Exam 3 Comm

intercultural code-switching is conceptualized as "the act of purposefully modifying one's behavior in an interaction in a foreign setting in order to accommodate different cultural norms for appropriate behavior

Central to Molinsky's (2007) conceptualization are two psychological challenges that must be met: code switchers must execute the new behavior in such a manner that insiders of the culture judge the task performance and behavioral performance dimensions as appropriate tot he context. and second, the code-switchers are eventually able to form a coherent sense of "identity dimension" via seeing the meaningful relevance of the behavior in context

It is interesting to note that whether to conflict is with a member of the ingroup or a member of the outgroup also clearly affects how collectivists manage conflict

Chinese for example, are more likely to pursue a conflict with an outgroup member and less likely to pursue a conflict with an ingroup member than U.S. Americans - more on page 196

through flexible communication skills, the conflict parties may invent creative alternatives or paths to

generate additional resources for mutual gain

The avoiding style involves dodging the topic, the other party, or the situation altogether. This style includes behavior from

glossing over the topic and denying that conflict exists to leaving the conflict scene

the benevolent approach (a combination of collectivism and large power distance value patterns) in approaching a conflict problem. The term "benevolent" implies that many managers play the authoritative parental role in approaching or motivating their employees. Two values that pervade this approach are...

obligation to others and asymmetrical interaction treatment

a cultural trait approach means particular cultures (e.g., collectivistic cultures) on a

systems-based level would also exhibit certain pre-dominant conflict style tendencies (e.g., using more obliging or avoidance conflict patterns.

From the individualistic conflict lens, the person wants to...

stand out and be noticed for all of his or her task accomplishments

In their team presentations, collectivists will also often use phrases such as...

"as a team, we..." and "we worked hard" to save the team face and put the best group face forward

For collectivists or interdependent-self personality types, intercultural conflict management often follows a...

"process-oriented" model

Using an interdependent-self conflict lens, a person often views conflict from...

(1) a relational process lens, which emphasizes relationship and feeling issues (2) a win win relational approach, in which feelings and "faces" can both be saved (3) a "being" angle, in which relational trust must be repaired and loyalty must be amended to preserve relational harmony (4) a long-term compromising negotiation mode that has no clear winner or loser in the ongoing conflict

Some suggested cultural empathy techniques include the following:

(1) check yourself for possible cultural biases and hidden prejudices in the conflict episode (2) suspend your rigidly held intergroup stereotypes (3) do not pretend to understand - ask for clarification (4) use reflective time and appropriate silence to gauge your own understanding of the other's conflict perspective (5) capture the core conflict emotion, metaphor, meaning, and facework theme of the other conflict party and echo the theme back to the conflict party in your own words - with carefully phrased responsive words and gestures

The primary perception features of intercultural conflict are the following:

(1) conflict involves intercultural perceptions - perceptions are filtered through our lenses of ethnocentrism and stereotypes (2) ethnocentric perceptions add biases and prejudice to our conflict attribution process (3) our attribution process is further complicated by dealing with different culture-based verbal and nonverbal conflict styles

the following are some specific suggestions for mindful reframing

(1) restate conflict positions into common-interest terms (2) change complaint statements into requests (3) move from blaming statements to mutual-focused, problem-solving statements (4) help those in conflict recognize the benefits of a win-win synergistic approach (5) help conflict parties understand the "big picture"

paraphrasing skills involve two characteristics:

(1) summarizing the content meaning of the other's message in your own words and (2) nonverbally echoing your interpretation of the emotional meaning of the other's message

Hurricane Katrina examples between black and white participants

187

African American Conflict styles

196

Asian American Conflict Styles

197

Latino American Conflict Styles

197-198

Native American Conflict Styles

198

To deal with conflict constructively in a collectivistic culture, individualists must do the following

202-203

facework skills address the core issues of protecting our own communication identity during a conflict episode and, at the same time, allowing us to deal with the communication identity of the other, conflict party.

All human beings value the feelings of being respected and being accepted -- especially during vulnerable conflict interactions

just as people vary on how they conceptualize love, expectations concerning love across cultures vary as well.

