Cross-cultural Conflicts and Leadership for Managing Conflict - Essay Example

nment will look briefly at some of the common roots of cross-cultural conflict in global organizations, determine their causes as cited by experts, and consider whether it is possible to mitigate the causes before the conflicts occur. The common roots of cross-cultural conflicts include language differences or misunderstandings in communication, differences of perspectives due to different cultural values and outlooks etc. The way in which messages are communicated is also important as two opposing communication styles can create conflict.

For example, American are usually more blunt or direct in communication, preferring to ‘cut to the chase’ whereas in many Asian cultures people are often less blunt and may be perceived by Americans as ‘beating around the bush’ (Ford, 2001). The unfamiliarity with other cultures also leads to people tending to stereotype “to fill in missing information” (McShane, 2004: 394). Another fundamental cause is the individualist-collectivist divide i.e. both perceive and deal with conflict itself very differently.

Direct confrontational conflicts are less likely to occur in collectivist cultures because group commitment, conformity and harmony are greater priorities than for individualists (Carsten, 2007: 28). However, this does not mean that ‘tensions’ do not exist that can affect individual morale and performance. In terms of perceiving the nature of conflict, the realist conception sees it as competition between individuals and groups over incompatible goals or scarce resources, whilst the constructivist conception puts it down to “divergent perceptions or beliefs about the nature of the situation, the other party or oneself” (Kevin, 2004).

In practice, combinations of the two underlying factors may be at play i.e. ‘mixed motives’. Before taking steps to merge or acquire foreign companies for example, the two cultures must be analysed for compatibility. For single multicultural organization interested in