business research paper about conflict between US, China and India

Background

Given the importance of international business today, and the fact that more and more people work as expatriates in other countries, it’s vital we understand differences in management approaches and styles. Many of the topics you’ll read about and explore in our course (e.g., motivation, decision making, teams, etc.) become even more important when working with those from different cultures. For example, a common motivation technique in the U.S. might involve creating a competition among groups for the best process improvement ideas. And, the winners might get a cash award or some other perk for their efforts. If you’re an American reading this, you might say “of course….this can be a good technique and I’ve experienced it myself.” But, this may not be the case in other cultures. Plus, what if you’re an American who’s managing Indonesian employees at your firm’s plant in that country? If you use this competition approach to motivation it could fall flat on its face and end up being de-motivating instead.

What might explain this difference? Why might such a technique not ‘travel’ across borders and cultures all that well? Let’s pursue the brief example above to illustrate. Research seems to show that Americans are more likely to be “individualists” – they are taught from childhood to stand out, take chances, and to showcase their abilities/self. (As a result, some have said they don’t work well in groups – if you’re a U.S. student, have you ever had the experience of people freeloading on group projects???). Some Latin and Asian cultures, however, have different views on this issue. They may have been taught to have close ties with groups their whole life, to be highly respectful of them, and work hard to fit in. Contrast this traditional Japanese saying: “The nail that sticks out get hammered down” with a common U.S. saying that goes something like “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” These quotes, indicative of deeply held values, could explain why a motivational technique that seems so “obvious” and commonplace in one culture may need to be tweaked or even altered significantly in another culture.

Paper Topic: Conflict & Negotiation

It’s said that there are two things in life you can count on: death and taxes. But, some add a third item – conflict! While I don’t like these sorts of sweeping truisms, it’s hard to argue with this one. Leaving aside death and taxes, it certainly seems like we’re in conflict situations regularly, perhaps a lot more often than we like. Someone cuts us off on the interstate, undercuts us at work, or brings a complaint about a co-worker to you, the boss – all commonly experienced conflict situations. Of course, there are many other examples, most of which reflect much more consequential conflict (wars, strife among groups, etc.).

It turns out that some people are more comfortable with conflict than the rest of us. Yet, most everyone views it as annoying – an aberration or anomaly that’s best eliminated somehow….and as soon as possible. This view of conflict is inaccurate on several counts. For one, conflict is not an anomaly - it's ubiquitous. It happens every day to many of us. Second, this sort of attribution about its cause leads some of us to not prepare for conflict. That’s a mistake. Conflict is actually common,

replete, and...'natural'. If so, we should understand it, expect it, and better manage for it. Third, it’s hard enough to handle conflict and to negotiate in your own culture, let alone another one.

So, for this paper, I’ll require you to focus on the topic of conflict and negotiation and how these topics are viewed and practiced across three cultures: the U.S., China, and India . I believe this topic is very important for business students of any nationality. The more one understands another market and culture, the better - and this is why I ask you to familiarize yourself with these three countries. They rank among the world’s top economies, so each is doing a lot of things well – including managing. But, that’s not to say any one is perfect or couldn’t improve - there are plenty of examples of failure to understand another culture by firms and businesspeople from each of these countries. Americans are hardly immune from this problem. In fact, a fair number of people around the globe feel that Americans make little effort to understand their country or their business practices/management styles. A recent survey of nearly 5000 international business executives ranked the U.S. in the bottom 1/3 of a sample of 42 countries in knowledge and understanding of other cultures. You don’t have to go overseas to hear this viewpoint - some Americans also believe that their business focus can be myopic. So, everyone could learn and improve – possibly by looking elsewhere.

If you choose this option, you’ll research and study international differences in attitudes, styles, and business practices regarding conflict and negotiation. For this assignment, you’ll want to understand how business people commonly deal with conflict - and how they negotiate their way through it. How do people generally perceive and react to conflict in each of these three countries/cultures? Are there differences in styles, approaches, and business practices regarding conflict & negotiation? What are those differences, and what are the similarities? Be sure to document any differences (or lack of) with empirical research (see Guideline #4 below for more detail). Finally, what lessons could managers of each country learn from the others? For example, what conflict/negotiation practices or views could U.S. (& other) business people successfully ‘import’ and why? What practices would not work well in a U.S. (or Chinese/Indian) business environment and why? Answer these and related questions using research in organization behavior.