Although passionate love is valued where family ties are weak, passionate love is diluted where family ties are strong. Romantic passionate love has been found to be a critical component in the "falling in love" stage of many individuals, this the emphasis in individualistic cultures is on this kind of love regardless of the partners cultural backgrounds or social standing. This is one of the reasons why individualists believe that getting married without love appears to be a disastrous decision.

the third set of background factors involves conflict perceptions and orientation.

Conflict involves both perception and interaction

cultural empathy has two layers: cultural empathetic understanding and cultural empathetic responsiveness

Cultural empathy is the learned ability of the participants to understand accurately the self-experiences of others from diverse cultures and, concurrently, the ability to convey their understanding responsively and effectively to reach the "cultural ears" of the culturally different others in the conflict situation

the following section draws from face-negotiation theory and presents some interesting research findings concerning conflict styles and face-work behaviors in diverse cultural and ethnic groups.

Face is really about socially approved self-image and other-image consideration issues. Facework is about the verbal and nonverbal strategies that we use to maintain, defend, or upgrade our own social self-image and attack or defense (or "save") te social images of others For example: when others confront us with threatening conflict messages, we are likely either to engage in defensive facework strategies or to flee the scene altogether to recoup our face loss

For individualists having conflicts with collectivists, giving face means acknowledging collectivists' ingroup conflict concerns and obligations. Further, it means learning to mindfully listen and hold a mutual-orientation perspective in the conflict process, learning to apologize when you are part of the conflict problem, and giving credit to the teamwork or family members that frame the collectivists' action or accomplishment.

For collectivists having conflicts with individualists, giving face means honoring others by expressing your ideas (or opinions) actively with other conflict parties in a candid manner, engaging in explicit verbal acknowledgment and feedback during a conflict negotiation process, recognizing the person's abilities and complimenting his or her unique contributions, and understanding the differences between acting assertively, passively, passive-aggressively, and aggressively.

compensation means conflict parties can offer exchanges or concessions for conflict issues they value differently.

For ex: one twin sister desperately wants the disc to play at her sorority party that night, but the other twin had planned to take it with her on an overnight driving trip. One twin can offer money to the other (e.g., monetary compensation that is worth more than the price of the original CD) to compensate for the time and effort it takes to go and buy another CD - thus reflecting the compensation technique via seeking out other pragmatic alternatives

Expansion means an active search for alternative paths or creative solutions to enlarge the amount, type, or use of available resources (e.g., using existing resources in imaginative ways or cultivating new resources) for mutual gains.

For example: the twins may want to make their own music and draw their own CD cover. They can also learn to work together to mix resources (e.g. artwork and music) for mutual gains.

mindful listening is a face-validation and power-sharing skill.

In a conflict episode, the disputants must try hard to listen with focused attentiveness to the cultural and personal assumptions that are being expressed in the conflict interaction. They must learn to listen responsively or ting (the Chinese word for listening means "attending mindfully with our ears, eyes, and a focused heart") to the sounds, tone, gestures, movements, nonverbal nuances, pauses, and silence in a given conflict situation.

However, perspectives on love have been developed to distinguish love from liking, for example, comparing different types of love and liking as a triangle or researching the different ideologies of love such as diverse love styles.

In fact, individuals from the US have different beliefs about romantic relationships and these different ideas suggest how different stages of relational initiation, maintenance, and termination play a critical role in intimate-interpersonal relationships based on love styles

the compromising style involves a give-and-take concession approach to reach a mid-point agreement concerting the conflict issue

In using the compromising style, individuals tend to use fairness appeals, trade-off suggestions, or other quick, short-term solutions. It is an intermediate style resulting in some gains and some losses for each party.

The obliging (or accommodating) style is characterized by a high concern for the other person's conflict interest above and beyond one's own conflict position.

Individuals tend to use the obliging style when they value their relationship more than their personal conflict goal

the face orientation, shaped by the various cultural, personality, and situational factors, frames our different motivations to use different conflict styles.

Individuals who are more self-face-oriented tend to use a direct, low-context conflict style to assert their rights in a conflict situation. Individuals who are more other-face- or mutual-face oriented tend to use an indirect, high-context conflict style to maintain other or mutual face and to preserve relational harmony

mindful reframing is a highly creative, mutual-face-honoring skill.

