Introduction

Citation

Posthuma, R.A. (2006), "Introduction", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 17 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijcma.2006.34417caa.001

Introduction

Responding to the need for more influential international conflict management research, this issue contains four articles that focus on workplace conflict issues from a variety of national and cultural perspectives. Also, recognizing the need to include more research from outside the USA, this special issue explores conflict management in work settings using data from emerging and rapidly growing economies.

The four papers in this issue triangulate research techniques by using conceptual theory-building, empirical survey data, and case study methodologies. In this way, the papers illustrate that there is not just one way to advance our knowledge of conflict management. Rather, a variety of methods can and should be used. In addition, recognizing the rapid growth of developing of business outside the USA, these papers provide evidence from countries less frequently represented in the published literature on conflict management including: China, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

Furthermore, these papers each have a variety of components that make them international in scope. International means more than just coming from a country outside the USA. Rather, these papers deal with issues that are both emic and etic, comparing and contrasting cultures from different countries and illustrating how changes in national culture over time may influence conflict in the workplace.

The theory paper by Nailah Ayun and Karen A. Jehn adopts an international scope by recognizing that even within workgroups in a single workplace, employees are influenced by their differing national heritage. This paper builds on prior research to develop a conceptual model that explains how national diversity within workgroups is likely to increase relationship and process conflict, while reducing task conflict. It is proposed that nationalistic attitudes will exacerbate relationship and process conflict and reduce the likelihood of task conflict with culturally diverse workgroups. This paper is a good example of how the careful explication of constructs and the expected direction of their relationships can lead to testable research propositions dealing with conflict in international settings. This type of theory building is likely to further advance our understanding of international conflict issues in the workplace.

The empirical study by Jun Onishi and Ryan Bliss adopts an international scope by comparing employees from four different countries. This study is a good example of how international research needs to focus not only on differences between very distinct cultures, but also on differences between cultures that are ostensibly similar. That study compares conflict management styles across groups from Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam. In this way differences across cultures go beyond prior research that focused primarily on Western cultures compared to Asian cultures. It identifies the importance of recognizing more fine-tuned distinctions on the influence of culture within geographic regions. It also provides important insight into conflict management styles in developing economies that have been largely ignored by prior research.

The case study by John P. Conbere and Alla Heorhiadi is from a single country, yet it has an international scope because it recognizes that international influences from outside one’s country can change cultural perspectives over time. The inducement to adopt capitalistic business philosophies and practices is resulting in significant change and conflict in a country emerging from the Soviet era. This study examines how employees in a new entrepreneurial business in Kiev, Ukraine are influenced by both their espoused values and deep beliefs. The study illustrates how this leads to conflicts between employees who are undergoing cultural change from formerly state owned control under the Soviet system toward a more open market economy.

The paper by Posthuma, White, Dworkin, Yánez and Swift is international in scope because it compares conflict styles between co-workers in Mexico and the USA. This paper provides an important supplement to existing research that tends to focus on conflicts between managers or between managers and their subordinates. However, this study goes further to illustrate how proximity to an international border may have a significant influence on preferred conflict styles. It does so by reporting the results of data collected from regions near the US-Mexico border as well as further north in the USA and further south in Mexico. Moreover, using a new measure of national origin, the degree to which workers are connected to a national culture through their familial lineage is measured and assessed. Like the Onishi and Bliss paper, this study recognizes that culture may have fine-tuned influences on conflict styles. However, this study does so in a different way by illustrating how border proximity and degree of affiliation with a particular nation influence conflict style preferences.

These papers present just a smattering of the developing and rapidly growing interest in research related to workplace conflict management in international and cross-cultural settings. The amount and quality of scholarship in this area is likely to increase in response to the rapid growth of international business and research expertise that is developing in many countries.

Richard A. Posthuma