For nearly a century, National Oil Companies (NOCs) and International Oil Companies (IOCs) have jointly executed the challenging task to match the global energy supply and demand schedules. Increasingly, IOCs struggle for access to reserves, controlled by NOCs, as follows from an inventory of the regional spread of reserves. The global increase in energy demand and unequal access to reserves has an important consequence: negotiations and relation management involve mutual stakes higher than ever before. This situation implicates that even the smallest flaw in effective communication between stakeholders (professionals, companies and governments) may result in an adverse impact on the outcome of the business cooperation – causing loss of business value. Communication between people in the international Oil & Gas business involves professionals that are naturally endowed with not only a range of human emotions but they also come from a diversity of cultures. The impact of cultural diversity on business efficiency is certainly not new to the Oil & Gas business, but still intensifies due to globalization. Nonetheless, the interaction between social groups and proper management of human emotions is often neglected in an industry already dominated by formidable technical challenges that require stout determination to overcome.
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