A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Conflict Management Styles in Multinational Organisations: Empirical Evidence from Serbia

Abstract

This study explores the conflict management styles of German and Serbian managers in multinational organisations in Serbia. Contrary to most previous cross-cultural studies on conflict management styles, we have analysed not only the impact of the dimensions of individualism vs. collectivism on conflict management styles, but the effect of power distance dimension also. Moreover, none of the previous studies have analysed the conflict of management styles of managers in Southeast Europe, let alone the influence of intercultural interactions in multinational organisations in that region. Our study is based on the survey of 205 German, and 214 Serbian, managers in German multinationals in Serbia. The findings reveal that German and Serbian managers use different conflict management styles and that the status of the conflict partners and gender affect managers’ conflict management styles.