Role of Culture in Conflict Resolution

00:00 Hi and welcome to the role of culture and conflict management.

00:05 Have you ever heard Americans are direct and power oriented or Germans are very punctual? Latin Americans are very relational and like to talk a lot.

00:18 Japanese are very work oriented and Chinese like to save face.

00:25 Where do all these things and comments come from? How does it influence the way we cooperate or have conflict with each other? In this video, you will get a better understanding of the role of culture in a conflict management process.

00:44 You will also receive analytical tools to help you assess how culture may impact your conflict management process.

00:52 And lastly, you will understand the factors that are needed to be considered when designing a conflict management process.

01:00 Now, the world has seen in the last few decades an exponential growth of people moving left and right across borders, carrying with them ideas, needs, wishes, innovation, and arriving in new places and saying, Hi, I want to be part of this society.

01:22 More and more, we find ourselves, thanks to the digital age, working with people around the world, in different countries, different societies and different organizations. More importantly, the world has come to us and we find them working next to us.

01:39 We have seen the benefit of cultural diversity in our collaboration and at the same time we know that if we are not involved in managing cultural diversity, it might play a role in conflict as well, both by hindering problem solving and also by supporting the development of a conflict spiral.

02:01 Now, it's very important that we understand that when we communicate, we cannot help but to transmit our culture and our values to the other person.

02:14 And we also know that there is no problem solving, no communication without communicating our values.

02:22 In fact, if information is not consistent with our cultural understanding, we disregard it.

02:30 We block it. We do not even see it.

02:34 So what exactly is culture? There is no common definition of culture.

02:40 If you come from the business sector or if you come from anthropology or sociology, any form of academia will give you a different understanding and definition of culture.

02:54 What they all have in common is that it can be understood as the aggregation of things like beliefs, practices, history, language rules, customs values and behaviors.

03:09 The aggregated beliefs are impacted by our fundamental assumptions and perceptions of the world, and we know that when people get into a conflict, they are constrained by exactly by those perceptions and assumptions, and they explain the reality of the conflict based on their cultural understanding of the world and the history around them. We also know that in the workplace, the conversation on culture is embedded in a conversation of diversity.

03:42 It is not just our cultural background that impact the way we have conflict, but also our personality things which are involved in our internal dimensions, such as age, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, ethnicity and race.

04:01 In addition to our internal dimensions, we have what's called our external dimensions, things that come from outside.

04:08 For example, our geographical location, income, religion, education, work experience, even how we present ourselves in society.

04:19 In addition to our external dimension, we have what's called the organizational development or organizational dimension, which involves our seniority, our workplace, the union we belong to, how our management is set up. If you take this together, you have what we call the four dimensions of diversity and culture sits right at the center.

04:42 Now, if you take people in their full diversity and you bring them into the workplace, we see that at work.

04:49 Culture and diversity impact us on multiple levels in a team, how we see managers, how they should lead, the type of things that inspire us and motivate us to work.

05:02 How a team defines the vision of the team and the goals and the attitudes and beliefs that we carry as a team will be impacted by the diversity of that team itself. And when we have conflict, what we need to do is to come together in the middle of all of this and identify and negotiate our intercultural reality in order to do this.

05:26 What we need to do is to understand how culture defines our behavior.

05:30 And we can do this with the model of or the image of an iceberg, because what we see when we interact with people is just the tip of the iceberg.

05:43 Now, if you don't come from a very cold place or a northern place, you might never have seen an iceberg.

05:49 The reality is that when you see an iceberg, you only see the top.

05:54 But that iceberg underneath the water is very large and has been around for a very long time.

06:01 At the top, what you're seeing is behavior, things like people coming to work, how they use their space, how they make decisions.

06:11 You also see and hear an expression of their positions on things, how they relate to power and how they solve a problem underneath the surface.

06:22 If you have a working relationship, you begin to see a pattern that develops based on norms, attitudes, beliefs and values.

06:31 And this is a little bit our expression of our assumptions.

06:35 If you have a very personal relationship with somebody at work, you might get a tiny glimpse of the fundamental assumptions these people have about the meaning of life, and that is impacted by environment, history and social structure.

06:55 Now, how does that work in real life? So here's the interesting thing about the iceberg model.

07:03 It's not just for, for example, conflicts with a cultural factor, but also for conflicts with that diversity factor in.

07:11 Let's take an example.

07:12 Ms. Gonzalez, a young project manager, 30 years old, MBA, career oriented, no children looking for efficiency in the digitalised world.

