Question

Write a 350-450 word main post that responds to each question below. You are also required to respond to one of your classmates' postings with at least a 75 word response. Chapter 8 explores the nature of conflict. Reflect upon the following quote about conflict before answering the questions below: "In order for there to be winners, there have to be losers." Questions to Answer: Discuss this quote by examining an interpersonal conflict in which you have been involved in. Which of the five conflict styles discussed on pages 161-162 of the text did you use in the conflict you selected? Was the style effective? Why or why not?

Answer 1

I recently had a software project in which I had to interact with a Japanese customer. My team was packed with Americans. There was clearly a difference in its cultural heritage and value system, in that it accepts a business problem or a decision-making process. Japanese try, as they want clarity and certainty, to simplify the problem to the least detail. It is risky and often aims for long-term gains. The Americans, on the other hand, are taking risks. They consider and explore every situation as a challenge. They usually take decisions fast and are aimed at short-term advantages.

In the first phase there were many conflicts between teams because of these cultural differences. The customer team thought that our decision making approach was too casual while we thought the customer team tried to be extremely cautious in taking any decision on the project. Those cultural issues had affected the communication and synergy between the teams overall.

There are essentially five conflict resolution techniques at work:

• Avoiding: The parties think that, by ignoring the problem, conflict itself is resolved
• Adjustment: This resolution technique requires priority for other people's concerns over your own interests
• Collaboration: This means that both parties will come up with a win-win situation
• Compromising: This demands that both parties agree on some of their concerns.
• Competition: one side exercises its opinion on the other to resolve the dispute

In this case a collaborating technique to solve the negative synergy between the teams is quite effective. Both team leaders need to train the cross-cultural training and efficiency of their team members. This training helps employees to take account of work style differences based on culture difference. The teams will try to work together to solve the conflict.