How emotions shape the processes and outcomes of cross cultural communication and negotiation: An affective events theory perspective

For a long time research on communication and negotiation has focused on the contextual, social, and cognitive factors, that influence communication/negotiation outcomes. Recently, scholars have turned their attention to how the intangible aspects of negotiation, for example, trust, reputation, relationship quality (guanxi in the case of the Chinese), moods and emotion; shape the processes and outcomes of communication and negotiation. The goal of this paper is to forward a theoretical framework which integrates these variables. Elements of the framework are illustrated with examples of communication critical incidents between Chinese and Australian negotiators