CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Cultural Diversity

The following excerpt is from Interpersonal Conflict, by William W. Wilmot and Joyce L. Hocker, 2001McGraw Hill Higher Education, pages 36 - 37

"In addition to bridging the gaps between low- and high-context cultures, we need much more exploration of cultural diversity within the United States. For example, many cultural groups share some common features of mainstream U.S. culture yet are distinct in ways that make cultural conflict and mediation of their disputes challenging to someone from the dominant culture...

"Whatever set of assumptions you choose to use, each framework places boundaries on constructive conflict management. Sometimes effective management requires people to be clear, direct, and assertive. Yet at other times, deferring until the time is right, focusing primarily on the relationship components, and thinking of indirect ways to manage the dispute is the best approach. To solve the most difficult problems, we cannot rely solely on the teachings of one culture. One major problem encountered in low-context cultures is that we receive little training in search for commonly acceptable solutions. If three people want different things, often the problem is resolved by competing to see who is the strongest ('We'll play it my way or not at all!'), or a progressive manager in a business may attempt to come up with a good solution for everyone. Typically, a person has to have enough power to persuade others to go along with a search for a collaborative solution. Therefore, many potentially collaborative ideas generated by low-power people are dismissed as unimportant.

"In the United States, even in communication studies departments, students are often taught that directness, ease in public, clarity of expression, assertiveness, an the ability to argue well are prerequisites to participation in conflict management. Indeed, in many contexts these skills are essential. However, for people who hold low-power positions in society, this is a very difficult set of skills to be learned. To correct this imbalance, we need to focus also on communication skills for people in high-power positions. Both the high- and low-power people contribute to tangles that occur in the workplace, and both must participate in better conflict management."

The corps has a low-context culture that tends to resolve conflicts by competition. A shortcoming may be that there are superior collaborative solutions that do not get considered. A high-power solution may be ineffective because of the interdependence that requires the voluntary compliance of low-power participants. As pointed out above, both high- and low-power individuals need to alter their approaches.