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INTERCULTURAL CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN A WORKPLACE 1

Intercultural Conflict Management in a Workplace

Prepared by Syamsree Gannamani

Date: 08/02/20

New England College

INTERCULTURAL CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN A WORKPLACE 9

Abstract

The increase of culture in organizations has led to the consideration of conflict management. However, several studies have evaluated these concepts. These writings aim to examine intercultural conflict management in the workplace. Conflict management is supposed to be concentrated with continuous transformation. This can lead to discomfort and disturbance from workplace, associations, employee's effectiveness as well as innovativeness and productivity.

Keywords: conflict management, workplace, intercultural conflict

Introduction

Normally conflict involves part of being human and therefore it is a persistent aspect of intercultural conflict in the workplace. And when individuals from various cultures are involved in a conflict, they usually have numerous expectations on ways through which conflict is supposed to be managed and especially in the workplace (Prause, 2015). The fundamental norms as well as standards of a culture usually frame conflict beliefs. There is an increasing nature of cultural diversity in organization and it is a challenge that has faced most managers. Since time immemorial the idea of intercultural conflict management has acquired a lot of attention through theoretical studies as well as in the management practice. Since intercultural is a very intricate matter it has become very difficult to managers of today due to the increasing nature of cultural diversity in the workplace.

With increased fast technology development, economic globalization, and the rise of cultural diversity as well as social mobility at the workplace. The intercultural conflict has been known as a significant feature of modern management. Regardless of the negative impact of intercultural, it can gain productive results it well managed for instance improved effective work completion, improved relationships, improved inventive solving of problems, and innovation. Intercultural workforce became a reality as a result of the cross-cultural conflict; business globalization has initiated more attention in a modern workplace domestically and also globally.

The increase of cultural diversity in the various setting has called for abilities to adjust to the unfamiliar surroundings and to acquire knowledge of how to work as well as live effectively with individuals from various cultural backgrounds. Grounded on the significance of being effective when managing conflict and sensitivity to intercultural differences most businesses have encouraged numerous training programs that will increase the management of intercultural conflict in the workplace which targets to reduce stress, enhance relationships as well as improve job performance.

Definition of culture

Culture can be explained as a shared set of conducts, standards, attitudes, morals, and social structure which is used for outlining certainty and guide daily interactions. This explanation suggests that culture is a characteristic of a group as well as anticipates the fact that there are numerous differences in a group within various teams. Some studies usually relate culture with a national team, although, culture involves ethnic teams, tribes, companies as well as tribes. Groups in the organizations also have some beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes which establish a unique culture.

Even if there are several similarities within cultures, it is vital not to limit a real difference which is in effect. An important tool for evaluating the cultures of various teams is the bell curve. Most of the group culture could confirm the dominant set of principles, behaviors, and attitudes, although there might be members belonging to the cultural team which varies in important ways from the norm.

Workplace conflict

Since we are aware that conflict is an essential social perception, we can consider the case of workplace conflict. Conflict is probably one of the most workplace phenomena. Some studies have suggested that theories of workplace that fail to acknowledge conflict offer poor guidance when solving problems of workplace competence, stability, transformation, and governance for conflict in an organization. In some instances, unmanaged conflict in the workplace can lead to behavior like job resignation, physical withdrawal violence, and also aggression. Communication can be considered as both a therapy and also cause of conflict. Most often people communicate within an organization and they should understand how to communicate effectively as well as ways of solving disputes and this will lead to a more productive workplace. Conflict management and communication skills should be learned and styles for poor communication and conflict management should be modified with methods that are favorable to generate peace in the workplace. The setting of a workplace is fertile refinement ground for conflicts due to the dynamics of the consumer to the employee, and also employee to employee. Acknowledging as well as managing the factors that increase the prospects for conflict could have an optimistic effect on the workplace as well as the production in the workplace. Some studies have shown that most managers usually apply the ostrich method to manage conflict. This is where managers bury their heads in the sand and ignore. This never changes the situation. Once the conflict is taken underground, it will just develop and remain underground up to when it is very intense and the next step will be an explosion.

Intercultural Conflict

Intercultural can create conflict in the company as a result of different perspectives, beliefs, fear, and norms. However, if the intercultural workforce is properly managed and coordinated, it is guaranteed that different cultures can offer an added value and a competitive benefit to the organizations. We are supposed to be aware of challenges result from intercultural and dimensions as the main source of the industry.

Intercultural affects leaders and subordinates and affects the way an organization is managed. The organization of intercultural is becoming an important issue for organizations of all sizes, not just internationals. Challenges might arise led by cultural ignorance or tactlessness. Among the benefits of intercultural it the companies are: new attitude, improved productivity, new procedures, new language skills, worldwide understanding, and new tactics to solve challenging issues. This strategy in the organizations results in innovation and competitiveness which results is what every company requires.

