SPEECH ACTS FOR NEGOTIATION BY AN IRANIAN AND A MALAYSIAN COMPANY IN PROJECT MEETINGS

This present study investigates the negotiation dynamics by professionals from an Iranian company (IC) and a Malaysian company (MC) via negotiations of problem-solving interactions in project meetings. This study examines the negotiations between both companies through the exercise of speech acts that function as negotiation strategies. A collection of five problem-solving negotiation interactions in project meetings were analyzed to identify the speech acts exercised by the two negotiating parties. This study involves two main theories Speech Acts Theory (assertives, commissives, directives, expressives and declaratives), and Types of Negotiation Strategy (integrative and distributive strategies). The findings revealed that speech acts for negotiation exercised the most by MC were assertives (e.g., reporting, asserting, and claiming), while for IC were directives (e.g., warning, threatening and ordering). The significant function of assertives by MC was to maintain relationship with IC. Meanwhile, IC directive acts were perceived as dominant where power was demonstrated to secure his negotiations. Nevertheless, it can be observed that there are dual functions of some classifications of speech acts by both parties. The findings denote that the negotiators could recognize actions in certain negotiation utterances and perform appropriate responses during the negotiations. For negotiation strategies, MCs speech acts were directed to integrative while ICs were prone to distributive strategy. Nonetheless, as the meeting progressed, both negotiating parties employed both integrative and distributive strategies in their negotiations where dual negotiation strategies occurred in certain negotiation interactions. This denotes that both parties had better understanding on the exercise of speech acts as negotiation strategies as they appropriately adjusted their usage and functions of the speech acts based on relevant situations. In conclusion, speech acts are proven to function as negotiation strategies.