Conflict resolution styles between co‐workers in US and Mexican cultures

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to investigate how national culture and proximity to national borders can influence the conflict styles that co-workers use between themselves. Design/methodology/approach -In this experiment, samples were drawn from regions near the US Mexican border further north in the USA and further South in Mexico. Total n ¼ 549. Participants were presented with different conflict styles of co-workers and asked how they would respond. A new measure of national origin was developed and used to assess affinity with a particular culture based on familial lineage. Findings -This study shows that conflict resolution styles of co-workers in the USA are different from those in Mexico. Culture also moderates the relationship among the conflict resolution styles of the co-workers themselves. Mexicans were generally more contending and less yielding to co-workers than Americans. However, Mexicans were also more likely than Americans to respond to contending co-workers by accommodating or by compromising with the co-worker. National Origin and border location influenced choice of conflict resolution styles in both American and Mexican workers. Originality/value -Proximity to national borders can influence degrees of cultural identity, which can in turn, influence preferred conflict styles. Degrees of national cultural identity can be measured using familial lineage.

Socio-moral climate, debate, and decision comprehensiveness interplay for team innovation

“…Likewise, research has shown that individual conflict styles impact conflict partners' behavior (cf. Posthuma et al, 2006). Further research opportunities exist in linking individual conflict styles with team processes of debate and decision comprehensiveness.…”

“…Collaborating and accommodating styles might foster open debate and integrating decisions, while contending and avoiding styles might hinder these team processes. Furthermore, the notion of cultural differences has been frequently stressed in conflict management research (Chen et al, 2012;Posthuma et al, 2006). Lu et al (2011) argue that cultural context and the organizational consequences of conflict have to be taken into consideration.…”

Exploring consumer conflict management in service encounters

“…In particular, we examine the behavioral outcomes of how consumers frame conflict with service providers. Such research is important because understanding how people deal with conflict has been demonstrated to be essential to developing effective management strategies in other business contexts (e.g., Adair et al 2001;Barclay 1991;Friedman et al 2000;Koza and Dant 2007;Pinkley and Northcraft 1994;Posthuma et al 2006;Purohit and Simmers 2006;Rahim 1986). To address our research questions, we adopt a grounded theory approach.…”

"Cultural Values, Emotional Intelligence, and Conflict Handling Styles: A Global Study"

“…One potential explanation for the mixed findings might be that previous studies have often failed to consider the culture-specific pattern of emotional intelligence (Gunkel, Schlä gel, & Engle, 2014;Miller, 1997;Shao, Doucet, & Caruso, 2014). While previous studies have shown that preferences for conflict handling styles vary substantially across countries (e.g., Doucet, Jehn, Weldon, Chen, & Wang, 2009;Gabrielidis, Stephan, Ybarra, Pearson, & Villareal, 1997;Kim, Wang, Kondo, & Kim, 2007;Posthuma, White, Dworkin, Yá nez, & Swift, 2006;Ting-Toomey et al, 1991), only a small number of studies (e.g., Kaushal & Kwantes, 2006;Komarraju, Dollinger, & Lovell, 2008;Morris et al, 1998) has analyzed the underlying reasons for these differences. Prior research suggests that differences in individuals' orientation toward different cultural value dimensions (i.e., the set of aspects that characterize a society according to its apparent place within the continuum of patterns described by the respective aspect) may be one promising explanation for cross-country differences in individual preferences for conflict handling styles (e.g., Holt & DeVore, 2005;Komarraju et al, 2008).…”