Guidelines

1. Here are some formatting particulars about the paper:

The paper must be 7 - 9 pages long. These limits do not include the title page and bibliography. I’m asking you to stick closely to this limit.

Please double space & use the usual margins (I’ve seen papers with 1.25 spacing and a font that requires an electron microscope to read - please don’t do it.). I’m requesting 12 pt. Times New Roman, with std. 1” margins just so we’ve got a consistent standard.

You can use any referencing format you like, as long as you include one somewhere in your paper (e.g., bibliography at the end; footnotes throughout). Regardless, every system cites the article itself (authors, year, title, journal/book name). Please don’t just provide just a url. These change over time as new editions/journals are added to the mix (& it triples my time to read papers as I check references). Use your preferred system to cite the article itself.

To help you diagnose potential problems, we buy a resource each year to check for such issues – called Turn-It-In. It’s common for faculty to use this tool, but here you’ll get to use it to diagnose your own paper before you hand in your final draft. When you upload your paper to our class Isidore site, I will have it automatically run your paper through this service. If you inadvertently forgot to cite something or put it in your own words, Turn-It-In will help you by checking originality/other features and provide you a report. (You do not need to create a Turnitin account or login; I have it done seamlessly via Isidore). You can then look at your report, make any necessary adjustments, and then turn in your final draft. This is required so don’t wait until the last minute to post your final draft.

2. Please consider the following tips:

Use your 7-9 pages wisely. It’s easy for me to assign a 20-30 page paper since I don’t have to write it, but I don’t think that is a sign of rigor. In fact, in many ways it’s harder to keep a paper within page limits than it is to go on and on. Plus, let’s be frank - when will you ever get 25 or more pages of leeway in a business report?

Be specific about your recommendations. I wouldn’t consider the following to have much value: “I think that China should adopt a more direct conflict style because it is a very good way to proceed in business.” …Why? Does it work? Why specifically could it work in Hangzhou or Bangalore given what you found in your research? Be sure to include research to support your points.

Try to make some definitive conclusions. In previous classes, I’ve had people tell me some of the following: “I don’t really have many recommendations.” Or, “it’s hard to tell whether this would work here in the U.S. or not.” Yes...it’s hard to tell now before you write the paper....if it’s still really hard to say anything after you research it, then this may indicate that you didn’t learn/research enough.

Plan to write a draft or two. Share it with someone to see if it flows. Give it to your sibling, your friend, or your grandmother for feedback. They can tell you if it’s too jargony or if it doesn’t make sense in parts before I do.

Don’t do a cut & paste. If you find a figure or table from an article compelling, attach it as an appendix. Save the (short) 7-9 pages for material you write. (Appendices are not required).

Likewise, please don’t include a lot of direct quotes. I’ve had papers that (when I add up sentences and phrases in quotes) actually include several pages of direct quotes! This material was cited, so that’s not the problem – the problem is that I want people to write the material themselves. So, I’m asking you to restrict your direct quotes to 2 sentences (partial sentences) - total. Instead, take the research you find, digest it, and put it in your own words as you discuss it (just like our book does).

3. I will grade the paper using the following criteria: Content (60%), Organization (30%), and Style (10%). I’ll say a lot more about each of these just below.

4. Content (60% of grade): The paper must cover course-relevant material. Don’t veer from this and don’t do other topics. I don’t want papers on perception or stress…I get too many of those; I don’t want one on accounting practices or country history/economy/religion – save those for other classes. I want a paper on cross-country differences in views, practices, behavior regarding conflict/negotiation at work. If you stick to the topic that’s a great first step.

Research: But just staying on topic isn’t nearly enough. One of the key values of people in this field is research. Our book shows that professionals in the field believe that behavior in organizations can be studied systematically & with quantitative methods. Our book is chock full of such empirical research studies on topics such as perception, motivation, leadership, and more. This is the orientation you should take in this paper. For example, if you claim that Indian businesspeople/companies are more likely to use a collaboration style of conflict management than those from other countries, how do we know? Just because someone says it’s true doesn’t make it so! Try to find a study to support your conclusions. You don’t have to support everything you say with a research study, but the “content” points you earn depend importantly on these. Briefly describe the study purpose, maybe a sentence or two about

their method, and then describe what they found & what it means. This can be done pretty quickly, certainly completely within a short paragraph.

