Lecture 5

Question 1

What are the ten subgroups of conflict management

Answer 1

• Emotional intellince
• Job satisfaction
• Workplace conflict
  –> have to do with trust
• culture
• task conflict
• relationship conflict
• team performance
• Virtual teams
  –> more aligned with performance

Question 2

What are the three types of conflict?

Answer 2

• Task conflict= conflicts regarding the contents of an employee’s tasks
• Relational conflict= regarding interpersonal difunctionality and team member incompatibility
• Process conflict= Conflicts regarding how a task should be performed

Question 3

What are the levels of conflict?

Answer 3

Interpersonal conflict= any conflict involving two or more people
Intragroup conflict= Conflicts between members within a group
Intergroup conflict= Conflict between members of different groups

Question 4

What did Caputo et al try to do with their Conflict Management research

Answer 4

They did a keyword analysis research on conflict with the keywords: negotiation, mediation, trust, conflict management styles and performance. These were the most looked into concepts in this field

Question 5

How did they define negotiation?

Caputo et al.

Answer 5

a procedure, a strategic means of handling conflict, whereby two or more parties choose what each will offer in a relationship.
Two things needed to be considered:
* Cognitive biases can undermine the information-sharing process.
* The involvement of emotions and power.

Question 6

What did they find on mediation?

Caputo et al.

Answer 6

Mediation is a process by which** a neutral third party - a mediator -** helps people in conflict negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement, and it is the parties to the mediation that control the outcome. Mediation is often necessary for negotiation as disputing parties are often not aware of the predictable patterns of behavior in conflict situations and cannot usually identify options available for resolving differences; as a consequence, the resulting conflict often escalates and requires third-party professional mediators. If negotiations have so far failed, mediation provides an alternative to pursuing litigation or other more formal processes by facilitating communication, promoting understanding, assisting the parties in identifying their needs and interests and using creative problem-solving techniques to enable them to reach their agreement.

Question 7

What did they find on trust?

Caputo et al.

Answer 7

Trust is essential to initiate, establish, and maintain social relationships, encourages the initiation of cooperation, results in greater relationship commitment and satisfaction, facilitates the flourishing of groups and nations, and promotes the stability and quality of social networks.

Question 8

What were the findings on performance?

Caputo et al.

Answer 8

“Performance” incorporates innovation, social capital, governance, personality, and management effectiveness.

Question 9

What were the 5 conflict management styles identified byCaputo et al?

Answer 9

These were established based on the level of concern for the self and for the other
Integrating: Involves extensive problem-solving by means of of examination of differences to come to a solution. (high concern for the self and the other)
Obliging: focusing on common goals and ideas and reducing differences to come to a conclusion. (low concern for the self and high for the other)
Dominating: forcing a ‘solution’ upon the other (high concern for the self, low for the other)
Avoiding: not taking action to resolve conflict. (low concern for the self and low for the other)
Compromising: Both parties give something up for a mutually acceptable term. (medium concern for the self and the other)

Question 10

What is cultural conflict?

Answer 10

a process in which one party experiences that its interests are negatively by another party due to cultural differences.
Emotional intelligence is important – the ability to recognize, use and
handle emotions (Wong and Law, 2002).

Question 11

What are the outcomes of cultural conflict at different levels?

Answer 11

Individual level:
* a decrease in performance
* a decrease in leader effectiveness Organizational level:
* success level of joint ventures
* effectiveness of retail networks
* innovation
* new product performance

Question 12

What were the most important topics within conflict management studies?

Answer 12

• Relationships between employees and managers
   Female-male relationships
   Ties between individuals and groups
   The way people reflect emotions and social conflicts, express
  aggression, and handle risk
   Hofstede, Trompenaars, Hall, GLOBE Study
   Cross-cultural context – replaced the ‘one best approach

Question 13

What is the way people manage conflict largely determined by?

Answer 13

• Personality traits
• Demographics

Question 14

Individualism vs. collectivism: which conflict management styles are most appropriate for which?

Answer 14

Collectivists are mainly integrating but can also be avoiding, compromising or obliging (accomodating)
Individualistic societies are mainly dominating

Question 15

high vs. low uncertainty avoidance: which conflict management styles are most appropriate for which?

Answer 15

High uncertainty avoidance: obliging, avoiding, compromising and integrating
Low uncertainty avoidance: dominating

conflicting results between two studies

Question 16

long vs. short-term: which conflict management styles are most appropriate for which?

Answer 16

Long-term orientation: compromsing, integrating, obliging but heavily avoiding
Short-term orientation: dominating

Question 17

Power distance: which conflict management styles are most appropriate for which?

Answer 17

low power distance: compromising, obliging and integrating
High power distance: avoiding and dominating

Two studies w/ conflicting results

Question 18

Masculinity vs. feminity: which conflict management styles are most appropriate for which?

Answer 18

Masculine: dominating
Feminine: obliging, compromising, integrating, avoiding

Question 19

What can HR departments do to mitigate conflict within an organization?

Answer 19

• Promoting open communication
• Demonstrating concern for the employee
• Promote trust in managers and organizational citizenship
• Building an environment which motivates learning (personal mastery, shared learning etc)
• Enforcing a knowledge based view

Question 20

What did the study by Jassawalla et al. aim to do?

Answer 20

The aim of the article was to investigate the role of interpersonal conflict arising from cultural differences in the workplace as a key factor affecting the success of expatriate managers during overseas assignments.

Question 21

How was the study by Jassawalla et al. conducted?

Answer 21

The research was conducted through in-depth interviews with eight former expatriates from multinational companies, focusing on their overseas assignments, key challenges faced, cultural differences encountered, personal strengths utilized, training received, and recommendations for future expatriate preparation.

Question 22

What were the key findings from the study by Jassawalla et al?

Answer 22

1. Interpersonal conflict as a result of cultural differences was a signficant challenge for expats.
2. Causes of conflicts were things such as different time perceptions, urgency and work ethic among different cultures
3. Despite literature recommending training for expatriates, this is barely done
4. Recommendations for improving expatriate success included selecting managers with high emotional intelligence, providing extensive pre-departure cultural training, and familiarizing expatriates with host culture and workplace norms before their assignments.

Question 23

What were the implications for future expats found in the study by Jassawalla et al?

Answer 23

• managers with high emotional intelligence should be chosen for expatriates
• Expats should be provided extensive pre-departure cultural training that includes interpersonal skills such as active listening, conflict management, and ethical reasoning.
• it is important to send expatriates on pre-sojourn visits to adapt to host culture before their official assignment
• Training host-country workers, especially those closely working with expatriate managers, on home country cultural beliefs and workplace norms to facilitate better collaboration