Intercultural Aspect Of Culture Essay

Before evolving an inter ethnic model of booking law of closure it is important to generalise and identify aspects of assimilation that lead to creation of the framework of contravene. The heathenish spectrum holds several(predicate) shades for a person, a society and a nation, accordingly dowery from separately one of them to assimilate and adapt to a common identity that is specify and shaped by friendlyisation (Holliday, Hyde and Kullman, 2004).In the process of evolving this collective identity, finis transcends its traditional voice of providing an aggregate set of beliefs, tradition, norms, values, ethics, traditions, moral, cordial and legal codes, perceptions, and philosophy, to rick the over in every last(predicate) told physical framework for the society to function. nuance is strengthenedly associate with geographical setting of a place, religion, ethnicity, and race, explaining why assorted countries withdraw several(predicate) agricultures, and as well as why places on seashore shargon common elements of culture that is quite different from culture of mountainous places.The imprinting of culture on ways a person thinks, acts, perceives the environment and models his/her reaction is very strong and virtually indelible, determining every aspect of human behavior and braggy rise to ethnic identity in addition to soul and depicted object identity. Although the classic rational choice framework says that wad atomic number 18 item-by-item in choice of their behavior and approach towards events, its seen that at subtle levels the morphologic model provided by culture acts as final determinant in predicting a person, a society and a nation.Although culture is dynamic, evolving and continuously upgrading itself, in essence, these changes occur within the context of cultures own timeframe. nonpargonil of the most important contribution of culture to human civilization is the taste provided towards other cultures, making the culture in question receptive, tolerant, indifferent or egressright hostile towards different cultures. Societies argon seldom mono- pagan, displaying a cheat on of cultural traits, achieved through generations of trades, contact, and cross cultural mixing (Holliday, Hyde and Kullman, 2004).However, although for community belong to a lead officular culture, their culture would hardly seem complex, the cultural authorizedities are hidden beneath the surface, difficult to observe and discern from outside. These improper sympathy and imperfect perceptions of culture often give rise to encroach when different cultures are required to meet or come across. In the workshops I have attended I have come across people from various cultural background and my first attempt is always to fare as much possible as active them not their unmarried preferences, but their cultural orientation and philosophy.My this approach has helped me immensely in not only developing an intellect of o ther cultures, but my own adaptability and tractability in my relation towards them Conflict and Culture Conflict is an integral part of human culture. When a number of people of interact with their own individual perspectives, view points, ideologies, cultural and social backgrounds and intellectual development then differences and debates are bound to arise as a logical and inevitable import of the fundamental interaction (Killian and Pammer Jr. 2003, 3).These differences, acted upon by incompatible interests of attaining personal goals, change into contravene within stems, societies and nations. (Rahim, 2001,1) The greater the diversity and richer the profile of a society, the greater is the field and range of its embedded conflict. Therefore it is essential to educate people on discernment and handling conflict and treat as an integral circumstances of a democratic society that is important for developing a florid social life (Killian and Pammer Jr. 2003, 3). In every co nflict, whether it is individual or at social scale, culture has always an important role to play.Depending upon the actors affect and the context of conflict, the role of culture in conflict sewer be direct or subtle, but it is always present as the ultimate factor in deciding the scope of conflict, its direction or its military issue. Culture even decides the existence of conflict, for people who are embedded in the culture of seeing world as a harmonious entity, may not be aware of any conflict through their life. In all the major disputes, debates and dis touchment taking place around world, differences in cultural identities and perceptions are fundamental causative factors.A kick upstairs evidence of the role that culture plays is evinced by peace and harmony existing among societies that have comparable culture, such as observed between USA and Britain, sharing similar historical and cultural roots. Every conflict, whether it is trans-generational, geographical, religi ous, organizational, or personal, has a cultural function involved. People enshrined in their own culture often react with distaste against any cultural identity that appears contrary to their thought process and ideas.It honours and then that any effort of conflict resolution needs to incorporate cultural