Sino‐French Partnership Casts Light on Dealing With Culture and Conflict in International Joint Ventures

Abstract

Conflicts that arise between international teams often are attributed to mistakes that stem from national or cultural differences. Tajfel and Turner's Social Identification Theory (SIT), however, provides an approach to analyzing conflict that does not rely on identifying and explaining country‐specific differences. Instead, SIT shows how the perceptions of these cultural differences are part of a psycho‐sociological process of identification with a national group that systematically leads to conflict. An analysis of this process and the conditions that favored it during negotiations between the French and Chinese teams in an industrial partnership offers recommendations for counteracting it and avoiding sources of conflict between groups, regardless of the national cultures involved. These suggestions include avoiding time and place for comparison between the two groups, improving communications, avoiding causes of stress and anxiety, and hiring a mediator or facilitator. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.