It means creating alternative contexts to frame your understanding of the conflict behavior. Just as changing a frame to appreciate an old painting, creating a new context to understand the conflict behavior may redefine your interpretation of the behavior or conflict event

Flexible intercultural conflict management depends on many factors.

One key factor is the ability to apply adaptive conflict communications skills. The five skills that are critical to flexible intercultural conflict management are: facework management, mindful listening, cultural empathy, mindful reframing, and adaptive code-switching

Most conflict research has focused on European American conflict styles in both interpersonal and organizational conflict domains.

Overall, European Americans end to prefer solution-based conflict strategies and tend to compartmentalize socioemotional conflict issues separately from task-based conflict issues more than do African Americans European Americans also tend to use more dominating/controlling conflict strategies in dealing with romantic relationships than do Asian Americans

In individualistic cultures, people typically want to "fall in love" and then either get married or move on to another dating partner.

Romantic love, however, often poses major relational paradoxes. Although intimate partners desire to "lose" themselves in a romantic love-fused relationship, many of them also struggle with their desires for independence and personal freedom.

the more independent or individualistic you are, the more likely you are to use a linear logic, low context approach in managing your conflict.

The more independent or collectivistic you are, the more likely you are to use a spiral logic, high-context approach in dealing with your conflict.

pace-negotiation theory helps to explain how individualism=collectivism value patterns influence the use of diverse conflict styles in different cultural situations

The premise of the theory is that members who subscribe to individualistic values tend to be more self-face-oriented and members who subscribe to group-oriented values tend to be more other- or mutual-face-oriented in conflict negotiation

Intercultural love experts concluded that the high divorce rate that characterizes "U.S. society is due in good part to the culture's exaggerated sense of individualism"

They observe that in the United States, subscribers to "expressive individualism" face the following dilemmas in romantic relationships

intercultural code-switching refers to intentionally learning and moving between culturally ingrained systems of behavior relevant to the situation at hand.

Thus, individuals who have mastered the deep value structures of a culture (such as individualism and collectivism and other core culture-specific values) and the situational norms of an intercultural conflict episode can code-switch adaptively via an astute culture-sensitive situational analysis

the benevolent approach reflects a combination of...

a collectivistic and and large power distance value orientation

using an independent-self conflict lens,

a person often views conflict from (1) a content conflict goal lens, which emphasizes tangible conflict issues above and beyond relationship issues (2) a clear win-lose conflict approach, in which one person comes out as a winner and the other person comes out as a loser (3) a "doing" angle, in which something tangible in the conflict is broken and needs fixing (4) an outcome-driven mode, in which a clear action plan or resolution is needed

the status-achievement approach consists of a combination of...

an individualistic and large power distance value orientation

the impartial approach reflects a combination of...

an individualistic and small power distance value orientation

the communal approach (a combination of both collectivism and small power distance value orientation) is the least common of the four workplace approaches. The values that encompass this approach are

authentic interdependent connection to others and genuine equality via respectful communication exchanges at all levels Research to date has shown that Costa Rica is the only country found to fit this approach. -Nonprofit mediation centers or successful start-up small business also appear to practice some of the communal decision-making behaviors and participatory democracy so that everyone has a say, and they also often take turns to rotate democratic leadership -in the communal approach, the importance of mindful listening skill, interpersonal validation skill, and collaborative dialogue skill are emphasized.

there are two possible modes of code switching

behavioral or functional code-switching refers to surface-level verbal and/ or nonverbal code-switching, especially for multicultural workplace survival and adaptation. In contrast, dynamic or integrative code-switching is an internal and external synchronized dance of fluid figure-eight movements in which the dialectical tensions of individualism-collectivism (or any other seemingly contrastive value dimensions) within oneself are resolved or harmonized

ideal in individualistic cultures, is that romanti love is the

central part of many love relationships, and that attraction chemistry is common during the initial stages of any romantic love relationship.

reframing is a critical conflict management skill because how you frame the conflict event may

change how you respond to it

the communal approach consists of a combination of...

