Question

Conflict among managers emerged soon after a French company acquired a swedish firm. the swedes perceived the French management as hierarchical and arrogant, whereas the French thought the Swedes were naive, cautious, and lacking an achievement orientation . describe ways to reduce dysfunctional conflict in this situation

Answer 1

The most apparent process to minimize conflict in this situation would be some form of structured dialogue. other party’s rationale for their behavior. We emphasize “structured” dialogue because informal dialogue (without a facilitator) may increase the risk of conflict escalation.One dialogue-type strategy is intergroup mirroring, which is described as a supplemental lecture later in this instructor’s manual chapter. The process begins with a relationship audit in which consultants meet with individuals and groups of employees to identify the employment-connected relationships that have caused the current disruption and disagreement Specifically, the Swedes and French managers need to diplomatically bring out their concerns and understand the

In this situation, relationship restructuring would involve interviews by consultants with representatives from the Swedish company and French company. Information collected from the relationship audit is used to evaluate the relationships, such as communication deficiencies, misaligned expectations, corporate culture shifts, and so on. This would identify the sources of the conflict, which may be either structural problems or the way each side communicates with the other side.

Although intergroup mirroring and other dialogue-type interventions can reduce dysfunctional conflict, students should be able to think of factors in this situation that may interfere with the process. One problem might be that either the Swedes or the French employees might be less willing to discuss the conflict due to cultural values. Some cultures discourage open discussion of conflict, and this might occur here. Another problem may be that the conflict is due to fundamental differences between the parties, such as cultural differences in communication, or stereotypes of each other. These are more difficult to change than are structural causes of conflict.