Managing Conflicts across Cultures - Research Paper Example

? Managing Conflicts across Cultures Introduction According to Hofstede’s famous research, the culture is the collection of guiding principles for human mind, to make certain decisions encompassing personal and professional life of a person (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005) therefore, it has a significant impact on the methodologies; he or she adopts to perform a job. A same job with similar description could be performed differently, in various cultures across the number of borders, for instance an advertisement that is acceptable in one setting, could lead to public rage in another (Pitta, Fung, & Isberg, 1999). According to the findings of a distinctive study conducted on the relevant topic, the workforce of the organization should be managed with respect to the norms and beliefs of the country, in which the organization is operating. The international HRM practices are the focal point of research community for a considerable period of time. Tayeb, (2001) notes that the social scientists engaged in studying management styles in various cultures could not subtract their emotions from their respective work, due to this reason their findings are not impartial. The employees are found to stand apart from adopting various methods of operating, which appears foreign to them (Kirkman & Shapiro), so the global enterprises have to select those people, who are not rigidly committed, to their indigineous ways of performing organizational tasks and readily willing to embrace new norms of doing the routine work. There is a significant positive link discovered, amongst the companies’ norms and these of overall domestic nuture across various nations on the globe (Verburg, Drenth, Koopman, Muijen, & Wang, 1999). Conflict Management Strategies The term team could be referred as an entity containing individuals, these individuals compensate for the weaknesses of each other and support each others’ strengths to achieve a common goal, often these formal groups are lead by an inidividual entitle as team leader (Sasou & Reason, 1998). Forming a team could take several years. During teamwork every individual has a distinctive task to perform, therefore when one or more teammembers are absent, they will be missed by other in the team, usuaally members of these teams are crossfunctionally trained to take up the role of others when needed common instances are football, basketball and baseball teams. The conflict of interesr could also arise within teams, often when the members constituting, an entity mentioned above have diverging objectives or goals from those of the entity. So the researchers identified the following strategies to manage the clash amongst the team members Arbitration through Openness This method revolves around frankness and low power distance among the levels of command within the organization (Rahim & Psenicka, 2002), so the individuals in conflict are given all means to rectify the undesirable condition and the top management does not interfere with the situation, but it plays the role of facilitator at most. This type of arbitration is ideally suitable for the cultures where power distance is low and sense of professionaism is at its best. Arbitration through Similarities This way is offshoot of the previous one, but in this case the team lead, is somewhat active in pointing out the similarities both parties have in common (Rahim & Psenicka, 2002),, thus attempt to ease the tension. Thus it is all about making the conflicting parties see each other viewpoint and practice empathy. Arbitration through Authority This method involves, leader utilizing organizational authority vested in him or her, to resolve the issue (Rahim & Psenicka, 2002), but in this modern era, this approach is discouraged, because in the long run it results in job stress and low level of organizational and job commitment among the suppressed ones. Non interference It is not a method of resolution, but it is best described as let the problems solve themselves (Rahim & Psenicka, 2002), it is the most passive approach and responsible for creating more difficulties, than it solves, because in this way management turns a blind eye towards the conflict and does not act in the direction of the solution, therefore, the hatred associated with the conflict keeps on growing and results in increased friction within the team, at the end the team cannot function at all. This strategy is ill advised in all settings. Flexibility By deploying this framework, the manager attempts to hammer out a solution via flexibility and calling for some sacrifices from both the parties to resolve the conflict (Rahim & Psenicka, 2002). This method is suitable in majority of the conditions, because it results in prevailing regret, due to the loss, both the parties suffer, to end the quarrel, thus prevents future mishaps Now on this paper focuses on the organization that is Southwest Airlines, whose conflict management, this research effort wants to reveal Southwest Airlines Profile This organization is rated among the most accomplished airlines of the world, because of its great performance in the most challenging airplane industry, for the past two decades. This company changed the norms of the entire industry and the copycats failed miserably in replicating the practices of this successful enterprise (Gittell). The mission of Southwest Airlines is “Dedication to highest quality of customer service delivered with the sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and company spirit” (Southwest Airlines) The Airline under concern possesses the flight volume of 3,200 per day and it has the total workforce of 32,000 employees worldwide. It is doing viable business activity continually for 31 years (Gittell). The success of this famous airline is embedded in its workplace environment where there is mutual respect and the mechanism of trust and friendship among the employees at different levels both horizontally and vertically. These people are more like friends then professionals during their work, they spontaneously share information with each other, therefore product and service innovation is swift and frequent. Employees are enjoying their work and it is evident from the performance record of the company, that they have the best executed practices in airline industry, which could be possible without their retained human capital. Another aspect of this esteemed business is the ever growing tendency of its employees to learn and share their learning with their colleagues, thus supporting each other to become better and beneficial assets for the company (Gittell). The strategies applied to manage conflict is this company are as follows Conflict Management at Southwest Airlines Conflict management is used to strengthen ties among the employees and whenever there is a conflict among colleagues, they are given ample amount of time to resolve it by themselves and in the majority of the cases it works,( in a manner of mentioning they deploy non-interference for the time being) but if it does not, then the officials interfere and facilitate the interaction among