Cross-cultural Conflicts and Leadership for Managing Conflict Essay

Cross-cultural Conflicts and Leadership for Managing Conflict - Essay Examplenment will look briefly at some of the common roots of cross-cultural betrothal in global organizations, determine their causes as cited by experts, and consider whether it is possible to mitigate the causes before the conflicts occur.The common roots of cross-cultural conflicts include language differences or misunderstandings in talk, differences of perspectives due to different cultural values and outlooks etc. The way in which messages are communicated is also important as both 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 may be perceived by Americans as beating around the bush (Ford, 2001). The unfamiliarity with early(a) cultures also leads to people tending to stereotype to fill in missing information (McShane, 2004 394). Anoth er fundamental cause is the individualist-collectivist divide i.e. both perceive and weigh 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 conception sees it as contender between individuals and groups over incompatible goals or scarce resources, whilst the constructivist conception puts it down to divergent 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 acquire foreign companies for example, the two cultures must be analysed for compatibility. For single multic ultural organization interested in