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

1. Conflict Constructions and Conflict Management in Families: The Case of Urban Chinese Malaysians By Aaron J. K. Chong Master of Conflict Management Student 2007

2. 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

3. 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 mediator’s ‘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

4. ‘Family’ constructions in traditional Chinese culture • A cohesive group consisting of several generations (Goh, 2002) • The ‘human body’ analogy (adapted from Hwang’s 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

5. 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?

6. 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

7. Research Questions • What are the dominant constructs and values in relation to family conflicts as constructed by urban Chinese Malaysians? • 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? • What is the dominant informal conflict management third party approach (e.g. arbitration or mediation or mediation/arbitration) used in urban Chinese Malaysian culture? • What are the dominant contemporary social characteristics of a Chinese Malaysian family mediator or arbitrator in the Chinese Malaysian community? • What are the important elements to be considered by a mediator or arbitrator when managing conflicts involving urban Chinese Malaysians and their families?

8. 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)

9. 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*

10. 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?”

11. 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

12. 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

13. Quantitative Results Table 1: Percentage of Chinese Malaysians’ view of conflict

14. Table 2: Frequency of Chinese Malaysians’ particular family conflict management style *Total frequency for each conflict management style was 32

15. Table 3: Number of participants’ frequencies of being called upon as a third party intervener

16. Table 4: Percentage of Intervention Strategy Type

17. Qualitative Results • Themes generated: • Family • Conflict • Conflict constructions • Conflict interventions • Intervener qualities and characteristics • Intervening factors

23. 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

24. 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. They’d rather have on outsider who is outside the family to mediate and/or arbitrate in order to save ‘face’.

25. 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.

26. Limitations • Self-reporting bias • CSCM did not take into account what ‘types’ of conflicts can be resolved • Relatively small sample size (N=32) 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

27. 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