research and proposes further lines of investigations