CULTURAL CONFLICT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM FOR FIRMS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Year 2011, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 1 - 10, 01.12.2011

Agu Kenneth Obinna Maria Fekete Farkas

Abstract

Increasing nature of cultural diversity in our business environment is a challenge
facing managers of today. This is the intrigue of globalization and modern day’s
information technology that is creating team to connect operations and to connect
different people from different cultures; therefore conflict may arise from these
cultures. Culture is multi-layered which means that what you see on the surface
may mask differences below the surface. The study analyzed culture, and
heterogeneous team behavior, cause of conflict and ways to solve it. It also
analyzed heterogeneous problem solving that can derive innovation. The paper
therefore present that cultural conflict is inevitable and if properly managed
could lead to innovativeness and competitive advantage to an organisation.
The study examines different branches of cultural conflicts and identifies opinions
of different cultural groups used questionnaires and interviewed people who have
worked in heterogeneous team for validation. At the end, the result showed that
heterogeneous cultural team is viewed advantageous more than homogenous
team.

Keywords

corporate culture conflict management, innovativeness

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