Skills in Dispute Management

Skills in Dispute Management
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Introduction
Conflict management can be a challenging process. However, such management depends on the type of conflict and key underlying factors. For instance, a conflict in the workplace may be way easier to solve than a conflict involving two nations. Additionally, conflicts that are caused by endemic issues are usually complicated and may take a long time to solve (Avruch 2019). For instance, if a conflict is caused by historical injustice occurring over decades, it might take a long time to effectively deal with. One of the key aspects of conflicts is culture. There are several dimensions of culture that affect the management of conflicts.
This paper will focus on various aspects of culture and how they affect the management of a conflict. Particularly, the aspects of culture that will be addressed include national culture, education culture, professional culture, race culture, gender culture, religious culture, and technological culture. These aspects of culture influence the management of a conflict both positively and negatively. In addition, the paper will focus on some key skills that are needed for the effective conduct of cross-cultural communications. In the modern world, cross-cultural communications are inevitable. Consequently, it is important for negotiators to have the skills necessary to make these negotiations effective.
National Culture
National culture plays a pivotal role in the approaches taken to manage a conflict. There are several elements of national culture that affect the management of a conflict. The first element is that of power distance. The concept of power distance relates to the extent of inequality that is embedded between people in a society (Avruch 2019). In most modern nations, for instance, there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Capitalistic tendencies have created a situation where there are few extremely wealthy individuals and a majority of people who are poor (Abbasi Gul and Senin 2018). This power gap is likely to influence the existence as well as the management of conflicts. Evidence has shown where there is a huge power distance, it is generally tougher to manage a conflict (Avruch 2019). The opposite has been found to be true, that is, if the power distance is small, solving most conflicts is done effectively.
The second element of national culture that influences conflict management is individualism vs. collectivism. There are countries whose national culture promote the concept of people thinking of themselves as individuals (individualism), while there are other that encourage people to understand themselves as being part of a group (collectivism). Where collectivism is part of the national culture, team spirit is encouraged, and management of conflicts is more swift/ effective (Avruch 2019). On the other hand, individualism discourages prompt/effective management of conflicts.
The third element of national culture is masculinity vs. femininity. This element refers to the extent to which the country promotes the traditional masculinity orientation towards work (Abbasi Gul and Sen...