Mediation well suited in the Asian culture

Mediation is about encouraging understanding and building consensus. Towards this end, it would seem the Asian culture is most suited for such a dispute resolution process. Think about it. In the Asian culture:

a. We think more in terms of relationships than contracts. Who do we engage for specific works? People with whom we have a relationship. How do we engage them? We trust them, based on the existing relationship. How do we collect overdue payment? We buy them a meal, and build more relationship. In other words, the Asian culture is all about relationships, inter-personal skills, invested over the long term. Rarely do we think in terms of a black-and-white written document. Mediation too, is a promotion of relationships, and many times that holds the key to resolve conflicts where a contractual breach has clearly happened.

b. We think generally and not specifically. What time do we meet? Dinner time (not 7.15 pm). What do we tell the service provider? Hey, settle this for us (not a list of obligations and standards). Of course, the generality of our instructions could very well be the problem that leads to the dispute, but it may also be the general idea of what's important to us (as opposed to specific dos, don'ts and hows) that may lead to an easier resolution.

c. We are hierarchical, which means agreements once reached at the decision-maker's level is unlikely to be challenged, jeopardised or sabotaged in any way. The top down nature of society means only very few people need to be consulted in the decision-making and dispute-resolution process.

d. We all have a need to "save face". Saving face means having a bottomline under which we would not go (contributing to the solution being more realistic), as well as not pushing our way beyond a certain limit, leaving an open door for the other side to step down. Because we all understand the need to save face, there is less likelihood to insist on our strict rights all the way. And not insisting on one's strict rights is clearly a good step towards dispute-resolution.

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