07:26 Mrs. Smith, a senior member of the staff who has gone into reducing her working hours for work life balance reasons, wants to be a stay at home mom, take care of her teenagers.

07:37 But she also wants to contribute to the success of the organisation.

07:41 The two get into a conflict about how to manage a project.

07:47 You see, the icebergs are there in front of you.

07:51 And you have on the one side Ms.

07:53 Gonzalez and Mrs.

07:55 Smith and Mrs.

07:57 Smith says, You do not include me in the project.

08:01 I want you to include me, Ms.

08:03 Gonzalez said.

08:04 But you're not needed for the project.

08:07 So what's going on here? At a very superficial level, it's a conflict about project management. However, if we begin to go a little bit under the surface and look to see what are some of the assumptions these two ladies are making on the side of Mrs.

08:25 Smith, for example, young people are inexperienced and unreliable, and they need help from older people.

08:34 On the side of Ms. Gonzalez, she seems to feel that part time employees have a limited contribution to make.

08:41 They don't have enough time because they're busy with their home life.

08:44 However, the iceberg model challenges us to go even deeper and think about the fundamental assumptions people make.

08:53 Deep down, Mrs.

08:54 Smith thinks.

08:55 Leadership comes with age.

08:58 Only an older person can lead.

09:02 Ms.. Gonzalez believes that people basically just have to decide between career and family.

09:10 This has the potential for a conflict spiral.

09:14 However, if we look at the different aspect models and we see Ms. Gonzalez iceberg model and Mrs.

09:21 Smith iceberg model put next to each other and just overlapping each other, we see that they actually have fundamental interests that coincide. They both have an interest in the success of the project. They both value professional behavior and successful outcomes, and they both have an interest in women in leadership positions.

09:47 So if they would focus more on their common fundamental assumptions and less on some of the diverging assumptions they might find common ground.

09:59 When working in an intercultural environment, we have to think about how people communicate and how to analyze the way people are communicating.

10:08 So the conflict between Ms.

10:10 Gonzalez and Mrs.

10:11 Smith is one that's fairly easy to solve.

10:14 We can use a series of tools and methodologies within the conflict management spectrum, such as dialogue, coaching, facilitation, mediation.

10:23 Together with the two parties, we can solve the problem.

10:27 Now imagine that this conflict breaks out, for example, with people who are living in other countries, who come from other cultures.

10:36 The conflict might be about needs and interest.

10:39 It might be a form of displaying power.

10:42 Or it might be about certain situations or issues we don't know.

10:47 We have to look at the center and realize that we may be having a conflict with individuals or with more than one individual, maybe with an entire collective. And we need to understand the cultural context in which the conflict is happening. Now the conflict is impacted by three things the natural environment, the social structure and the history of the relationship.

11:13 The way cultural diversity is shown is through a series of different factors, such as how people value relationships, how they see cooperation and competition, how they communicate with people from other cultures, their understanding of the style of negotiation and what are appropriate procedures for problem solving.

11:35 The role of third parties within a conflict process.

11:40 Or how to use time and space and venues to solve a problem. Lastly, what kind of outcomes they expect to receive. So let's look at that a little closer.

11:52 For example, in terms of relationship, we will see cultural diversity in formal versus informal relationships.

12:00 What kind of codes of conducts transpire in a society? What is an appropriate ritual when greeting somebody or in finishing a process? Whether we use clear language, direct language, or are we vague and try to be a little more relational, whether we want to establish principles first or we want to get right into it and solve and make our first win.

12:25 Most importantly, how do we deal with unequal power in the relationship? A second part of the process would be to understand the differences in communication.

12:39 Are we having a direct communication, how respectful we are, how we meet deadlines, how we approach sensitive issues? What is considered polite behavior? And lastly, what is the role of humor in any relationship? Now, beware, humor is not always the same across various cultures.

13:03 Another spoke would be to understand how people negotiate.

13:07 Do they have a mandate to negotiate individually or collectively? Who gets invited to sit at the table? Who gets to approve the final agreement? And when do you involve superiors in the negotiation process? If we think about how we integrate third parties, different cultures have an understanding, for example, of confidentiality or whether the mediator can use power, rewards and carrots to bring the parties to an agreement.

13:40 Whether the mediator can he himself or herself invite people into the mediation process and whether the mediator serves as a guarantor.

13:50 Looking at timing, we can see cultural differences in terms of interaction, how long people can speak, how punctual people are. Or do we wait for people when people are late? More importantly, what happens if we have to cancel? In terms of venue and space.

