Culture and preferred workplace conflict resolution styles

Abstract

Past research indicates a relationship between individualism/collectivism and conflict resolution styles (CRS). Members of individualistic cultures such as the United States tend to use dominating CRS, while members of collectivistic cultures such as China tend to use avoiding CRS. The present study examined the generalizability of these findings to multicultural workplace settings. In consideration for variations by the status of conflict target person, the culture/CRS relationship was examined separately for conflict with a supervisor and with a subordinate. Professionals and college students completed an on-line survey on individualism/collectivism and preferred CRS. Multiple regression analyses indicated higher individualism was associated with more dominating CRS when dealing with supervisors in both samples whereas higher collectivism was associated with more avoiding CRS but only in the professional sample. Due to the small number of participants with supervisory experiences, results are inconclusive for predicting preferred CRS with subordinates. Implications of the results are discussed.