A Cross-Cultural Study on the Differences in Conflict Management Process between Chinese Employees and American Employees

Abstract

With the development of globalization, intercultural communication has become unprecedentedly important and frequent. Yet, misunderstandings and conflict are likely to take place during the communication process because of different cultural backgrounds. Since intercultural conflicts are inevitable, how to manage them in a constructive way has become a growing concern in international business. To achieve this, one needs to understand how members of another culture behave during conflict interaction process and why they behave in such a manner. This paper investigates the differences in conflict management process between Chinese employees and American employees, emphasizing five aspects in conflict management process: conflict perception, conflict management strategy, conflict rhythm, face-concern in conflict management and conflict aftermath. The author conducted a questionnaire research and personal interviews to collect data for both quantitative and qualitative analysis on these issues. Altogether, 302 samples were collected in the research, including 122 American employees and 180 Chinese employees Based on the discussion of the results, the paper comes to a conclusion and puts forward practical suggestions to constructively manage the conflict in diverse cultural environment, particularly under Sino-American cultures.