Webinar addresses conflicts in cross-cultural competition

Jasmin explaining the root causes of conflict

A webinar titled Conflicts in Cross-cultural Communication was organised by UTAR Faculty of Accountancy and UTAR Centre for Entrepreneurial  Sustainability (CENTS) on 22 August 2022 via Zoom. The webinar saw the participation of more than 100 participants.

Invited to present the talk was Public Policy, International Cooperation & Development Specialist Jasmin Johnson.

The talk began with an activity where Jasmin asked the participants to write down two conflicts they have faced recently and identify the root causes of those conflicts. She then explained that a root analysis must be done to discover the root of a conflict and the analysis is usually done by asking the question ‘why’. She also mentioned that people have different ways to identify the root causes of conflicts.

“Some of the root causes of conflicts include poor communication, lack of compromise, prejudice, intolerance, self-interest, ignorance, desire for power, lack of empathy, etc. Other causes include making assumptions and not meeting one’s need,” she said. She then moved on to explain the sources of conflicts which included organisational change, ineffective communication, value and culture clashes, personality clashes, work policies and practices, adversarial management and competition for scarce resources.

Jasmin explaining the ways to analyse the root cause of conflicts

While addressing the topic of culture, she said, “We often put culture as the cause of conflict. Culture is ever-changing and is heavily influenced by personality, politics, etc. The process of analysing the root cause is itself heavily prejudiced by culture, personality and politics.”

She urged, “Whenever you feel the urge to put something down to “cultural conflict’, try to deconstruct what culture is. Try your best to see if there are alternative paths you can take to analyse your conflict.”

The webinar ended with a closing remark from FAM Dean Dr Sia Bee Chuan.

Jasmin (top row, most left) with UTAR staff and participants