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ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND CONFLICT

Teams that lack uniformity in their organizational climate have higher levels of task con- flict as well as lower communication quality than teams that establish uniform climate patterns (in which team members share similar perceptions of organizational support).35

GLOBAL CULTURE AND CONFLICT

Differences exist among global cultures about conflict. Compared to East Asians, Americans exhibit an optimistic bias about relationship conflict.36 When it comes to task conflict, both Americans and East Asians believe in addressing conflict proactively, but European Americans don’t think that it is necessary to address relationship conflict to get good performance. Americans are more likely than East Asians to join a talented group that is known to have high relationship conflict.

Linguistic-related challenges in multicultural teams increase the likelihood of relationship conflict.37 For this reason, talking about the conflict actually may do more harm than good. With regard to cultural beliefs, Americans are considered to be largely individualistic as compared to Asians, who are considered to be collectivistic.38 When a norm of collectivism is manipulated (imposed on a group), members with concordant attitudes are evaluated more positively than those with dissenting attitudes; but when a norm of individualism is imposed, dissenters are more highly valued.39

Given the differences in cultural styles of expressing conflict, teams are well served to discuss differences and in some cases, provide training. For example, when Sonu Shivdasani, the CEO of luxury resort chain Soneva, bought a hotel management com- pany in Thailand, he found that the Thai business culture required some adjustments from his Western business norms. Thai people place such importance on respecting authority that Shivdasani’s personal assistant would crouch on her knees when entering his office so that her head would be below his. The CEO offended some of his manag- ers by speaking in a manner perceived as blunt in a culture where raising one’s voice typically leads to greater silence from the listener. So, the company developed its own “Soneva” language of 200–300 words to transcend vast cultural differences. For example, all employees are referred to as “hosts” in order to give them a sense of familial owner- ship. With the new language, traditionally reluctant employees began to speak out more. “In a discussion, even when they are two or three layers below the most senior person, they will be quite happy to make their points, and they’ll feel empowered to make state- ments that may be in disagreement,” Shivdasani said.40

35González-Romá, V., & Hernández, A. (2014). Climate uniformity: Its influence on team communication quality, task conflict, and team performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(6), 1042. 36Sanchez-Burks, J., Neuman, E., Ybarra, O., Kopelman, S., Goh, K., & Park, H. (2008). Cultural folk wisdom about relationship conflict. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 1(1), 55–78. 37Von Glinow, M. A., Shapiro, D. L., & Brett, J. M. (2004). Can we talk, and should we? Managing emotional conflict in multicultural teams. Academy of Management Review, 29(4), 578–592. 38Brett, J. M. (2007). Negotiating globally: How to negotiate deals, resolve disputes, and make decisions across cultural boundaries. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 39Hornsey, M. J., Jetten, J., McAuliffe, B. J., & Hogg, M. A. (2006). The impact of individualist and collectivist group norms on evaluations of dissenting group members. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 57–68. 40From Language can be key to results by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, © The New York Times.

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