Cross-Cultural Conflict and Its Resolution

In Lesson 6, we learned Cultural Synergy. According to this lesson, I understood that cross-cultural conflicts are inevitable because members from different cultures must have different viewpoints or compete resources (“Cross-Cultural Conflict and Its Resolution,” 2020). This is the other side of intercultural teams. On such occasions, it is important for leaders to deal with cross-cultural conflicts properly.

The lesson indicates that leaders should utilize different conflict solution styles. This is because using one style in all cultures may reduce the conflicts in one culture but increase the problems in another culture (“Cross-Cultural Conflict and Its Resolution,” 2020). The typical example mentioned by the lesson – “saving face” is quite familiar to me. Growing up in Chinese culture, a typical collectivism culture, I am quite familiar with conventions, norms, and behavioral patterns rooted in “saving face”. For example, many Chinese followers avoid directly point out the mistakes of their leaders because they do not dare to hurt the “face” of their leaders. In the eyes of collectivists, this is an unwritten rule in the workplace. However, in the eyes of individualists, this behavior could not solve the problem and weak. This reminds me of the price of “saving face”. When I was an intern in an advertising agency, my leader was from Hong Kong, where is deeply influenced by western culture. Hence, the remaining team members have cross-cultural conflicts with the leader, even though we were all Chinese. Once at a time, a director found a fatal mistake of the leader’s decision, which was out of the leader’s misunderstanding of Chinese culture. It was the responsibility for the director to assist the leader to accomplish that project so he was expected to remedy the leader’s weakness in cultural understanding. However, to prove his obedience to the new leader and avoid hurting his face, the director chose not to point out that mistake. Eventually, the mistake was pointed out by the boss, who seriously blamed both the Hong Kong leader and the director. In the eyes of the boss, the team performs poorly because of the lack of cohesion and profession. It can be seen that the cultural conflict affects team performance and team climate.

Moreover, the lesson indicates that a global leader should create synergy of course to solve cross-cultural conflicts. Even though such conflicts are inevitable, a global leader still should create a process that encourages teamwork, provide resources to encourage strong communication, and allow for open discussion of ideas (“Cross-Cultural Conflict and Its Resolution,” 2020). Creating synergies as a way to resolve conflicts can be achieved through the mechanism we discussed earlier: creating a team that sees only one goal, albeit from a different perspective (“Cross-Cultural Conflict and Its Resolution,” 2020). It can be seen that communication plays an important role in creating synergy. As mentioned above, differences in values, beliefs, work habits, language, and religion are the root causes of cross-cultural conflicts. On such occasions, these obstacles also hinder the effective communication within intercultural teams. To effectively tackle this problem, synergy is to propel team members to openly communication. The more members communicate, the more they can understand each other. Before they communicate openly with colleagues, they may judge their colleagues based on stereotypes. After they communicate openly with colleagues, they will judge their colleagues based on their individual characteristics instead of group stereotypes. This is consistent with the action taken by my boss, who noticed that my team lacked cohesion. After he pointed out the mistake of the Hong Kong leader, he created opportunities for our team to communicate. For example, he held regular meetings and encourage all members to share our ideas, including interns like me. Moreover, he conducted entertaining activities to make us communicate in an exciting atmosphere.

Apart from that, the lesson also indicates that not all conflicts are bad because sometimes conflicts can help generate new ideas. However, conflicts can work positively only when leaders and organizations harbor an open attitude toward new ideas (“Cross-Cultural Conflict and Its Resolution,” 2020). I understand this viewpoint. Globalization is an increasingly common phenomenon in today’s business world. Thanks to globalization, organizations can hire talented employees from different cultures. A new era of diversity management is coming. Globalization has changed society, economy and politics, greatly affecting workplace demography. Now employees not only more diverse, 40% of the total number of workers to the United States in 2009 ethnic minorities include Barack Obama (Barack Obama), Angela Merkel (Angela Merkel), Nicolas Sarkozy (Nicolas Sarkozy), Alan Johnson (Ellen Johnson sirleaf) such as head of state, great changes have taken place in their leadership concept (Johnson, 2011). A multicultural global workforce symbolizes a new way of thinking about diversity and inclusion (Johnson, 2011). Correspondingly, cultural diversity can increase the overall diversity of such organizations. As a result, it is more possible for such organizations to generate diverse ideas. A premise of generating new ideas in this context is inclusion. It means that all employees, instead of a part of employees, are encouraged to express their ideas. On such occasions, new ideas can be created by cultural diversity.

 

 

 

References

Cross-Cultural Conflict and Its Resolution. (2020). https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075490/modules/items/29697182

Johnson, S. (2011). What globalization means for diversity and inclusion efforts. Diversity Journal. https://diversityjournal.com/4919-what-globalization-means-for-diversity-and-inclusion-efforts/