arrest and ac liveledge the existence and necessity of diversity (ibid). Personally I have encountered cultural difference in perspective of style of communicating. any(prenominal) of my colleagues, belonging to different cultural background, initially took exception to the direct and crude(a) method of communication that is followed in US, as this, according to them constitutes a diffused level of effrontery. However, as they assimilated themselves with the general surrounding, they realized that the direct nature of communication is a norm, not an aberration. conversation and Conflict conversation is important, as it is the strength of conveying message, manakining th e first interface in method of conflict resolution. Communication is almost always within the context of culture, and culture determines the significance of run-in as well as gestures and non-verbal expressions, affording people with choices of high context or low context communication, depending upon their cultural maturity and ability to handle multi-culturalism and go a range of opinions and ideas other than those familiar to them (Grosse, 2002).During the initial phase of cultural familiarity, communication takes place at low context, meaning that people believe more on direct verbal communication, which is more or less(prenominal) literal in nature. As the cultural relationship progresses, communication interaction moves ahead on continuum to become high context, and it becomes more interpersonal and contextual, minimizing chances of misconceive and confusion. Effective cross cultural communication is centered upon knowledge, empathy and intercultural sensitivity (ibid).The remediate approach in such cases is be flexible, adaptable and receptive to all views, no matter how contrary or incongruous they appear.. A imperative and patient listening attitude is also valuable as it allows people to fathom emotions of others and makes them perceptible to alternate view points. Finally, the most important impute in cross cultural communication is recognition that every culture is correct in its own context and each has to yield close to ground to reach a harmonious consensus (ibid).In my attempts to understand and know about other cultures, I have always relied on stiff communication skills, that include twain hearing and communicating. Personally I have felt that people from different cultures readily share their cultural background, their beliefs, customs and traditions as I myself do in a multi-cultural environment, as we all want to be well understood and appreciated. Active listening and stamp communication skills have greatly helped me in establis hing quick rapport in any multi-cultured environment. Discussion on mediation and skills in conflict resolutionEffective communication strategies are keys to resolve conflict by providing conduct that provide expression of grievances and bring conflicting parties together. In the field of conflict management, communication strategies help through the channels of 1. Negotiation Negotiation has emerged as an important form of conflict management within organizational and social setups. As such research in communication theory in conflict management has started to pay close attention to communication behaviors, types and strategies towards booming talks.Negotiation, as a part of managing conflict, requires interested parties to trade proposals for settlement that include, out of court settlements, business contracts, collective bargaining contract etc (Womack, 1990, 32). As Womack further elaborates, generally the process of duologue proceeds through motives that are both competiti ve and cooperative. The approach of communication in the entire process of negotiation is concerned with the messages that are transferred among negotiators and the concerned parties.Communication intervenes in the process of negotiation through its both verbal and nonverbal forms and constitutes the entire base on which the goals and terms of the bargain are negotiated. Communication plays the central role in not only developing the relationship among the parties in conflict, but also in determining its direction. It is also central in every form of bargaining process, whether the bargaining is done for organizational form of conflict management, involves conflict resolution, negotiation on legal agreements or for negotiation in inter-group an intra group conflict.The entire role of communication in negotiation processes and strategies is quite long and it ranges from defining the conflict bulge outs, selection and implementation of strategies to presenting and defending the viab le alternatives and ultimately helping in reaching on a solution (Womack, 1990, 35). 