10. RISK TAKING: HIGH OR LOW?
Research supports the conclusion that certain cultures are more risk averse than others. (Geert
Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values (Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Publications, 1980)
In deal making, the negotiators’ cultures can affect the willingness of one side to take risks—to divulge
information, try new approaches, and tolerate uncertainties in a proposed course of action. The Japanese, with their
emphasis on requiring large amount of information and their intricate group decision-making process, tend to be risk
averse. Americans, by comparison, are risk takers.
Among all respondents in the author’s survey, approximately 70 percent claimed a tendency toward risk taking
while only 30 percent characterized themselves as low risk takers. Among cultures, the responses to this question
showed significant variations. The Japanese are said to be highly risk averse in negotiations, and this tendency was
affirmed by the survey which found Japanese respondents to be the most risk averse of the twelve cultures. Americans in
the survey, by comparison, considered themselves to be risk takers, but an even higher percentage of the French, the
British, and the Indians claimed to be risk takers.