How Do Chinese Firms Deal with Inter-Organizational Conflict?

Abstract

Based on social exchange and customer relationship marketing theory, this study examines how ethical leadership contributes to inter-organizational conflict management (task conflict (TC) and relationship conflict), and the moderating role of task interdependence in these relationships. Data was collected from 81 suppliers and 45 corresponding managers of a large group company in China. Results show that ethical leadership is negatively associated with the levels of inter-organizational conflict, whether task or relationship. Task interdependence significantly moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and TC. Managerial implication in terms of creating sound buyer-supplier relationship through an ethical perspective is discussed.

The Dark Side of Interorganizational Relationships: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda

“…Li & Hambrick, 2005). These studies stress the emotional burden of conflict that arises from exchanges over issues about control, rent sharing, priorities, and strategic decisions concerning an IOR (Frazier & Rody, 1991;Mo, Booth, & Wang, 2012).…”

“…Prior research largely discusses the role of communication and the formation of unspoken rules in the reduction or prevention of conflict, while social control operates to curb opportunism. Partners' beliefs about the purpose of the IOR (MacDonald & Chrisp, 2005), trading practices (Carter, 2000;Terpend, Tyler, Krause, & Handfield, 2008), knowledge diversity (N. Malhotra, 2003), and corporate leadership styles (Mo et al, 2012) have a bearing on unethical practices and conflict. For instance, a study by Schul et al (1983) finds that a franchisor's leadership style that is perceived to emphasize participation, support, and direction in channel activities significantly reduces intrachannel conflict.…”

Application of Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety to Interorganizational Conflicts in Nonprofit Organizations

“…Research in interorganizational conflicts is in a state of rapid growth, but some disorganization exists (Fernandez et al, 2014; Mo et al, 2011; Oliveira & Lumineau, 2018). For example, the marketing and supply chain management literature highlights conflict related to distribution channels (Carvalho et al, 2018), the project management research focuses on disagreement among stakeholders (Lee et al, 2017), and the general management research places major focus on managing and mitigating conflict within and between teams (Almost et al, 2016).…”

“…Fundamentally, interorganizational conflict appears whenever incompatible activities occur (Vaaland & Håkansson, 2003). In other words, interorganizational conflict occurs whenever one organization perceives another interdependent organization to be engaged in a behavior that prevents it from achieving cooperative goals (Mo et al, 2011). Galati et al (2019) define interorganizational conflict as “the discomfort generated by ambiguity that derive[s] from the involvement of heterogeneous actors that behave differently and have both joint and divergent goals, as well as different types of motivations, resources, and capabilities.”…”

“…Interorganizational conflict has traditionally been perceived as dysfunctional (Mo et al, 2011). For example, the complexity of interorganizational conflict might be traced to incongruent interests, disputes over knowledge management, and emotional incompatibility (Mo et al, 2011).…”