El análisis de incidentes críticos como método de estudio de los conflictos interculturales

at this moment economic globalization and the increase of inequal distribution of resources in the society, provoke the speed up of the evolution and change of the migration flows that shape modern society. the study presented stands out the validity of the critical incident method -cim (flanagan, 1954, cohen-emerique, 1999; arthur, 2001) as a study tool of structural elements of intercultural conflicts. this method allows in depth knowledge of cultures that interact to facilitate the acquisition of cultural competence (maya-jariego, 2002). a total of 95 critical incidents collected in two different formation contexts were analized. the results point to the importance of certain areas of cultural friction as triggers of conflict. the most important areas of cultural friction have been: a) the intercultural communication barriers (gudykunst & nishida, 2001; gudykunst, nishida & chua, 1986), b) gender roles (best, 2001; best & williams, 2001), c) the expression of magical-religious precepts in public and d) the influence of prejudice and stereotypes (leyens, yzerbit & schandron, 1994) in the genesis and outcome of the conflict. finally, some learnt lessons about study of intercultural conflicts are exposed.