I just need an introduction on the following paper.
Introduction
Please write this introduction for me about Conflict resolution in a multi cultural workplace.
Literature Review
The secondary research evidence has highlighted the necessity of solving conflict in a globalized and cross-cultural business environment. The evidence gathered has shown how globalization can affect an outbreak of conflicts in the workplace. According to Tidwell and Lerche, globalization has helped companies adopt a more international perspective and resulted in an image that increases their attractiveness for job seekers (Tidwell & Lerche, 2004). The research had proven how multicultural teams can facilitate the reach of the objectives by multinationals. However, a majority of professional conflicts can be generated by a workforce that experiences problems in adapting to different cultures. For this reason, businesses are now using the HBDI or Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument tool to facilitate the integration and embrace of different cultures in the workplace (Curry, 2016).
In todays business environment, resolving conflict is a crucial element in the ambition to have profitable businesses in terms of efficiency and productivity. Accordingly, studies have shown that if individuals are exposed to multicultural environments in their childhood, it is more likely for them to accept and be able to cooperate with people from other countries while working together (McMillan, 2020). Moreover, in the article it was also highlighted how according to McMillan education plays a vital role in the development of such philosophy. In fact, education is the method that will allow multicultural teams in the workplace to proactively engage conflicts and have positive conflict resolutions (McMillan, 2020).
Katie Shonk (2019) had also highlighted the presence of cultural barriers when conflicts in the workplace are generated. In fact, it was highlighted that many business negotiations fall through because of the existence of cultural barriers. Cultural barriers are often composed of individuals adopting stereotypes, or judging others values, habits, and behaviors. This aligns with statements made by Rifkind and Picco (2014), who argued that the resolution of multicultural conflicts struggled to process decisions rationally as negotiations or compromises are conducted by individuals, and not impartial institutions, who carry with them historical, cultural and religious narratives. So understanding the narrative of the opposing side is necessary to fully overcome barriers of culture to open the discussion to agreements.
All in all, the secondary evidence through the literature review has presented how important it is to resolve conflicts in a working environment, which is constantly characterized by cross-cultural individuals and by the globalization phenomenon. The evidence presented has shown how conflicts may rise, and how important it is to find a solution to solve them. It is expected that coworkers experience conflict with one another; however, it is everyones responsibility to find a solution that is in accordance with the companys mission statement and objectives.
Primary Research Methodology
A description of the primary research methodology used – Shuyi
As a team we conducted the primary research for the topic of conflicts resolution, by the time of this report, we collected a sample size of 34 people to answer the questionnaires.
The respondents come from Europe, Asia, Middle East, North America, and other, something worth being mentioned is that more than 50% of this survey responses come from Europe.
The years of work experience could also affect the result and bias of the survey purpose. In this survey, the dominant group of respondents have work experience less than 2 years, which takes up to the percentage of nearly 60% among all the respondents we collected answers from, the reason could be that the surveys were answered the by most of our peers at school, which are the students who do not have many years of work experiences yet, however, more than 30% of the respondents have had work experience of five or more years.
When asked whether people choose to avoid or engage with a conflict resolution when it happens in a workplace, 74% of the population being asked on this survey have shown their perspectives and attitudes on going forward and face the conflicts with their peers, try to engage in the resolution for both parties.
According to Vancouver Island University, people often have many fears around engaging in conflicts directly, because of our own history of experiences with conflict resolution in the past with family, school, and work environment. Some negative effects people think would happen if confronted with the conflicts directly, including anger, misunderstanding among the individuals who involve in the conflicts. However, overcoming our discomfort and then learning to discuss problems with partners makes a great influence on effective management of conflict in a workplace.
Face-to-face communication in conflict resolution is chosen by a high percentage of our audiences, which reaches 76% of the sample size, compared to the rest of methods in email, telephone, and in a group setting. With technology changing, it has made communication easier than ever, however, communicating conflicts using email or telephone could still lead to miscommunications. It is the most straightforward and effective way to solve issues when people decide to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation.
Analysis – Alex
Having covered the secondary research which led us into the details of this topic and the subsequent format of primary research, chosen in order to expand upon this baseline of knowledge. Progressing forward we may now explore and analyse the findings of our survey, a key point to make is that, due to the anonymity of the survey we believe that the following results have elevated accuracy as respondents are not subject to social pressures whilst answering.