the conflicting parties, where they put forth their complains and a potential solution to a problem at hand, then they are given the time to reflect over the issue for a few hours in separation, it is clear that, the company now applies arbitration through openness, if the undesirable condition prevail, then both parties are called to the day long one to one meeting, where they discuss the issue and often manage to resolve it, thus at all times during the conflict the concentration is kept on employees (Gittell). According to officials this exercise served them well and results in transforming the conflict management into friendship management. In the global setting this practice is as effective as in the domestic settings, due to its universal application (with some minor modifications according to the personalities of the parties involved), it is applicable instantly. There is a embedded lesson for management students, researchers and practitioners, that is the power of communication, in the previously described process, both the parties were encouraged to speak their mind, by doing so the confusions were abolished, along with the misconceptions, after that the conflict resolution is not hindered and it become smooth and soon after people were willing to compromise, but if they at any stage quitted talking, the conflict could not be resolved any time soon. Conclusion Conflict management is apparently a very painful process, because it hinders the swift execution of the business processes, that keep the commerce going, but if the organization is plagued with conflicts, then the road to liquidation is shorter than management perceives, so it is in the best interest of company, that its management proactively seek out the potential and existing conflicts and devise a method to deal with them. Most of the managers think, that there is no conflict, because it is not visible, it is a fool’s echo, because if oneself is believing that everything is right, then definitely something is wrong, because he or she is overlooking something. Another point, that is worth mentioning is the tendency of conflict to assist in the growth of the business, because when two people or groups engage in conflict at least one of them is challenging the thoughts and actions of other, therefore the challenged has to defend his or her position through logical reasoning and if he or she succeeds, the challenger would possibly become a supporter of the idea, on the other hand if the challenged party was not on the solid cognitive ground, then he or she must be forced to reconsider their position, before further action. The conflict management strategies with flexibility should always given priority, because if the conflicting entities enjoy the freedom of resolving the issue by themselves, they are likely to be committed to uphold the solution, because they cannot blame anyone else if things go wrong. As this research effort emphasizes, that the conflict management is actually, the source of creating synergies, because when people interact, with each other, they are supposed to identify similarities within them and could grow their relation upon these traits as well. Sometimes, this process could be very time consuming, so it is the responsibility of the management to exercise emotional control and patience, but there are occasions when even patience and time could not change the reality, then the management should realize the fact, that some people are not compatible. In management sciences we are not in the pursuit of perfection, but we are interested in excellence, so it is human to fail. Conflict managers should bear this in mind, that people have a freedom of choice and they could refuse to follow these dispute settling practices, then the management should opt for a use of firmer hand to keep things going, especially in the case of under developed countries, where the sense of duty, ethics and professionalism are considered somewhat irrelevant. In this kind of setting the financial penalty is much more appropriate, rather than an educated approach. The impact of culture cannot be ignored at this stage, because in some settings the prolong and civilized way of settling issues could be viewed as the sign of weak decision power on the behalf of top management, so it is sensible to use some force to expedite the procedure. The practices to diffuse a conflict at Southwest Airlines are a wonderful mixture of communication, patience, the concept of self management and autonomy. People in that organization are friends rather than wrapped in professional relations, and that is why their teamwork is assisting them to maintain top position in the industry plagued with uncertainty and risks. It could be taken as a testimony in the favor that HRM is all about heart then mind. These management techniques appeal to the emotional side of the person. It is the fundamental trait humans’ psychology, that whenever they are trusted upon and bestowed with freedom, they become thankful, grateful and obedient. That is the marked difference, between humans and animals, the latter group is controlled by restraints of chains and ropes, on the other hand, former are restricted with the help of love and affection. It is clear, from the above discussion that, if employees are treated with cruelty and injustice, they will become obedient, but for a time period, until they could switch the job, so it is imperative for management practitioners to respect their employees, share goal and knowledge with them to build long lasting relations. Works Cited Gittell, J. The Southwest Airlines Way Using the Power of Relationsips to Acheive High performance. Summaries.com. Hofstede, G., & Hofstede, G. (2005). Cultures and Organizations Software of the Mind. New York: Mcgraw Hill. Kirkman, B., & Shapiro, D. (n.d.). The Impact of Cultural Values on Job Satisfaction And Organizational Commitment in Self Managing Work Teams: The Mediating Role of Employee Resistance . In Press - Academy of Management Journal . Pitta, D., Fung, H.-G., & Isberg, S. (1999). Ethical issues across cultures: managing the differing perspectives of China and the USA. Journal of Consumer Marketing , 240-256. Rahim, A., & Psenicka, C. (2002). A Model of Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management Strategies: A Study in Seven Countries . The International Journal of Organizational Analysis , 302-326. Sasou, K., & Reason, J. (1998). Team errors: definition and taxonomy. Reliability Engineering and System Safety , 1-8. Southwest Airlines. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2012, from http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/index.html: http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/index.html Tayeb, M. (2001). Conducting Research Across Cultures: Overcoming Drawbacks and Obstacles. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management , 91-108. Verburg, R., Drenth, P., Koopman, P., Muijen, J., & Wang, Z.-M. (1999). Managing human resources across cultures: a comparative analysis of practices in industrial enterprises in China and The Netherlands. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 391-410. Read More