As you learned in a previous lesson, gaining insight into cultural differences can help prevent miscommunication and conflict. However, an awareness of culture is important in the actual resolution process as well.
This involves cultural competency, or the ability to recognize when culture is playing a role, and then being able to bring that up in a way that can be helpful to move the process forward.
Thus, the conflict resolution process needs to adapt itself to cultural competency, particularly when there are one or more parties who are not United States natives.
The conflict-resolver must be aware of cultural differences and adapt the process accordingly because the model of mediation here in the United States is really based on two main elements:
In the United States, our mediation model encourages communication in a very direct style. This comes from our cultural viewpoint that being verbal is important; we encourage people to learn to use what we call “I” statements in order to speak up and own their feelings from that first person point of view.
In some cultures, this would not be an effective or correct way to communicate because these cultures are more indirect in their communication style. There would be an acceptance of qualifier statements instead of "I" statements.
Cultures that favor direct communication are called low context cultures, while cultures that favor more indirect communication are called high context cultures.
EXAMPLE
Someone from a high context culture may use qualifying statements, such as "Perhaps it would be good to consider..." or ask a question, such as "Don't you feel that?" They may even downplay something by giving it another kind of disqualifier: "I may be wrong, but I think.…”In these high context cultures, the nonverbal may carry more contextual meaning than the verbal. These qualifying statements may be a comfortable way to phrase things, and they also allow the person to preserve group harmony, which may be important in their culture.
Adapting the way we phrase things, and the way we consider communication to be effective in the resolution process is the first step.
All worldviews are based on these beliefs and assumptions; they come out of the culture that we live in.
In the United States, we base our mediation model on equal status; we believe power in the process is equally held. Everybody at the table gets a turn to speak and a turn to listen.
This could be at odds with a cultural viewpoint that status is of more importance.
EXAMPLE
There might be a party who feels as though someone else may need to speak first because status or role needs to be recognized.It’s important to understand these differences when setting up guidelines. As you’ve learned, the United States mediation model allows people to set their own guidelines and come up with their own solutions.
However, there may be times where people from particular cultures feel a little uncomfortable with that level of ambiguity.
EXAMPLE
People from certain cultures might prefer to have some rules or established procedures for how to proceed, rather than loose guidelines. This can allude, in turn, to the issue of status in terms of how power is recognized around the table.It’s important to keep in mind that in order to be a culturally competent mediator, there are some principles you should follow:
Flexibility is very important because you never know what you might discover in a process involving very different cultures, and there is complexity whenever you're bringing people from different cultures with different worldviews to the table together.
There will be differences, and it’s important to respect and distinguish these perspectives. Once again, flexibility is important to accommodate these differences
All of this starts with self-awareness. If you want to be culturally competent in the conflict resolution process, you must be aware of your own communication style and worldview.
Source: Adapted from Sophia tutorial by Marlene Johnson.
