CULTURE AND THE
MANAGEMENT OF
CONFLICT
• Shared cultural norms give the people of any
society a sense of their common identity and
a means of relating to each other. Culture
consists of both explicit rules and implicit,
unrecognized sets of understanding
meanings through which experience is
interpreted….Cultural meanings render
some forms of activity normal and natural
and others strange and wrong.
• Culture may be considered as the enduring
norms, values, customs, and behavioural
patterns common to a particular group of
people.
Mayer, pg 72
There are distinct differences in
how people from different
cultures resolve conflict.
These differences have a
DIRECT bearing on what
approaches to the management
of conflict people prefer.
• People (LIKE YOU AND THE
PERSON BESIDE YOU) act within
the confines of their cultural matrix
often without an awareness that this
matrix strongly affects their
perceptions of themselves and others
and therefore their behaviour in
conflict.
• There are dramatic differences in the way
different cultures view such things as ;
socializing, time, trust, decision authority,
negotiation etiquette, gender and emotion.
• Cross cultural conflict management/
negotiation requires superb preparation. It also
requires careful listening, questioning,
checking perceptions and versatility.
• No culture is characterized by one specific
conflict style that all its members exhibit.
Because individuals differ, each culture will
contain a range of behaviors and approaches to
conflict. But different cultures do have different
norms about conflict behavior, and acceptable
behavior in one culture may be deviant in
another.
–Mayer pg. 73
Some examples of cultural variables that
effect conflict
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Age
Race
Ethnicity
Language
Education
Social status
Economic status
Hierarchy
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Manners
Beliefs about fairness
Conformity/individuality
Social control
mechanisms
• Face saving
• Uses of ritual
• Beliefs about conflict
• Expressions of emotion
EXAMPLES
• Some examples of differences that can create
or exacerbate conflict include; differing
confrontation styles, differing attitudes
toward conflict itself, differing levels of
respect for others , such as the aged, and
differing values placed on assertiveness and
individual rights.
• In many cultures, the group is considered
more important than the individual.
• It isn’t enough to know that the Japanese or
Mexican negotiator looks at time differently
than the Canadian or German person. We
must ask, what does the difference mean for
the process in terms of choices I must make?
What obstacles does the difference make?
• To do this well, you not only need to know
about the other culture. Equally if not more
importantly, you must know about your culture
AND yourself!
• Cultural sensitivity can dramatically
enhance your negotiation performance
• Gender differences, in situations where
they truly exist, may relate to
culturalization
– B.A. Budjac Corvette, pg. 107
Cultural Variables That Influence Problem
Solving and Negotiation
Venue/
Space
Third
Parties
Cooperation
Competition
Conflict
Relationships
Negotiation
process
Larger social
Structures
Time
Language &
Communication
CULTURAL VIEWS OF
RELATIONSHIPS
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How connections are established
Amounts and types of disclosure
Expressions of emotion
Time to build relationships
Age/gender/race /ethnicity
Relationships cont’d
• North Americans tend to negotiate the
specific details of an agreement.. Americans
negotiate a contract; the Japanese negotiate
a personal relationship.
• Different cultures force people to view and
value differently the many social
interactions inherent in negotiating an
agreement.
Relationships cont’d
• Prepared negotiators realize that having the
best data, the best arguments, power or
charisma are not as important in countries
like India, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Saudi
Arabia as having demonstrated that you
care and understand the importance of the
relationship being forged.
CULTURAL VIEWS OF
COOPERATION, COMPETITION
AND CONFLICT
• Concept of what constitutes conflict.
• Concept of what negotiation is. (A
competitive process of offers and
counteroffers or, the opportunity for
information sharing.)
• Acceptability of overt conflict.
• Orientation toward procedures
Cultural views of problem
solving or negotiation process
• The criteria used to determine who will
participate in the negotiation process
varies. Could be knowledge, connections,
family gender, status etc.
• Direct or indirect problem solving or
negotiations
• Initiation of the problem solving process
• Generating and evaluating options
Cultural views of problem
solving or negotiation process
• The comfort with risk varies from
culture to culture. This often leads to
requests for ever increasing amounts
of information which frustrates
negotiators from entrepreneurial
cultures.
Cultural views toward time
• Importance of time.
• Definition of ‘on time’.
• Linear/cyclical.
Polychronic Time
• In some cultures, time is not linear, it is
polychronic, or circular with no beginning and
no end. The focus is on the here and now and on
the importance of relationships.
• Latin America, Spain, Japan, China, Middle East
• Expect delays, work over dinner, constant
circling back to review what has been discussed.
May want to discuss many topics at the same
time whereas Canadians are more linear or,
monochronic.
Monochronic orientation
• Look to the future and focus on more than one
subject at a time.
• Preference for linearity, sequencing of events, a
logical order and specific time periods.
• “… it is a wise negotiator who knows that
imposing time constraints on someone from a
polychronic culture is likely to cause problems
and that having no sense of sequential logic is
likely to upset a monochronic negotiator.”