Figure 1
Seen here in figure 1 are the attitudes which our respondents held when faced with a conflict and the subsequent opportunity to attempt to find a resolution. We see over a quarter of respondents choose to avoid addressing a conflict, such a considerable proportion is a surprise for us. This is due to the knowledge, as defined by Thomas and Kilmann (2008) that those who avoid dealing with a conflict are uncooperative and unassertive, leading to the underlying issue never being addressed. This is obviously a counterproductive situation for any business environment. It is however encouraging that three quarters choose to engage, this move away from apathy shows that most wish for a better environment and enhanced outcomes from teamwork, as such it provides us with a solid foundation to explore further intricacies of resolution type and style.
Figure 2
As observed here in figure 2, looking at the environment an individual chooses to engage upon the process of resolving an issue, we can clearly see that the results are broken down into thirds, with two thirds choosing to deal directly with the other side in a peer-to-peer talk whilst only a third chose to undertake talks under the supervision of a neutral moderator. In some regard this is surprising as we may expect that the presence of a third party would reduce tension and escalation, however, as our respondents tended to be Western in cultural origin it should not be such a surprise that conflicts are resolved on an individual level. This result also leads us to believe that individuals commonly choose to keep their professional conflicts and the attempts to resolve them private within the organisation as outside observers may conclude a negative view of the situation and the participants.
Figure 3
The final examination of our primary data picks up on the style of agreement that our respondents prefer. From figure 3 we can draw that individuals prefer specific agreements due to the wish for further conflicts to not arise from the same origin and therefore the need arises to place binding constraints on each party involved. Whereas the general agreements could be observed two ways, firstly as a defensive tactic, when accused of being the originator of the issue you may choose to keep agreements general so as to not change your own actions dramatically. Conversely, if both sides approach resolution from extreme views then a general agreement is the first stage setting the stage for further resolution and progress.
Conclusion – Ida
The past decade has seen a momentous shift in the philosophies of individuals and the workplace towards conflict resolution as a consequence of the changing global landscape. Present research has monitored the recent implementation of globalization in early childhood education and the resulting improvements on acceptance and cooperation to those with differing cultural backgrounds. An especially valuable change, as previous findings had indicated that cultural barriers were a significant percentage of workplace conflict.
As the bulk of conflict resolution data focused on the perspectives of cross-cultural groups, the study collected data on the viewpoints of individuals to cover the knowledge gap. The survey results shaped the image of the average modern day employee having a straight-forward, emotionally stable, private and detail oriented nature. These traits, supported by the available related literature, displayed a positive trend towards enhanced team identity and reduce the likelihood of conflict resurgence.
Continued attention should be provided to maintain the positive practices and trends of conflict resolution. The effective settlement of workplace altercations has been noted to constructively influence areas such as a companys efficiency, productivity and profitability. Corporate awareness of the mechanisms of conflict resolution, employee training and set organizational policies increase the probability of its effective implementation. Future studies are also recommended to research variables not covered in the survey but had been noted during the literature to possibly affect modern conflict resolution such as observing the viewpoints of management during a conflict, their resolution response and how their interference affects the companys employees and respective teams.
References
Curry, C. (2016, February 15). Managing Conflict in Global Teams. Retrieved from
https://trainingmag.com/trgmag-article/managing-conflict-global-teams/.
McMillan, S. (2020, January 1). Teach conflict resolution. Retrieved from https://www.thegazett
e.com/subject/opinion/guest-columnist/teach-conflict-resolution-20200101.
Rifkind, G. & Picco, G. (2014). Focusing on the Human Element to Global Conflict Resolution
Efforts and Suggesting a Vision for the Future Through the Lens of the Past. Journal of Peace Psychology, 22(2), 188-189
Shonk, K. (2019, September 10). How to Resolve Cultural Conflict: Overcoming Cultural
Barriers at the Negotiation Table. Retrieved from https://www.pon.harvard.edu/
daily/conflict-resolution/a-cross-cultural-negotiation-example-how-to-overcome-cultural-barriers/.
