How to manage conflicts : An exploratory study of managers’ conflict management styles in cross-cultural workplace through the lens of Cultural Intelligence

Sammanfattning: Background: As the globalization process advances, cross-cultural workplaces become prevalent among organizations. The culture diversity could be beneficial, but could also pose challenges for managers. Managers have to adopt effective conflict management style to handle conflicts in cross-cultural workplaces. Cultural intelligence (CQ), a relatively new model, has been studied in order to shed the light on conflict management styles by some researchers. Problem: Previous studies have shown that CQ could be an influential factor for individuals’ conflict management styles. However, existing studies were conducted in a few countries with quantitative data to demonstrate the relationship. The in-depth understanding of how managers actually in cross-cultural workplaces handle conflicts, through the instrumentality of CQ model, appears to be lacking in Scandinavian countries. Purpose: The thesis primarily aims to explore if and how CQ could facilitate managers construct effective conflict management style in cross-cultural workplaces in Sweden. Method: Via qualitative approach, the in-depth understanding between conflicts, conflict management styles and CQ were gained through eight semi-structured interviews with managers and following content analysis Conclusion: The primary conclusion is that CQ plays a role in influencing managers to adopt an effective conflict management style. Managers’ CQ can be reflected in a cross-cultural interaction through good communication and open-mind, which consecutively facilitates the integrating conflict management style (the effective style).