Question

How should the “self-reference criterion” be applied by a leader leading a culturally diverse group in resolving conflicts arising within in the group.

Answer 1

answer-

Self reference cirterion can be used to resolve conflicts arising within a group because Leader is the one who needs to lead his people out of conflicts. Under this SRC helps leader to understand the unconcious reference to one’s own culture values in comparison to others cultures in the group. In this context means if Leader is leading a team of people from different culture so they all have different values, norms and behaviors which causes conflicts among them.

Leader can forget about his own values and culture and try to handle the conflicts of each member based on thier own values and culture. This will help leader to get out of his unconsicous culture and widen the scope to solve the issue. He would be able to understand better that what causes the issue of conflict between members and how leader will be able to solve that based on member's own culture.

for example-Leader's own culture holds that telling lies are bad and unethical but another member of group hold that if lie is told to help someone then it is right thing to do. so in this case, leader will not consider his opinion and belief but handle the situation based on member's belief and opinion to resolve conflict.

Self reference criterion is the influence of one’s culture on the behavior in a given situation. When put in a situation people tend to respond in a way that is closely associated with their culture. so leader should ignore what he belives and holds but focus on what members believe and holds and lead by example so that other members can start to understand each other.