The Role Of Culture And Communication In Mediation

Culture And Communication In Mediation

Edward Dzerinyuy Bello

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9783755711575
• eBook ISBN: 9783756279005
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

In relation to various cultural theories, The Role Of Culture And Communication In Mediation by Edward Dzerinyuy Bello, outlines the crucial role of culture and how its impact is evident within communication during mediation. It offers a practical approach of having mediators remain conscious of their thoughts and actions while attentively facilitating an unbiased communication between the parties involved.Most importantly, however, are the theoretical views and models borrowed from various writers such as Edward T Hall, Eric Berne, Schulz von Thun as authenticated in the lives of the author and others highlighted in the book.Whether a student, traveller in an unknown country, researcher, practitioner, parent or just any person, each individual will mediate at different levels through life's journey. This book contains practical suggestions and points to think about that will enable embracing similarities in differences and contribute to individuals valuing humanity. Ntombekhaya Tshabalala, PhD

The Role Of Culture And Communication In Mediation

Section A

Chapter 1

What is culture:

Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Reference (1)

We can also say that culture is a shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization, it can be seen as the growth of a group of people identified by social pattern unique to this group.

Culture plays a significant role in our social lives. It determines how we make sense of us in the world and the meaning we give to the entire world as we engage in society. It shapes our relationships, maintains, and challenges social order.

As Cole, Nikci Lisa, Ph.D. says “Culture is a term that refers to a large and diverse set of mostly intangible aspects of social life. According to sociologists, culture consists of the values, beliefs, systems of language, communication, and practices that people share in common and that can be used to define them as a collective. Culture also includes the material objects that are common to that group or society. Culture is distinct from social structure and economic aspects of society, but it is connected to them—both continuously informing them and being informed by them.” Reference: (2)

We can further see clearly, culture includes religion, food, clothing, language, music, marriage traditions, beliefs (what is right and wrong), etc... From the below diagram, we can summarize culture in a nutshell.

Reference (3)

As we have an idea what culture is, this helps us to see the effects it can have during mediation. The people coming for mediation are a people with a culture and they are deeply influenced by their culture in the way they act and behave. Considering this factor in mind this guides us as mediator to build a strong rapport spirit to deliver as good and unbiased mediation session.

We will now look at what communication is, as we understand the culture of people it is good to know how to communicate also.

Chapter 2

What is communication:

To share information with others by speaking , writing, moving your body, or using other signals: Reference: (4)

If I put me with the definition of communication as per Cambridge dictionary. I imagine within myself how people communicate from different background. I come from Cameroon Africa and generally I see we mostly communicate different from the Germans. It is in this factor that I have also respected Edward T. Hall model of culture and communication be because he stressed the importance of culture in communication. We will investigate Edward T. Hall model below. The interesting thing to note is how communication and culture affects us during mediation. The way the mediator and mediating parties share information by speaking, writing or body language is important to have good clarity. This helps us to avoid misunderstanding of one another and this helps us to build confidence in one another as we have known how they communicate with us well in mediation.

Communication from another perspective:

Communication (from Latin communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is "an apparent answer to the painful divisions between self and other, private and public, and inner thought and outer world." As this definition indicates, communication is difficult to define in a consistent manner, because it is commonly used to refer to a wide range of different behaviors (broadly: "the transfer of information"), or to limit what can be included in the category of communication (for example, requiring a "conscious intent" to persuade). John Peters argues the difficulty of defining communication emerges from the fact that communication is both a universal phenomenon (because everyone communicates) and a specific discipline of institutional academic study.

One possible definition of communication is the act of developing meaning among entities or groups through the use of sufficiently mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic conventions. Reference (5)

“Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person, or group to another.

Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message, and a recipient. This may sound simple, but communication is actually a very complex subject.

The transmission of the message from sender to recipient can be affected by a huge range of things. These include our emotions, the cultural situation, the medium used to communicate, and even our location. The complexity is why good communication skills are considered so desirable by employers around the world: accurate, effective, and unambiguous communication is extremely hard.”

Reference (6)

It can be noted that, when it comes to having a good mediation, the method of communication that messages are sent and received by the mediating team should be clear, simple, and effective. This means it will build a good mediation success result especially when we shall explain deeply in phase four of systematic nonviolence communication method of Mr. Rosenberg below on section B

Chapter 3

What is intercultural competence and communication process. The importance of having a good intercultural communication in mediation.

We have explained in the above chapter one and two the importance of culture and communication. And we father on to give some details on importance of intercultural communication in mediation.

Understanding culture, we will look again what is intercultural competence. The reason is that as we look into mediation, having a good knowledge of culture and intercultural competence helps a lot in mediation.

Cultural competence, also known as intercultural competence, is a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures.

Intercultural or cross-cultural education are terms used for the training to achieve cultural competence.

Reference: (7)

Intercultural communication process in mediation:

This article below shades a lot on communication process and it is good to read it carefully whilst having the importance of communication process in mediation.

“Communication can best be summarized as the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver in an understandable manner. The importance of effective communication is immeasurable in the world of business and in personal life. From a business perspective, effective communication is an absolute must, because it commonly accounts for the difference between success and failure or profit and loss. It has become clear that effective business communication is critical to the successful operation of modern enterprise. Every businessperson needs to understand the fundamentals of effective communication.

Currently, companies in the United States and abroad are working toward the realization of total quality management. Effective communication is the most critical component of total quality management. The way individuals perceive and talk to each other at work about different issues is a major determinant of the business success. It has proven been proven that poor communication reduces quality, weakens productivity, and eventually leads to anger and a lack of trust among individuals within the organization.

The communication process is the guide toward realizing effective communication. It is through the communication process that the sharing of a common meaning between the sender and the receiver takes place. Individuals that follow the communication process will have the opportunity to become more productive in every aspect of their profession. Effective communication leads to understanding.

The communication process is made up of four key components. Those components include encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback. There are also two other factors in the process, and those two factors are present in the form of the sender and the receiver. The communication process begins with the sender and ends with the receiver.

The sender is an individual, group, or organization who initiates the communication. This source is initially responsible for the success of the message. The sender's experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skill, perceptions, and culture influence the message. "The written words, spoken words, and nonverbal language selected are paramount in ensuring the receiver interprets the message as intended by the sender" (Burnett & Dollar, 1989). All communication begins with the sender.

The first step the sender is faced with involves the encoding process. To convey meaning, the sender must begin encoding, which means translating information into a message in the form of symbols that represent ideas or co...

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Preface
• Nt ombekhay Tshabal
• Acknowledgement
• About the author
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Section A:
• Section B:
• References
• Copyright