Conflict Management Style of Team Leaders in Multi-Cultural Work Environment in the Construction Industry

Abstract

A project delivery challenge arises in temporary (multi) organizations (TMOs) when the team is multi-cultural in character. One particular element that can influence team effectiveness in such environment is the way conflicts are handled. Recent research implies that different styles of conflict management have different impacts on team effectiveness, some being positive and some negative, and that the impact is often mediated by other factors. Nevertheless the impact of conflict handling style on team performance in TMO multi-cultural environments in East Asia has not widely been considered. As a result, this study investigates how conflict management can contribute to effectiveness in such environments, through the mediation of the level of team coordination, by gathering data from 126 team leaders and supervisors and 378 members nested in different multi-cultural projects in the Malaysian construction industry. The findings suggest that managing conflict cooperatively help to build the ideal positive share to team performance in multi-cultural environments in Malaysian construction industry, while a high degree of team coordination is also existing. The findings also advocate that the avoiding conflict management style may incorporate a positive result when it comes to team overall performance and that the effect of adopting avoidance conflict handling is also mediated by the level of team coordination.