Cross Cultural Conflicts In The Workplace

In today`s fast paced world, organizations are more connected with the world through fewer boundaries and more communication channels. The new globalization practices have resulted in a paradigm shift, affecting the functioning of corporations and managers. People belonging to different cultures have been united through various organizations and networks. It is important to understand that individuals from various cultures have different skills, abilities as well as characteristics. Misinterpretation and conflicting viewpoints can result due to differing value systems and beliefs among team members, employees, sub-ordinates and managers. These cultural values can also have an impact on the way individuals deal with work place conflicts. To

Three important areas to be handled by managers include ethics, fairness and resource allocation. If not handled properly, these could get the managers as well as the organization in serious trouble due to cross cultural conflicts and issues. A number of major categories result in conflicts between individuals belonging to various cultures. Firstly, tolerance for different beliefs and values is extremely important. It is obvious that different people will have different beliefs and values so it is essential to determine the tolerance an individual has for other peoples` beliefs and thoughts. Secondly, it is also important to understand the difference between what is ethical and what is legal. One culture may believe something to be ethical so ignoring that would result in moral implications while opposing a legal activity would result in legal and enforcement implications. Thirdly, acceptance or rejection of individuals` tastes and preferences could also lead to major cross cultural

According to them, there are three levels of understanding cross cultural conflicts: Meaning of universal values, relationship between principles and practices and lastly, ethical conflicts within and between organizations. It is important to understand that people as well as cultures evolve over time and therefore, there are no such set universal values. This means that managers have to adopt to a “universe of conflicting values and acceptable modes of behavior”. This makes the job of a manager, in terms of managing cross cultural conflicts, very difficult. There is a major difference between acceptable practices and the underlying principles involved. Managers need to focus on developing management practices which are acceptable by both the parties and which are built upon common principles as well. Lastly, managing internal cross cultural conflicts are really difficult as employees may disagree with what the firm truly believes in. And if this organizational practice is controversial, then it becomes difficult to impose it on the individual