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Role Of The Cultural Perspective When Dealing With Conflict

Decent Essays

For any international organization, understanding cultural differences is very significant in the global context. The article analyzes the role and impact of the cultural perspective when dealing with conflict in the global context. “What seems like a perfectly reasonable approach in one culture may seem ridiculous, disrespectful, inefficient, or unfair to managers from other cultures. Japanese and German managers may be uneasy with conflict resolution preferences that differ from their own.” (Adams, p.110.) The understanding that organizational and global cultures vary results in the connected research supported in several businesses in diverse fields.

This research did not only use the preferences of superiors employed in multicultural environments, when analyzing, but explored the role of each individual’s culture in defining a possible resolution. “If managers insist on their cultural preferences as the way to resolve disagreements, more disagreements will emerge because of misunderstood processes for resolving disagreements. The results of this study suggest that effective conflict resolution may need to begin with the recognition of different cultural preferences for resolution strategies. Only then can further attempts at resolution proceed effectively. In other words, focus on the "where" before jumping into the "how."”(Adams, p.110)

Creating a workplace environment that enables employees to flourish includes the recognition that cultural diversity is important.

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