collectivistic and small power distance value orientation

Finally, the integrating (or collaborative) style reflects a

commitment to find a mutual-interest solution and involves a high concern for self-interest and also a high concern for the other person's interest in the conflict situation In using an integrative style, individuals tend to use non-evaluative descriptive messages, qualifying statements, and mutual interest clarifying questions to seek common-ground solutions This is the most time-consuming style of the five conflict styles. Johnson (1986) equated the five different styles to the following animals: shark = dominating style, turtle = avoiding, teddy bear = obliging, fox= compromising, and owl = integrating

an intercultural conflict episode often involves...

complex, multilayered factors

cultural value patterns such as individualism and collectivism often color our...

conflict attitudes, expectations, and behaviors when we are involved in emotionally frustrating episodes

the fifth set of background factors is perceived scarce resources

conflict resources are tangible or intangible rewards that people want in a dispute. The rewards or commodities may be scarce or perceived as scarce by individuals in the conflict.

the dominating (or competitive/controlling) style emphasizes

conflict tactics that push for one's own position above and beyond the other person's interest The dominating style includes aggressive, defensive, controlling, and intimidating tactics

by listening mindfully, conflict disputants can learn to create new categories in interpreting the unfolding conflict sequences.

creating new categories means learning to apply culture-sensitive concepts to make sense of conflict variation behaviors

Identity-based foals can involve respectful or disrespectful attitudes concerning three identity issues in conflict:

cultural, social, and personal For example, although an interfaith couple is arguing about which religious faith they should instill in their children (cultural or social identity), they are also asserting the worthiness of their own particular religious beliefs (personal identity) To the extent that the couple can engage in a constructive dialogue about this important issue, the conflict can act as a catalyst for their relationship growth

the term love can be used seriously or casually depending on what

culture you're from. Researchers simply cannot offer a clear definition of love.

intangible resources however may include

deeply felt desires or emotional needs, such as emotional security, inclusion, connection, respect, control, and meaning issues. Recurring conflict between two or more individuals often involves unmet (or frustrated) intangible needs rather than conflicting tangible wants Scarce intangible resources can be real or perceived as real (e.g., two men fighting for the perceived lack of attention from their boss) by individuals in the conflict episode

When members of a culture believe that their own approach is the only correct or natural way to handle conflict, they tend to see the conflict behaviors of other cultures as...

deviant from that standard. a rigidly held ethnocentric attitude promotes a climate of distrust in any intercultural conflict. In real-life conflict scenarios, individuals often practice ethnocentric behaviors and polarized attributions without a high degree of awareness

The factors involved in an intercultural conflict episode include...

different cultural conflict lenses, different conflict perceptions, different conflict goals, and different viewpoints on scarce resources

reframing is the mindful process of using language to change the way

each person defines or thinks about experiences and views the conflict situation

in nearly all of thirty-seven cultural samples studied, both females and males

endorsed mutual attraction-love, dependability, emotional stability, kindness-understanding, and intelligence as top-ranked mate-selection criteria.

the phrase identity-based goals means

face-saving and face-honoring issues in a conflict episode They are basically about self-respect (face-saving) and other-consideration (face-honoring) issues in a conflict situation

"I" identity members tend to emphasize personal and relationship privacy issues. In contrast, "we" identity cultural members tend to emphasize

family and ingroup network connection issues. From the collectivistic frame, relationship develipment is closely intertwined with the fate of others within the ingroup.

tangible resources include

how much money to spend on a smart phone, an iPad, or choice of prime location for a vacation. Some tangible commodities are indeed scarce or limited (e.g., only one promotion available for three workers)

In combining both individualism-collectivism and small-large power distance value patterns, we can discuss four predominant corporate value conflict approaches that result from forming a grid based on the individualism-collectivism continuum and small-large power distance continuum:

impartial, status-achievement, benevolent, and communal

overall, managers and employees around the world have different expectations of how a workplace conflict episode should be interpreted and resolved -- depending on whether the workplace culture emphasizes...

impartial, status-achievement, benevolent, or communal conflict interaction rituals

The fourth set of cultural background factors involves conflict goal issues. The perceived or actual differences

in an intercultural conflict often rotate around the following three goal issues: content, relational, and identity

individualists tend to use more self-defensive, dominating, and competitive conflict styles in managing disputes than do collectivists.

