Conflict Constructions and Conflict Management in Families: The Case of Urban Chinese Malaysians

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Conflict Constructions and Conflict Management in
Families The Case of Urban Chinese Malaysians

• By Aaron J. K. Chong
• Master of Conflict Management Student
• 2007

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Introduction

• The dominant construction of Chinese cultural
  IDENTITY around the world The essential Chinese
  based on traditional Chinese culture
• The dominant influences in Chinese values of
  conflict
• Confucianism Defines conflict as the upset of
  the social order Emphasises conflict as harmful
  and dangerous Harmony must be preserved under
  social norms and relationships internally (more
  so in families)
• Daoism Defines conflict as disequilibrium of a
  balanced state Emphasises conflict as part of
  diversity Balance can only be achieved if
  sincere action is taken

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• Dominant traditional Chinese third party
  approaches
• Mediation as (Re)Conciliation A vested social
  member intervenes and remedies the immediate
  emotional and symbolic interests of both parties
  as an advisor. Interventions are enforced
  through the power of the mediators face and
  social connections as a threat of social sanction
  (Goh, 2002)
• Arbitration as an alternative to mediation A
  vested social member intervenes and awards
  outcomes when mediation of a prolonged/extremely
  petty conflict no longer works. Interventions are
  enforced much more harshly through face and
  social connections similar to mediation
• Traditional Chinese third parties
• Dominant qualities of a third party
• Age (elder) wise mature sex adherence to
  patriarchal norms parenthood family and
  community representative social connections to
  people in conflict

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• Family constructions in traditional Chinese
  culture
• A cohesive group consisting of several
  generations (Goh, 2002)
• The human body analogy (adapted from Hwangs
  1997-1998 dragon body analogy)
• Head leader elder (the patriarch)
• Neck spouse - supports the leader elder (the
  matriarch)
• Body the children (the bloodline)
• Limbs the outer family - community/state

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• Current research gaps
• Historical context and social environment shapes
  the way we think and how things ought to be, and
  ultimately the way we act. Our actions are
  mediated by knowledge of the context (Morris
  Fu, 2001)
• How sure are we that the modern Chinese are not
  experiencing change in their values systems?
• How certain are social researchers that the
  changing historical contexts of different Chinese
  communities have not altered Chinese conflict
  constructions and conflict resolution strategies
  in Chinese communities throughout the world?
• Do contemporary Chinese mediators/arbitrators all
  possess similar qualities as traditional Chinese
  mediators/arbitrators in family conflicts?
• What factors do contemporary Chinese
  mediators/arbitrators have to consider in the
  intervention of family conflict(s) and dispute(s)
  as compared to traditional Chinese
  mediators/arbitrators?

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• What this research is about
• Focus of the modern contemporary Chinese
  experience in Malaysia Comparing traditional
  Chinese constructions of conflict and
  contemporary Chinese Malaysians
• Focus of an urban target population
• Promoting cultural diversity in cross-cultural
  conflict research
• Challenging cultural assumptions of the Chinese
  people as per reflected in the literature
• Providing input for family conflict resolution
  theory and practice involving Chinese Malaysians
• What this research is NOT about
• Promoting Chinese Malaysian political interests

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Research Questions

1. What are the dominant constructs and values in
   relation to family conflicts as constructed by
   urban Chinese Malaysians?
2. What are the dominant conflict resolution styles
   (e.g. withdrawing, compromising, accommodating,
   forcing or collaborating) used by urban Chinese
   Malaysians in relation to family conflicts?
3. What is the dominant informal conflict management
   third party approach (e.g. arbitration or
   mediation or mediation/arbitration) used in urban
   Chinese Malaysian culture?
4. What are the dominant contemporary social
   characteristics of a Chinese Malaysian family
   mediator or arbitrator in the Chinese Malaysian
   community?
5. What are the important elements to be considered
   by a mediator or arbitrator when managing
   conflicts involving urban Chinese Malaysians and
   their families?

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Methods

• Sample profile
• Chinese Malaysians living in urban areas who have
  access to emails and online access to the World
  Wide Web urban being defined as a population
  area that has more than 10,000 people (Department
  of Statistics Malaysia, 2000)
• Proposed snowballed sample 20
• Current snowballed sample 32 (18 males 14
  females)

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• Sampling considerations
• Ability to communicate in English
• Online access to complete the survey
• Age range was fixed between participants late
  thirties up till their late sixties this age
  range was ideal because cultural literature has
  demonstrated that elders achieve their status
  when they are responsible social members in their
  community
• All participants had experienced conflict at some
  point in time, and had intervened in conflicts
  within their families and other families
• Male and female groups will participate although
  more males would be expected

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• Survey method The best method of collecting
  primary data at the cheapest cost
• Survey Conflict Survey of Chinese Malaysians
  (CSCM) via the TellUs2 Online Interface (UniSA)
  approved by the UniSA Divisional HREC on 25th
  June 2007
• CSCM design
• Quantitative
• Five multiple choice questions
• E.g. How do you generally manage conflict in
  your family? (A) Avoid (B) Compromise (C) Compete
  (D) Collaborate (E) Accommodate (F) Other (Please
  specify in next question)
• Qualitative
• Eleven open-ended questions
• E.g. Who would you consider to be members of
  your family?

