Page 134 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

112 Nathalie van Meurs and Helen Spencer-Oatey

restrained), and Dynamic Style (indirect and emotionally expressive) (cf. Kott-
hoff in this volume, on communication style). Hammer has developed an Inter-
cultural Conflict Styles Inventory [ICSI] in relation to this, and has used it,
along with his four-quadrant model, in a variety of applied contexts. He reports
that it has been of practical benefit in his mediation sessions.

In one mediation I conducted, both parties completed the ICSI prior to the initial
mediation session. After reviewing the mediation process with the parties, I then re-
viewed with them their ICSs. One of the disputants–’ style was ‘engagement’ while
the other was ‘accommodation.’ A large part of the conflict between these individ-
uals had involved misperceptions each held of one another, based on differences in
intercultural conflict resolution style. For example, the accommodation style indi-
vidual felt the other party was ‘rude and aggressive’ while the engagement individ-
ual characterized the accommodation style person as deceptive and lacking in com-
mitment. After discussing these misperceptions in terms of differences in conflict
resolution styles (rather than personal traits), the disputants were better able to ad-
dress their substantive disagreements.
Hammer 2005: 691–2

However, one very major weakness of virtually all the research into the role of
communication in conflict processes that is carried out in management, cross-
cultural psychology and communication studies is that it is nearly always based
on self-report data, using Likert-style responses to questionnaire items. There is
a very great need for discourse-based research, of the kind reported in the next
section.

5.2. Conflict and discourse research
One very significant contribution that applied linguistics can make to our under-
standing of conflict processes is the identification of the types of linguistic tac-
tics that people may use to implement the conflict management styles that Tho-
mas (1976) identified. For example, how may people avoid conflict? What
insights does applied linguistic research offer on this question? Most linguistic
research does not attempt to draw any explicit links with frameworks in busi-
ness and communication studies, but an exception is Holmes and Marra (2004).
Using their New Zealand workplace data (see Marra and Holmes in this vol-
ume), these researchers explored the role that leaders may play in managing
conflict in meetings. They argue that the effective management of conflict be-
gins well before any actual conflictual episodes occur, and demonstrate how ‘as-
sertion of the agenda’ is one effective technique that skillful leaders use to avoid
conflict. They provide several examples of actual discourse to illustrate ways in
which chairpersons achieve this, including moving talk on to the next agenda
item, and directing people’s attention back to a key point, when disparate views
begin to be expressed. They also identify a second tactic that could be regarded