Intercultural Conflict Training: Theory-Practice Approaches and Research Challenges

Intercultural conflict training is a fertile ground to test the pragmatic implications of particular intercultural conflict theories. Thus, the objective of this article is twofold: First, to review major theory-practice approaches in intercultural conflict training. The intercultural conflict approaches that will be reviewed are: the conflict face-negotiation theory (Ting-Toomey, 1988 Ting-Toomey, S. 1988. “Intercultural conflicts: A face-negotiation theory”. In Theories in intercultural communication, Edited by: Kim, YY and Gudykunst, W. 213–235. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. [Google Scholar], 2004), the S.A.F.E. model (Hammer, 1997 Hammer, MR. 1997. “Negotiating across the cultural divide: Intercultural dynamics in crisis incidents”. In Dynamic processes of crisis negotiations: Theory, research and practice, Edited by: Rogan, RG, Hammer, MR and Van Zandt, CR. 105–114. Westport, CT: Praeger Press. [Google Scholar]; Hammer & Rogan, 1997), and the A.E.I.O.U. collaborative negotiation model (Raider, Coleman, & Gerson, 2006). Second, drawing from these intercultural conflict theory-applied perspectives, specific research directions and challenges are identified and discussed. A call for collaborative teamwork between intercultural conflict theorists and practitioners is advanced and that with cooperative professional intelligence, the messiness of culture-based conflict can be systematically understood and explained.