Introduction
Culture and conflict are two interplay entities. Culture, as defined by Olivier Faure and Gunnar Sjostedt#, is a set of meanings, values, and beliefs that characterize a particular community, and serve as formative factors upon the way of thinking, behavior, and relationship of the community members. It is therefore a supra-structure that also helps shape system of conduct to orient the behavior of the individuals in the community. Each community has a unique, different culture to others. Thus, in the interaction course, social conflict is very likely to occur between individuals and groups of different cultures.
Conflict can nevertheless occur between individuals and groups within the community. Conflict is inherent in human life because of the difference in values and interest. Settling conflicts between individuals and groups within a community is likely not as tough as settling conflict between those of diverse communities divided by the difference in culture, ethnicity, race, religion, and political beliefs.
In resolving conflict, peaceful negotiation through mediation by third party is the most likely alternative rather than any other instrument. However, mediating two conflicting groups that are in the strikingly different trajectories is ultimately difficult. The mediator must apprehend the complexity and context underlying conflict as well as cultural barriers impinges mediation and communication efforts. Cultural constraint exerts a significant impact on the process and the outcome of mediation. Therefore, insider mediator equipped with intercultural skill is definitely indispensable.
Insider Mediator’s Key Role in Peaceful Negotiation Process
Insider mediator refers to individual or group a...
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...cate in the cultural context of the conflict leads them to be more easily accepted by the conflicting parties.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Jacob Bercovitch. Culture and International Mediation: Exploring Theoretical and Empirical Linkages in International Negotiation, 2001
Milton J. Bennett, M.D. A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity
Insider Mediators: Exploring Their Key Role in Informal Peace Processes.
Raymond Cohen: Cultural Aspect of International Mediation
Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen: Difficult Conversation; How to Discuss What Matters Most.
Franklin Quijano: The Role of Informal Mediators in the Peace Process in Mindanao.
Oliver Wholleh, Insider Mediators; Retreat on Informal Processes, Learning from Experiences of Insider Mediators. October 2008.
Padma Ratna Tuladhar, the Role of Insider Mediators in the Nepal Peace Processes.
Lewicki, J. R., Barry, B., & Saunders, M. D. (2010). Negotiation: Readings, exercises and cases
...ze one party. In addition, Bangladesh can shed light on the value of journalists and activists there who are of paramount importance to multinational companies, thus informing Niko of their culture and how they should treat reporters. Integrating a mediator into the negotiation can be helpful, especially if the mediator is an Indian executive who can serve as a representative for both parties. He/she can inform Bangladesh about how Niko helped India while informing Niko about how Bangladesh responds to business, since India and Bangladesh are neighboring countries and have a good trade relationship.
Lewicki, J. R., Barry, B., & Saunders, M. D. (2011). Essentials of negotiation (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. ISBN-13: 9780073530369
Differences among among culture has sparked conflict for centuries because humans fear change. They fear difference. They fear it because nothing is scarier than being told your life is a lie. Years ago people conquered other people through force. Now, with lots of leaders against war, culture is one of the strongest ways to unify and achieve a sense of
M. E. McGuinness (Eds.), Words Over War: Mediation and Arbitration to Prevent Deadly Conflict (pp. 293-320). New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Within any problem between people or societies, a new social group will begin to grow. People may be living in unison, but when there becomes a conflict the unison begins to divide causing the possibility for at least two social groups to form. The conflict of one group trying to decide to enforce their wants and desires and what they see fit, and the opposing group doing the same, but with their views being different enough to create a conflict. (Britannica, 2015)
Culture is best defined as an information-based system, involving both knowledge and praxis that allows people to live together and satisfy each other’s need. Our community is filled with various different cultures, which underlies what we perceive, what we think about the people and events surrounding us, and how we interpret and understand those people and events. Hatred and anger towards these topics, race and culture, continues to be an everlasting problem we have throughout the world. Many people have formed preconceived notions towards others with having little to no understanding of their upbringing. Instead of being so quick to judgment we must always educate ourselves about the subject.
Whether you belong to a certain race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, geographical region or you identify with a certain sex you belong to a particular culture. Culture as define by Shiraev and Levy (2013), “Is a set of attitudes, behaviors, and symbols shared by a large group of people and usually communicated from one generation to the next” (p. ). In other words, we are a product of what has been handed down to us from the generations before. However, culture is evolving and it changes all the time. Hence the reason, no one group has a unique culture, since we are all influenced by each other’s way of life. As a result of this influence, we form relationships with people we know little about and share our values and beliefs with each other. Thereby creating a cross-cultural mix.
Retrieved January 23, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global. Document ID: 1313496891. Poitras, J. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. What Makes Parties Trust Mediators?
Before understanding how to deal with conflict, one must understand what conflict is. Conflict can be defined as, “any situation in which incompatible goals, cognitions, or emotions within or between individuals or groups lead to opposition or antagonistic interaction” (Learning Team Toolkit, 2004, pp 242-243). Does the idea of conflict always have to carry a negative connotation? The growth and development of society would be a great deal slower if people never challenged each other’s ideas. The Learning Team Toolkit discusses three different views of conflict: traditiona...
jeswald w. salacuse (2) 005 ‘The Top Ten ways that Culture can Affect International Negotiations ‘. Available from < http://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/global-business/the-top-ten-ways-that-culture-can-affect-international-negotiations#.Uzwdh6iSySp > [ 3 April 2014]
Although functions of mediators and arbitrators have several characteristics in common, there are significant instrumental differences that make them distinct from one another. Firstly, whereas the arbitration process is similar to litigation in its adversarial nature, in which parties have the objective to win the dispute, the fundamental goal of mediation is to bring the disputants to settlement through compromise and cooperation without finding a guilty party. In arbitration, parties compete against each other in “win-lose” situation. During mediation, parties work on mutually acceptable conditions with the assistance of a facilitator. In this process, mediators do not have power to make decisions, they work to reconcile the competing needs and interests of involved parties. The mediator’s tasks are to assist disputants to identify, understand, and articulate their needs and interests to each other (Christopher W. Moore,
According to Hofstede’s (1980), ‘culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another… culture in the sense, includes systems of values: and values are among the building blocks of culture.’ It is necessary to determine how culture impacts our communication behavior as culture directly influences our perception and understanding of the message that is transmitted from one party to another. People from different cultures encode and decode messages differently; this therefore increases the chances of misunderstanding. Intercultural communication refers to interactions between people whose cultural assumptions are so different that the communication between them is altered. Verderber, Verderber, & Sellnow, (2010).
Diplomacy has a variety of definitions which depending on the user perspectives on the term “diplomacy”. In the context of international relations, diplomacy is the negotiator’s ability in conducting negotiations between the representatives of nation states in a peaceful manner. The essential of negotiation is to resolve a conflict without offending others. According to Iragorri (2003), an effective negotiation is being able to achieve mutual agreement by peaceful means. The process of a negotiation in diplomacy goes through five important stages that is preparation, discussion, proposing, bargaining and settling process (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
The word 'culture' is often described in terms of concrete ideas or social artifacts. Gary R. Weaver describes some common conceptions such as "good taste," "art or music," or "something that people in exotic foreign lands had."1 However, culture in the context of international assignments relates to how people perceive the world and the influence this perception has on their actions. It is culture on the interpersonal level. Different cultures can perceive the same thing differently, which leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding when one crosses into another culture not their own.