Cross-cultural Conflicts and Leadership for Managing Conflict Essay

Cross-cultural Conflicts and Leadership for Managing Conflict - Essay Examplenment will tonicity briefly at some of the common roots of cross-cultural conflict in global organizations, particularize their causes as cited by experts, and consider whether it is possible to mitigate the causes before the conflicts amount.The common roots of cross-cultural conflicts complicate language differences or misunderstandings in communication, differences of perspectives due to different cultural values and outlooks etc. The way in which messages are communicated is also important as two opposing communication styles can create conflict. For example, American are usually more blunt or direct in communication, preferring to cut to the chase whereas in many Asian cultures people are often less blunt and whitethorn be perceive by Americans as beating around the bush (Ford, 2001). The unfamiliarity with other cultures also leads to people assistance to stereotype to fill in missing information (McShane, 2004 394). Another fundamental cause is the individualist-collectivist divide i.e. twain perceive and deal with conflict itself very differently. Direct confrontational conflicts are less likely to occur in collectivist cultures because group commitment, conformity and harmony are greater priorities than for individualists (Carsten, 2007 28). However, this does not mean that tensions do not exist that can affect individual morale and performance.In terms of perceiving the nature of conflict, the realist mood sees it as competition between individuals and groups over incompatible goals or scarce resources, whilst the constructivist conception puts it down to different perceptions or beliefs about the nature of the situation, the other party or oneself (Kevin, 2004). In practice, combinations of the two underlying factors may be at play i.e. mixed motives.Before taking steps to merge or pose foreign companies for example, the two cultures must be analysed for compatibil ity. For single multicultural organization interested in