in comparison, collectivists tend to use more integrative and compromising styles in dealing with conflict than do individualists

the phrase relational conflict goals refers to how

individuals define the particular relationship (e.g., intimate vs. non-intimate, informal vs. formal, cooperative vs. competitive) or would like to define it in the interactive situation Relational conflict goals also involve mismatched relationship expectation issues. For example, individualists generally crave more privacy and collectivists generally desire more connectedness in an intimate relationship The struggle to define independence and interdependence can cause chronic relationship problems in many intercultural couples

a dispositional approach emphasizes that

individuals do have predominant conflict style tendencies in handling a wide variety of conflict situations in different cultures Conflict style is learned within the primary socialization process of one's dispositional or personality traits For example, an extrovert will tend to use a more dominating or expressive style, but an introvert will tend to use a more avoiding or obligating style

these implicit conflict lenses or assumptions taint many...

intercultural perceptions and orientations concerning antagonistic conflict episodes

overall, independent-self types are concerned with conflict outcome closure, whereas interdependent-self types are concerned with...

interpersonal and ingroup face-saving and face-honoring process.

perception checking is designed to help ensure that we are

interpreting the speaker's nonverbal and verbal behaviors accurately during an escalating conflict episode. Culturally sensitive perception-checking statements involve both direct and indirect perceptual observation statements and perceptual verification questions

a systems approach integrates both dispositional and situational approaches.

it recognizes that most individuals have predominant conflict style profiles because of strong cultural and family socialization conflict scripts. However, individuals also modify their styles on the basis of the particular conflict situation and on their partners' responses and reactions to their conflict behaviors Among other factors that influence conflict style are intergroup conflict histories, ethnocentric filters, prejudiced mindsets, mood, and conflict competence skills

Research shows that across many cultures, females tend to be more comfortable addressing relational conflict goals than males

males, in comparison, tend to prefer addressing content conflict goal issues and with more ease than pursuing relational conflict topics. In addition, from the collectivistic cultural standpoint, relational conflict goals usually take precedence over content goals

On the personal attributes level, independent-self individuals tend to use more competitive/dominating conflict styles than do interdependent-self individuals, and interdependent individuals tend to use

more avoiding, obliging, integrating, and compromising styles than do independent-self individuals

value patterns - for individualists or independent-self personality types, intercultural conflict resolution often follows an...

outcome-oriented model

U.S. Japan Conflict Case Example

page 184 - and further explanation on 186

Overall, conflict communication style refers to

patterned verbal and nonverbal responses to conflict in a variety of frustrating conflict situations There are three approaches to studying conflict styles: the dispositional approach, the situational approach, and the systems approach

from a status-achievement approach (a combination of individualism and large power distance) to conflict, the predominant values of this approach are...

personal freedom and earned inequality -they don't expect their managers to change much because they are their bosses and thus, by virtue of their titles, hold certain rights and power resources -the managers meanwhile, also expect conflict accommodations from their subordinates; subordinates may be free to complain, but the manager is the authority and makes the final decisions -when the conflict involves two same-rank coworkers, the use of upfront conflict tactics to aggressive tactics is a hallmark fo the status-achievement approach

in the impartial approach (a combination of individualism and small power distance) to workplace conflict, the predominant values of this approach are...

personal freedom and equal treatment -from the impartial conflict approach lens, if an interpersonal conflict arises between a manager and an employee, the manager has the responsibility to deal with the conflict in an objective, upfront, and decisive manner -the employee is sometimes invited to provide feedback and reactions to the fact-finding process. -he or she can also ask for clarifications from the manager -in an equal-rank employee-employee conflict, the manager would generally play the "impartial" third-party role and would encourage the two employees to talk things over and find their own workable solution

understanding the underlying, unspoken value clashes and the misconstrued assumptions between the American and Japanese attendees would serve as a good first step to reconcile the cultural and corporate expectancy differences.

pg.186

by content goals, we mean the

practical issues that are external to the individuals involved. For example, an interfaith couple might argue about whether they should raise their children to be Muslim or Mormon.