Managing intercultural conflict

Leaders can manage workplace intercultural conflict by developing an organizational culture intended to prevent as much as possible and by dealing aptly and fairly with conflicts that employees fail to solve by themselves. Some studies try to prove that even if the conflict is normally referred to as having a negative impact in the workplace, a degree of aptly managed conflict can be of advantage to the organization (Lu, 2017). If the management has mechanisms in action to handle conflict as it develops, workers will usually see their organization as fair when dealing with them and will probably be more comfortable with their jobs. Less conflict can result in improved employee activity, self-motivated, and loyalty as well as a few compensation cases.

Unresolved conflicts might lead to the emotional stress towards the employees hence diverting their attention from the company's mission. If leaders fail to react, the conflict will develop into bigger issues, hence the organization's reputation might be harmed, leaders are supposed to control the developing trends of rudeness and bullying in the workplace. Leaders are supposed to such types of power conflicts extremely and to solve them proactively.

The human resource manager must develop and put in action workplace conflict strategies and procedures as well as developing and handling conflict resolving platforms. In most cases, the human resource manager does not notice workplace conflict until the issue worsened. They should be made aware of any conflict in the organization before they turn in to bigger issues, and the managers should respond as the human resource personnel alerts. HR should always be noticed about any issue of workplace conflicts, for instance, issues of harassment, illegal activities, and insight or other issues that may result in lawsuits or involvement of law prosecution.

Diversity

Diversity has several challenges if not well managed; the main challenge is conflict within the company, the benefits that diversity brings to the organizations outweigh the potential challenges. This is the reason why diversity is a good thing to have in the workplace. Innovation, a positive influence of cultural diversity in the organization is that workers from different cultures mostly have various methods of thinking and may thus examine an issue at hand from different perceptions. This can only be achieved when an issue is analyzed by employees who belong to a different culture. Workers from different cultures have different experiences, and this is beneficial to the company by offering the organization with a sound and wide skill base. It is easier to overcome cultural differences when working with a culturally diverse team.

Diversity facilitates the expansion of a company's perceptions, advances in the marketing plan, development of new operations, the invention of new concepts, approach, evaluation of the emerging trends, and strategic tactics. Also, intercultural facilitates a company to shift its enterprise form the brick and mortar office into the cloud market.

The Association between Intercultural Conflict Management and Innovativeness

When dealing with innovativeness, we express facts-based discussion which leads to creativity. The experiences are organized and unspoken. Organized knowledge is converted to data that can be transmitted by data structures. However, it is a bit challenging to transmit tacit knowledge since it has not been put in a clear data form. Though, to change and transfer tacit knowledge, as it is always in the form of unknown knowledge like shared beliefs and methods of interpretation. To transmit this type of knowledge is via social communication as in training or group solving affairs. It denotes that transmit is subtle to a social situation. This means that the more social relations and interactions are maintained across intercultural groups, the higher the competitiveness to solve issues and expertise to attain creativity.

Companies that excel in systematically leveraging their skills will develop and sustain a competitive benefit that may exceed the existing and future demands put upon them. It is significant to take a logical approach to develop a knowledge management policy, consistent architecture, and creating efficient knowledge systems.

Conclusion

As the world turns to be a global market, companies spread globally to discover new markets and upsurge incomes, the working places have been progressively becoming diverse and if not well managed might lead to a decrease in productivity, poor performance, and low income. Similarly, companies may tap the welfares of the intercultural work environment it may gain better development and improve their income and productivity.

Some conflicts have an element of intercultural bias as well as misinterpretation of cultural studies. Since most authors write the culture is complex which means that what we see in the real word may mask changes below the surface. This is like underground rivers that run through our daily lives and affairs, alerting us to shape our perspectives, strategies, attribution as well as judgment. Although intercultural has a positive impact, it is often unconscious, inducing conflict, and attempt to solve the conflict in imperceptible means.

Concluding that conflict can be led by cultural diversity at the workplace has been discussed by many authors. As a result, this study is vital to analyze and understand whether conflict at the workplace can be a result of the intercultural workforce. It is quite acknowledged that cultural diversity at the workplace might be a bit more challenging compared with the homogenous workgroup (Al Wekhian, 2015). With this concept in mind, the study analyzed the following hypothesis: intercultural conflict is unavoidable and if well managed might lead to competition as well as the innovative advantage of the company. I believe that heterogeneous workforce cultures could result in competitiveness in the workplace.

References

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