Situational and Relational Boundary Features
The culture-sensitive situational model also emphasizes the importance of understanding the expectancy features of each communication domain such as school/university, organizational/business, community or neighborhood, family or intimate relationship domain.
For example, three of the possible factors that moderate the activation of an independent versus an interdependent self in a conflict communication episode can include a situational appraisal process, a relationship appraisal process, and an interactional appraisal analysis.A situational appraisal process can include an assessment of the degree of formality of the conflict negotiation setting, the perceived mood/climate of the situation, and the placement or arrangement of seatings and spatial/ architectural layouts. A relationship appraisal process can include an assessment of the role expectancies and role relationship between the participants, in-group-out-group distance features, salient cultural/ethnic identity issues, gender and other personal identity emphases, and degrees of familiarity, intimacy, vertical- ity, and trust issues (Ting-Toomey & Takai, 2006). An interactional appraisal analysis includes anticipated rewards/costs and alternative conflict options’ assessment, the conflict interaction channel or mediation mode, the conflict resolution agenda-setting plan, and the interpretation of various conflict goals from all parties.
In sum, the intersections between situational settings and the perceived framing of the conflict as an in-group versus outgroup conflict episode, the assumed horizontal versus vertical role status, the perceived degree of relational interdependence and systems’ power dynamics can either exacerbate the ongoing conflict situation or facilitate productive intergroup dialogue. All these interpretive and complex situational features frame how conflict opponents approach and engage in the actual conflict communication process.