Distributions of Conflict Potentials Among Western and Chinese Employees in Multinational Corporations in China

Abstract

This study is a secondary analysis based on the study of Peng (Culture and conflict management in foreign-invested enterprises in China: an intercultural communication perspective. Peter Lang, Bern, 2003). The distribution of five categories of work-related conflicts was tabulated and analyzed among American, French, and Chinese employees in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) as well as Chinese employees in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in mainland China. These are conflicts on salary, promotion, and fringe benefits, conflict on job assignment, conflict on worldview, conflict on personal taste and character, and conflict on management styles. The results of the data analysis generated an emerging pattern of conflict distribution that basically corresponds to the conflict management patterns of Western and Chinese employees in foreign-invested enterprises. The results of this study indicate that for conflict on salary, the Chinese have a higher conflict potential than Americans and French, whereas Americans have a higher conflict potential on management styles than French and Chinese. The influence of cultural values on conflict management styles is clearly reflected by the differences among American, Chinese, and French across their respective management styles over all five categories of conflicts. Between the FIE Chinese and SOE Chinese, significant differences are also found over the management styles of the five conflicts. The overall results of this study provide us with an insightful understanding that the collectivistic and individualistic orientations of high-contextual and low-contextual cultural members are not always aligned with the nonconfrontational and confrontational conflict management styles as we customarily believe. Conflict management styles should be expected, explained, and interpreted through a combination of cultural orientation, conflict stake, and personality.