By Behnam Nadimfard

During my quest to learn about the underlying yet significant variables that come into play during mediation sessions, I had the privilege of attending the 2021 INADR World Mediation Congress. The final day of this series revolves around using mediation, directly and indirectly, to combat global warming began with Dr. Kevin Brown's presentation called "A Brief Overview on how Culture Impacts Conflict, Negotiations and Mediation." Dr. Kevin Brown is the President of the International Mediators Association and the Ombudsperson with the UN Office of the Ombudsman and Mediation Services.

In this piece, I will briefly introduce some of the concepts that I found interesting and will conclude with my takeaway from this presentation.

What is Culture?

"Culture is an interwoven system of customs, morals, traits, traditions and values shared by a group of people or a society. It provides people with a common heritage, and it links them through shared experiences and joint learning." Cultural backgrounds tend to affect how a person prioritizes their daily activities and help individuals define their attitude of what is appropriate and rules of behaviour. However, as Dr. Brown emphasized, it's imperative to acknowledge that not everyone from a specific culture necessarily abides by its norms, values or traditions, and mediators and participants to negotiation should avoid falling into the pitfall of making a strict presumption about a person just because of their cultural background.

Cultural Iceberg 

In line with what was discussed above, another concept that assists us in better understanding the impacts of culture on negotiation and mediation is the Cultural Iceberg. This analogy is used to demonstrate how at first glance, what we only perceive is "the tip of the iceberg," which is a fracture of that person's culture, such as their appearances or speech. Such observations are not determinative of that person's core values, symbolizing the parts of the iceberg underneath the water. To avoid prejudice, negotiators and parties to mediations should be mindful of not coming to conclusions about a person's depth of character only by observing that person's explicit cultural aspects.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Model

To contextualize his remarks on cultural impacts on mediation and negotiation, Dr. Brown introduced Professor Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions. These six dimensions represent the effects of a society's culture on its members' behaviour. Again, Dr. Brown emphasized the importance of avoiding making assumptions about a person just because their nationality falls within one of Hofstede's following cultural dimensions. You can find the link to Professor Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Model at the end of this blog post.

1-   Power Distance: focuses on various solutions to fundamental problems of human inequality, such as workplace hierarchies.

2-   Uncertainty Avoidance: Focuses on the degree of stress in a given society when facing an unknown future.

3-   Individualism / Collectivism: focuses on the integration of individuals into major groups.

4-   Masculinity / Femininity:  focuses on the dissection of emotional roles between women and men.

5-   Long Term Orientation / Short Term Orientation: focuses on the choices the society makes in directing their efforts either on the future or present and past.

6-   Indulgence / Restraint: focuses on gratification and control of basic human desires regarding enjoyments in life.

My Takeaway

While I agree with Dr. Brown's emphasis on how a mediation's participants' culture might manifest in ways they communicate and deal with conflict, I think it is as important, if not more, than we realize how a person may not follow the norms of their culture and negotiate independently from the shared standards and values of their ethnicity. Thus, while the mediator should be cautious to prevent a party from imposing their culture on another, they should be even more careful to evade making presumptions and predict a party's behaviour while negotiating just because of their cultural background.

If you are interested in the subjects discussed above, please click on the following links to access resources focusing on the effects of culture on mediation and negotiation:

1-   Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context – Greet Hofstede

2-   INADR – World Mediation Congress 2021 YouTube Channel

3-   Negotiating: The Top Ten Ways that Culture Can Affect Your Negotiation – Jeswald W. Salacuse