Kathleen Reardon, pg. 165
Quote pg. 164-165
Cultural impacts of Language
and communication
• Structure-face to face/intermediary
– Direct (North America)or indirect (
Japan)
• Content
• Similar language/terminology
• Role and impact of translators
Impacts of larger social structures
These include ideology/religion, institutional
structures, organizational structures.
• Cooperative/conflict oriented ideologies
and religions.
• Social norms, rules and laws.
• The importance and visibility of protocol.
• Structures of family, neighborhoods,
governments.
Who makes the decisions?
• This question should be asked of all cross
cultural negotiations. If you prepare well,
you will know the answer.
• If the people at the table are not the
decision makers it does NOT mean they
are unimportant. They must be treated
with respect as they are the transmitters
of information to the key players.
G. HOFSTEDE
http://www.geert-hofstede.com/
• Conducted the most comprehensive and extensive
program of research identifying and exploring
different cultural dimensions in international business
around the theme who makes decisions..
• Examined data on values from over 100,000 IBM
employees from around the world. (53 countries to
date)
G. HOFSTEDE
• Identified 4 dimensions that describe
important differences among cultures;
– Power distance
– Individualism/ collectivism
– Masculinity/ Femininity
– Uncertainty avoidance
Hofstede’s Dimensions
• Power distance
“… the extent to which the less powerful
members of organizations and
institutions ( like the family) accept and
expect that power is distributed
unequally” ( Hofstede, 1989, p. 195)
Watch for respect for age, gender, seniority
Hofstede’s Dimensions
Power distance
–Cultures with greater power
distance will be more likely to
have decision making
concentrated at the top, and all
the important decisions will be
finalized by the leader.
Power distance
• Low power distance countries strive for equal
power among people whereas high power
distance countries are status conscious and
respectful of age and authority.
• The lower the power distance, the greater the
tendency to make decisions using a
consultative style.
Hofstede’s Dimensions
Individualism/collectivism
The extent to which society is organized
around the individual or, the group.
Individualism
• In individual cultures, people give priority to
their individual goals even when these goals
conflict with those of their work group
Legal institutions in individualist countries
are designed to protect individual rights.
• Individualistic countries value independence
of thinking and focus on task over
relationship. People speak for themselves
Collectivism
• Collectivist countries are rooted in social
groups. Priority is given to in-group goals
• The dominant motive is concern for and
belonging to, the group.
• There is a concern for maintaining group
harmony. Face saving is key.
• Legal institutions place the greater good of the
collective above the rights of the individual, and
political and economic institutions reward
classes of people as opposed to individuals.
The importance of continuity in
collectivist cultures
The focus on relationships in collectivist
cultures plays a critical role in
negotiations-negotiations with the same
negotiator can continue for long periods.
**Changing a negotiator changes the
relationship which means a long
rebuilding period.**
In collectivist cultures..
• Conflict is minimized, often through
politeness rules
• Collectivist cultures tend to prefer general
agreements based on trust as opposed to
individualist cultures that prefer detail and
specificity
Hofstede’s Dimensions
Masculinity/Femininity
Measures the extent to which cultures manifest
values traditionally perceived as masculine.
. Masculine values, assertiveness,
independence, task orientation and self
achievement
. Feminine values include; cooperation,
nurturing, relationships and quality of life.
The more ‘masculine the culture the more the
tendency is to win/lose negotiations. Work is a
way of life rather than a means to achieving a
quality of life.
The IBM studies revealed that
(a) women's values differ less among societies than
men's values;
(b) men's values from one country to another
contain a dimension from very assertive and
competitive and maximally different from
women's values on the one side, to modest and
caring and similar to women's values on the
other. The assertive pole has been called
'masculine' and the modest, caring pole
'feminine'. The women in feminine countries
have the same modest, caring values as the men;
in the masculine countries they are somewhat
assertive and competitive, but not as much as the
men, so that these countries show a gap between
men's values and women's values.
Hofstede’s Dimensions
Uncertainty Avoidance
• The extent to which members of a culture
feel either uncomfortable or comfortable
in unstructured situations.
• Unstructured situations are characterized
by; rapid change and novelty, whereas
structured situations are stable and
secure.
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Negotiators from uncertainty avoidance
cultures are not comfortable in ambiguous
situations and are more likely to seek stable
rules and procedures when they negotiate.
• Cultures comfortable with risk require less
information in making decisions and have
fewer people involved.
Examples of National Cultural Values
“ The Lesson”
A sensitivity to the impact of culture on
negotiations requires that one stops at
moments of non-comprehension and
unintelligibility, that one resists
deflecting them dismissively in ‘moral’
terms and that one makes them the
objects of scrutiny and learning.
ORGANIZATIONS HAVE
CULTURES TOO
“ A corporations culture is what determines
how people behave when they are not being
watched.”
Thomas Tierney, The Economist, July 27, 2002
Formal vs. Informal culture
DO NOT FORGET THAT
ORGANIZATIONS HAVE CULTURES
TOO- what about yours?
Hi Power distance
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Hi Individualism/ Lo
collectivism
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Hi Masculinity/ Lo
Femininity
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5
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Hi Uncertainty
avoidance
H
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