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• Procedure
• Researcher forwards the research information
  sheet (which contains the survey link) to two
  sources who have informal links to the Chinese
  Malaysian community via email
• Email was sent to potential participants who had
  to respond to the CSCM questions. Participants
  were asked to forward the CSCM to other potential
  participants via email.
• All participants had to complete each question
  and SUBMIT their responses after they had
  completed
• Responses were collected, organised and stored in
  the form of a Microsoft Excel file downloaded
  from TellUs2

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• Data analysis
• Quantitative analysis (Shaugnessy, Zechmeister,
  Zechmeister 2003) Descriptive statistics
  Frequencies Percentages
• Qualitative analysis Thematic analysis (Braun
  Clarke, 2006) and thematic network
  (Astride-Stirling, 2001) building thematic
  connections within the data and understanding
  underlying assumptions

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Quantitative Results
Table 1 Percentage of Chinese Malaysians view
of conflict
Conflict View Percentage ()
Necessary/Desirable 15.63
Unnecessary/Undesirable 68.75
Neither of the above 15.63
Both 0.00
Total100.01
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Table 2 Frequency of Chinese Malaysians
particular family conflict management style
Family Conflict Management Style Frequencies (f/Nf) Percentage ()
Avoid/Withdraw 25 78.13
Compromise (5050 Split) 26 81.25
Compete/Force 10 31.25
Collaborate 26 81.25
Accommodate/Give in 23 71.88
Other(s) 13 40.63
Total frequency for each conflict management
style was 32
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Table 3 Number of participants frequencies of
being called upon as a third party intervener
Frequencies of being called to intervene N
Never 2
Sometimes 17
Often 13
Total N 32
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Table 4 Percentage of Intervention Strategy Type
Intervention Strategy Type Percentage ()
Mediate 62.50
Arbitrate 3.13
Both of the above 34.38
None of the above 0.00
Total 100.01
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Qualitative Results

• Themes generated
• Family
• Conflict
• Conflict constructions
• Conflict interventions
• Intervener qualities and characteristics
• Intervening factors

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Discussion

• The traditional constructions of the inner family
  (i.e. three generations) and outer family have
  not structurally changed in urban Chinese
  Malaysians
• Conflict is constructed into positive and
  negative aspects in urban Chinese Malaysians.
  However, a majority of responses indicate that
  conflicts are generally negative (i.e. antecedent
  to harmony, balance and peace relational and
  communication breakdown) consistent with the
  literature
• But the constructions of conflict slightly differ
  from traditional constructions as participants
  highlighted that urban Chinese Malaysian culture
  has been adaptive to the social-historical
  context in Malaysia. Each urban Chinese Malaysian
  generation gain a different social outlook as
  they receive different education systems, legal
  contexts and expositions to other religious
  belief systems
• Conflict constructions influence ideal ways of
  approaching conflict. Majority of responses
  showed that there is no one dominant conflict
  approach, rather approaches to conflict are
  continuously evolving across time and relative
  contexts

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• Approaches to conflict and conflict constructions
  influence the intervention strategy adopted
  accommodate, avoid, collaboration and compromise
  for long term solutions in mediated/arbitrated
  conflicts
• Mediation is the most dominant conflict
  resolution strategy in family conflicts and is
  consistent with the literature to a certain point
• Participants also cite a combination of both
  mediation and arbitration intervention tactics to
  resolve family conflicts. Possible reasons
• To achieve long term harmony and contain the
  escalation, consistent with dominant Confucian
  values on relational cohesion does not
  necessarily mean that justice is served
• Urban Chinese Malaysian family conflicts are very
  difficult to be resolved especially when family
  members appeal to another family member to
  intervene. Theyd rather have on outsider who is
  outside the family to mediate and/or arbitrate in
  order to save face.

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• Mediators and/or arbitrators are expected to have
  desirable social qualities superseding face
  value high status in the social hierarchy good
  character impartial open-minded essential
  connections experiential knowledge language
  skills and a similar Chinese Malaysian
  background rather than of any other Chinese
  national backgrounds.
• Urban Chinese Malaysian mediators/arbitrators
  have to consider the following factors in family
  conflicts
• Context of the conflict what happened? why has
  it occurred? can it be managed internally? what
  is the truth of the matter?
• In sync with traditional cultural notions of
  non-confrontational strategies
• Self-esteem of the family and community in
  conflict
• Personal effect how does this affect me?
• Those factors are said to impact on the
  impartiality of the intervener.

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Limitations

• Self-reporting bias
• CSCM did not take into account what types of
  conflicts can be resolved
• Relatively small sample size (N32) representing
  the urban Chinese Malaysian population
• Sample could be representative of a particular
  social group within the urban Chinese community
• Sample was limited to participants who had online
  access to the WWW.
• Short research time frame

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Implications

• Family conflict resolvers working with urban
  Chinese Malaysian clients need to consider that
  conflict is constructed as negative and that
  social harmony must be preserved in both short
  and long term solutions
• Family conflict resolvers need to consider the
  primacy of privacy in conflict and conduct
  themselves impartially despite their close
  connection with one of the disputants
• Family conflict resolvers need to possess a high
  face value and carry themselves with high
  social status
• Family conflict resolvers can call upon people
  who are socially connected to the disputants to
  assist with the mediation or co-mediate
• Family conflict resolvers in the urban Malaysian
  context need to engage reflectively and fluently
  from their own cultural underpinnings and adapt
  to the cultural norms