Conflict management across cultural boundaries: a case analysis from a multinational bank

Abstract

Business today is increasingly being impacted by international considerations. This international impact is felt in areas such as locating the various sources of raw materials, coordinating production schedules with plants around the globe, selecting marketing strategies to be employed in various cultures, determining which financial decisions need to be made in a world market, and also how to best utilize a workforce rich in diversity of talents, backgrounds, and communication styles. This paper addresses the last of these considerations: namely, how to effectively manage a diverse workforce. In particular, this work is directed toward helping managers to deal with conflict in the workplace, and to effectively manage that conflict across cultural boundaries. A case situation involving a multinational bank with a diverse workforce is presented. The nature of conflict is discussed, and contributors to conflict explored. A variety of conflict management techniques is reviewed and discussed. Finally, a proposed nine‐step model for managing conflict is presented. The proposed model is then applied to the case situation to illustrate its practical applicability to business today.