Speaking of research, you are required to rely on professional journals in preparing your paper (many examples are listed below). This doesn’t mean you can’t include material from good, contemporary sources – definitely include stuff you might find in Business Week, Fortune, or Forbes. But, don’t rely on these monthly magazines that are not research-based – get some empirical research to support your point. And, avoid pop periodicals at all costs (e.g., Reader’s Digest, Southwest Airlines Magazine, etc.)

How do you get empirical research studies? All of you should be familiar with our online databases – you’ll find them useful in other courses you take in our program & beyond. I recommend using the main Business database for this project.

- You’ll be at the basic search screen for Business Source Complete (titled University Libraries at upper left)

- This database searches over 7000 business journals over the last 50 years. Like most search engines, this one can be ‘touchy’ so you’ll want to experiment with various key words to find articles. And, you might want to use the ‘advanced search’ routine that provides more control (newer articles, specific topics, etc.)

- For example, I entered “Conflict or Negotiation” and got 180,240 ‘hits’, whereas “conflict styles China” only returned 1 article (just an example). The first result is way too unwieldy and the second term is too narrow. You’ll need to experiment with various search terms/topic to get a more reasonable number of references.

- Most journals allow you to access the full article on the spot or to download the pdf to read later rather than hiking over to the library.

How do you know you’ve got an empirical study? This is a good question and there are several ways to know. First, if the article is among the journals below, you’re in good shape. Second, most all empirical articles have 4 main sections: 1) an intro that lays out the issue being studied & reviews what’s already been done, 2) a “method” section that describes who was studied, how/why they were chosen, 3) a “results” section – usually the most technical part of the article. Unless stats are your bent, you might want to skim this section and go right to 4) the “conclusion” (or discussion) section. This is where they’ll tell you what they found in non-technical terms. Finally, there’s always a reference list of previous work (usually about 30 or so other articles) which are also fair game for your paper.

What do I do with the articles? I want you to take a set of articles/research you find and tell a story about them – what are the key differences/similarities across culture/country? You’re not doing the primary research, but instead summarizing what the existing studies say. This is basically what the authors of our book have done. They talk a lot about research in every chapter, yet they didn’t conduct any of that research. They did what I’m asking you to do (in a small way) – they got some stuff others had written & they told a story about it in their own, paraphrased way. Don’t directly take material - this will be flagged by Turn-it-in. Instead, read it, digest it, think about it, and then summarize it cogently in your own words.

5. Organization (30%): I’ve had papers in the past with a ton of great content. Yet, those same folks can be disappointed when they find they’ve lost 15, 20, or more organization points. So, I encourage you to think about your storyline and structure it. You may have an innate ability whereby you can do a great first draft – some people just do. If you’re not one of those (I’m not), then start early and figure out a good storyline. One of the litmus tests I use for finding and evaluating a storyline is whether your paragraphs are largely interchangeable. If I can move whole sections around with no loss of information, this is indicative of a loosely structured paper. This

means your story is not clear, and this is not good! Most of the time this occurs when folks sit down and try to write it with little time left in the class (sometimes the night before!). I give people a lot of credit for this – under tremendous pressure, they’re able to complete a college-level paper. Yet, the paper’s hard to read, there are no transitions, and it’s not clear why one section follows the other. In other words, in their desperation, they threw things down on paper the best they could. Don’t do this – spend time organizing and coming up with a theme (oldest to newest; least important difference to most important, etc…), use headings, and more.

6. Style (10%): This is the least important criterion, and when mistakes are made here, they’re one of two types: a) people put too much time into adding glitz, pizzazz, etc., and not enough on content, or b) last minute work resulted in some typos, poor sentence structure, and the like.

7. A Word about Country/Regional Comparisons. Above I ask you to compare the US with China and India - and you must touch on the practices/approaches of these three. You and I both know that these countries are large and varied. Let’s all agree that there are great differences among individuals in any one country, even in the presence of overall mean differences (the latter being the subject of a lot of research). Don’t worry too much about this. The goal of this assignment is to get you more familiar with approaches different from what you already know.

Research Journal Examples:

Academy of Management Executive

Journal of Business Research

Academy of Management Journal

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Academy of Management Review

Journal of International Business Studies

Administrative Science Quarterly

Journal of Management

California Management Review

Journal of Organizational Behavior

Decision Sciences

Journal of Occupational & Organizational. Psych.

Group and Organizational Studies

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Harvard Business Review

Organiz. Behavior & Human Decision Processes

Human Relations

Personnel Psychology

Journal of Business Ethics