14:10 Some cultures value a formal setting with tables and chairs.

14:15 Others value an informal setting may be outdoors under a tree, enjoying nature.

14:21 Who sits next to whom and whether we need a neutral space or a symbolic space? How far do we need to go in order to make it a serious meeting? Very importantly, in terms of outcomes, some cultural differences include whether you want durable solutions or do you want to place an emphasis on principles? Do you want to validate history? What are some principles of fairness and who gets compensated in the end? Whether there will be guarantees within the agreement.

14:55 Are impacted by our cultural understanding, co-operation, competition and conflict.

15:01 Also have some cultural variance.

15:04 For example, acceptability of overt conflict.

15:08 Or shying away.

15:10 Willingness to adapt to different people.

15:12 Openness to cooperation.

15:14 Or a tendency to be more competitive.

15:18 So here's the thing.

15:20 If you want to best understand how culture impacts both cooperation and conflict management, you're going to have to leave your home environment and get out of a community where everybody is similar and go and experience culture yourself.

15:40 And here's a little tip.

15:42 At a first glance, you might be insecure.

15:46 You may not be aware of what's going on.

15:48 Quite possibly.

15:49 This is your first time going abroad and you don't know how people are going to treat you. Here's how the process works.

15:58 Much of the literature is dedicated to trying to explain to people, when you go to China, do this, when you go to Japan, do that, when you go to America, do this. When you go to Latin America to that.

16:11 I'm here to tell you that while that is very useful, it is actually just very superficial and will only get you so far.

16:20 There is a process that we have of development in our intercultural awareness and competence.

16:27 It begins with first saying, Hey, we're not so different.

16:32 We might then move on to being a little more defensive in saying, I actually like my culture. I don't I don't need to share with anybody.

16:41 Then we'll move on a little bit towards well, there's some differences, but not that many.

16:48 And then at some point we begin to say, oh, look at that, we are different and yet the same.

16:55 I accept all the other cultures when we're feeling pretty comfortable with ourselves, we begin to say, Maybe I can take on a few of their things which are interesting for me to show them that I actually appreciate them.

17:11 But this is still starting from the I perspective saying I'm going to be nice to you.

17:18 If we want to reach a full intercultural competence, we want to reach a point where we move comfortably in an integrative way across cultures, learning from each other.

17:32 Let's be very clear.

17:35 Intercultural competence is about negotiating a new reality with your new partner from a different culture.

17:44 You will have to find a new space that actually works well for the two or three or four of you.

17:51 And this requires finding a space between you where you can be yourself and at the same time develop new experiences.

18:00 Here's a definition for you.

18:03 Intercultural competence is the ability to recognize and use cultural differences as a resource for learning and for generating effective responses in specific context.

18:18 Factors to consider when you're assessing the role of culture include that individuals are made up of many characteristics of which culture is just one. Not everybody belongs to the typical or stereotypical cultural group.

18:35 There are people who are actually on the boundaries of the community who may not fit your stereotypes, and we might accidentally reinforce negative stereotypes.

18:50 Working on false assumptions can actually generate more conflict. So what questions can you ask yourself to assess your intercultural competence? Well, the first thing you want to ask is what are cultural understandings involve observing and looking to see if there is a potential for developing a shared culture and then going into your own archive and asking yourself, Do I have some experience in a different cultural context that is able to help me to understand what is happening in this conflict? In other words, what resources do I have within me and within my community to reach out from somebody from a different culture? Can I do something to improve my communication and how can I expand and learn from this intercultural situation? Lastly, who in my team can be a bridge builder to solving the problem? So at this point you're probably wondering what skills do I need to be more intercultural to have intercultural competence? Well, while you can do a lot of reading, I'll intercultural competence.

20:07 A lot of it comes from within.

20:10 Understanding yourself, being aware of who you are as a person, being self-reflective, open, tolerant, and understanding that an intercultural experience, even a misunderstanding, is not a bad thing.

20:27 That it can be a learning process for you.

20:30 Learning to be flexible, adaptable, but also grounded in yourself will bring you a very long way.

20:41 In this video, I hope that you have gotten a better understanding of the role of culture in conflict management, that you understand how to analyze an intercultural situation and that you understand what factors are needed if you're going to solve a conflict.

20:58 I wish you well the next time you are in an intercultural situation and that you remember some of the things you've learned here today and are able to reflect for yourself.

21:09 Good luck.