Title
Transforming cross-cultural conflict into collaboration : the integration of western and eastern values
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Cross Cultural and Strategic Management
Publication Date
1-1-2018
Volume
25
Issue
1
First Page
70
Last Page
95
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
Keywords
Cross-cultural conflict management, Individualism/collectivism, Power distance
Abstract
Purpose - Scholarly research provides few insights into how integrating the western values of individualism and low power distance with the eastern values of collectivism and high power distance may influence cross-cultural conflict management. Following the framework of the theory of cooperation and competition, the purpose of this paper is to directly examine the impacts of organization-level collectivism and individualism, as well as high and low power distance, to determine the interactive effects of these four factors on cross-cultural conflict management.
Design/methodology/approach - This is a 2 × 2 experiment study. Data were collected from a US laboratory experiment with 80 participants.
Findings - American managers working in a company embracing western low power distance and eastern collectivism values were able to manage conflict cooperatively with their Chinese workers. Moreover, American managers working in a company valuing collectivism developed more trust with Chinese workers, and those in a company culture with high power distance were more interested in their workers' viewpoints and more able to reach integrated solutions.
Originality/value - This study is an interdisciplinary research applying the social psychology field's theory of cooperation and competition to the research on employee-manager, cross-cultural conflict management (which are industrial relations and organizational behavior topics, respectively), with an eye to the role of cultural adaptation. Furthermore, this study included an experiment to directly investigate the interactions between American managers and Chinese workers discussing work distribution conflict in four different organizational cultures.
DOI
10.1108/CCSM-10-2016-0187
Print ISSN
20595794
E-ISSN
17586089
Funding Information
This work has been supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. 340111) to the first author. {340111}
Publisher Statement
Copyright © Emerald Publishing Limited. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Chen, N., Chao, M. C. H., Xie, H., & Tjosvold, D. (2018). Transforming cross-cultural conflict into collaboration: The integration of western and eastern values. Cross Cultural and Strategic Management, 25(1), 70-95. doi: 10.1108/CCSM-10-2016-0187
