Conflict Management Starts with Self
<1609 words> Recipe for Conflict A minimum of two people and an issue on which they disagree. Add to the recipe the factors that the people each bring into the relationship: Values, Culture & Triggers Our values are what we judge to be important in life: our personal principles. The rules we live by. They […]
RESPECT & CURIOSITY: On Elephants and Others
<1281 words> I have a great deal of respect for wild elephants and am careful to show that respect by backing out of their way when they come walking down the road towards my car. I believe I’ve learned a thing or two about elephant culture in my multiple trips to various game reserves across Africa […]
Syrian Refugees: Who Helps the Helpers?
<1160 words> The harsh truth about helping Canada’s Syrian refugees is with us now. The state of their kids’ teeth, our inability to communicate in Arabic, and all that. I’m sure there are many misunderstandings that have the potential to gnaw at the goodwill cloud that swept the Canadian nation when first our new PM […]
Response to Fear: Fascism or Openness?
<932 words> I read Kathy Jourdain’s new blog this morning on her blog page and ended up writing such a long response that it turned into the blog below. She starts out with: “Be afraid. Be very afraid. But not for the reasons you might think. We are living in precipitous times. We are in danger […]
Fairness is simple. Bring culture into it and bedevil everything.
The way of breaking through cultural barriers to fairness is to return to our human origins. Fairness is the default position; culture is the way in which we express and judge it. The more culturally divergent a workplace is the less likely it is we’d have consensus on what constitutes ‘fairness’.
This paper explores Brown’s human fundamentals via Pinker; Frans de Waal’s research on the moral behaviour of animals; and then human culture via Hofstede, with a view of stimulating HR to look at how they ‘do’ fairness differently. What is being done currently doesn’t quite meet the human standard of fairness.
And so, how does one set that standard? The answers are in your approach and your level of cultural competence.
Some ideas are offfered on how fairness might be viewed and enacted differently – if someone has the curiosity and courage to do it.