Overall, the greatest cultural variation is found in the attitude toward

premarital chastity

Recall the core building block of individualism - collectivism lies in its

relative emphasis on the importance of the "I" identity and the "we" identity

both individualists and collectivists must learn to save face strategically and give face appropriately to each other during a conflict episode

self-oriented face-saving behaviors are attempts to regain or defend one's image after threats to face or face loss. Other-oriented face-giving behaviors are attempts to support others' face claims and work with them to prevent further face loss or help them to restore face constructively. Giving face means not humiliating others, especially one's conflict opponents, in public

different cultural lenses and assumptions serve as the first...

set of factors that contributes to initial intercultural irritations

differentiation means

taking an active stance to acknowledge the different cultural perspectives and lenses in a conflict situation. At the same time, the conflict parties display good faith in addressing the conflict by dividing up the large puzzle into different pieces or slices. They also maintain constructive momentum to keep on moving forward to reach a shared goal or vision -for ex: twin sisters are fighting over a CD, one actually wants the disc, the other wants the cover. By articulating their basic needs in a collaborative dialogue format, the sisters can share the D productively without the need to compromise or make unnecessary concessions

Rahim (1992) based his classification of conflict styles on the two conceptual dimensions of concern for self and concern for others

the first dimension illustrates the degree (high or low) to which a person seeks to satisfy her or his own conflict interest or face need. The second dimension represents the degree (high or low) to which a person desires to incorporate the other's conflict interest. The two dimensions are combined, resulting in five styles of handling interpersonal conflict: dominating, avoiding, obliging, compromising, and integrating

a situational approach, on the other hand, stresses

the importance of the conflict topic and the conflict situation in shaping what conflict styles will be used in what types of relationships and in what contexts, or both of these. Situational factors such as the conflict topic, situation, relationship type, time pressure, and conflict goals can have a strong influence on whether we will engage in the conflict or avoid the conflict altogether.

the U.S. management style often follows a combined impartial approach and status-achievement approach:

the larger U.S. culture emphasizes that with individual hard work, personal ambition, and fierce competitiveness, status and rank can be earned and status cues can be displayed with pride and credibility

our cultural values (individualism and collectivism) influence our behaviors and our needs when we are in a close relationship, such as

the need for autonomy and connection.

the second set of background factors takes into consideration the global workplace situation, especially in incorporating...

the value dimension of small-large power distance on top of the value dimension of individualism-collectivism

Conflict is an aggravating disagreement process between

two interdependent parties over incompatible goals and the interference each perceives from the other in her or his effort to achieve those goals

For many large East Asian corporations, for example, Confucian-driven hierarchical principles promote a type of parent-child relationship between the manager and the subordinate

under the benevolent conflict approach, although a manager can confront her or his employees to motivate them to work harder, it is rare that subordinates will directly challenge the manager's authority during a conflict interaction. however, subordinates might opt for using passive-aggressive or sabotage conflict strategies to deal with workplace tensions or frustrations. in dealing with low-importance conflicts, managers would consider using the "smooth over" relational tactics or subtle pressure tactics to gain employees compliance. However, in dealing with high-importance conflicts benevolent managers could act in a very directive or autocratic and controlling manner.

Five specific communications skills - facework management, mindful listening, cultural empathy, mindful reframing, and adaptive code switching

were recommended as starters to practice competent intercultural conflict management

Oftentimes culture-based conflict styles and behaviors lead to intercultural collisions in the negotiation process

with their views of the situation distorted by ethnocentric lenses and mindless stereotypes, both parties in the conflict may be stuck in their polarized positions and perceptual views. They must learn new conflict management skills to disengage from their set behaviors and to free themselves from their negative conflict loops

the research literature focusing on individualists, the compromising style often connotes task-based compromises -

you have to give something tangible to get something back and reach a midpoint compromising solution However, for collectivists, the term "compromise" often means relational give-and-take concessions from a long-term reciprocity perspective. In other words, by "giving in" during a particular conflict episode, both have the mutual understanding that each individual has taken turns giving in. collectivists also tend to use more obliging and avoiding conflict styles in a wider variety of conflict situations than do individualists