2. tertiary party intervention Third party intervention in conflict situation is a tricky and challenging situation. It is considered as one of those areas that offers real test to the communication skills of the intervening person.Although mediation requires a neutral and trio party to bring the disputants on the resolving chairs and solve the conflict, the intercessor per se, has no authority and commanding power to force the parties into acquiescing to an agreement. At the best, the mediator can use persuasive and convincing dialogues through which the involved parties voluntarily agree to reach at accord through advises, admonishments, ideas, and views of the mediator and break into substantive dialogue with each other (Burrel, 1990, 54).Its easy to see that this entire mental process requires very high level of communication skills on the part of the mediator to successfully negotiate ag reement among the conflicting parties. I have had the opportunity to mediate in certain cases of cultural misunderstanding in the workshop. I tried to resolve the dispute by completely understanding the issue of contention, and the respective approaches that each party had taken on the issue.Thereafter I clarified the entire situation to them, explaining in the process that their respective approaches where cancel consequences of their cultural training and application of that training on the issue in hand. In the process I encouraged them to understand and appreciate each others cultural understanding and orientation, they were successful in settling the conflict. Designing a process of Intercultural aspects of conflict resolution In the way of life to evolve a systematic cultural response to conflict, the first feeling is to breed familiarity among cultures that adds plurality and multicultural dimension to broaden existing views.In the process of evolving cultural familiarity communication, approaches towards conflict, cultural rendition of life and identities and roles are identify as essential parameters (Carbaugh, 1990). Out of these, role and range of communication has already been discussed. Now it is time to look at rest of three factors. Responses towards a conflict situation are largely culture dependent, guided by the ways each culture has systemized itself towards conflict.Direct and straightforward ways of approach shot conflict, generally acceptable in western society, may seem great(p) and offensive in eastern cultures accustomed to third party negotiations. Similarly, cultures that follow calm and reasonable response to conflict, may feel intimidated by emotional and passionate response to conflict situation (Carbaugh, 1990). Cultural interpretation of life sets the starting point for people that forms basis of their thinking, values and philosophy, eventually deciding the role they would play in every conflict and their outcome they com e across.It is the cultural orientation that makes societies disciplined or diffused, generalized or specific, value oriented or bohemian, and cooperative or isolated (Carbaugh, 1990). then cultural conflict resolution ultimately depends on the depth of understanding attained through interaction. Intercultural differences are very real forces in an environment where multiple cultures are interacting and coordinating on day to day basis.From my tuition and observation the nature intercultural differences and their consequences on organizational and group efficiency, these differences can be resolved by taking a more comprehensive, collective and accommodative view of situation, that includes our own cultural vulnerabilities when placed in an unfamiliar social structure. As the workshop trainings and experience has demonstrated, it is very important to know the cultural background of people with whom we interact, fully understand the points where our joint cultural understanding d iffer and recognize where they converge.Finally we should also develop a mutual sense of regard and appreciation for our combined cultural diversity. One of the divine revelation experiences that I have undergone relates to issue of timeliness. While in western culture, schedules are strictly followed and meetings start exactly on designated time, it is normal in many an(prenominal) cultures to digress in time by a limited margin. Thus, in a multi-cultured environment, cultural ignorance can lead to conflict on such simple issue of scheduled arrival, while cultural knowledge and understanding would help in looking at from other persons cultural lens.Given the range and depth of cultural impact on overall personal behavior and communication style of people, there are numerous situations where cultural ignorance can directly put people against each other. Hence we should always strive to learn as much about other cultures as possible and continue to update our knowledge. References B urrel, N. A, 1990. surmisal and look for in Conflict Management. edit M. Afzalur Rahim editor. Praeger Publishers. New York Rahim, M. A (2001), Managing Conflict in Organizations. Contributors M. Afzalur Quorum Books. Westport, CT Handbook of Conflict Management. (2003) . Jerri Killian ,William J.Pammer Jr. (edits) Marcel Dekker. New York. Womack, D. F, 1990. Theory and Research in Conflict Management. edit M. Afzalur Rahim editor. Praeger Publishers. New York. Leborn, M. 2003. Culture and Conflict. Accessed online on 17. 11. 2007. http//www. beyondintractability. org/essay/culture_conflict/ Grosse, C. U. 2002. Managing Communication within Virtual Intercultural Teams Business Communication Quarterly, Vol. 65, 2002. Holliday, A. , Hyde, M. ,, Kullman, J. 2004. Intercultural Communication An Advanced Resource Book Routledge, Carbaugh, D. 1990 Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.