Cultural Conflict

Cultural Conflict

As a manger understanding how to respond in a culturally diverse workplace is very important. Cultural awareness is one of the key elements to proactively address and effectively manage work place conflict. As manager you need to be able to understand cultural differences. You have to be able to take all of these differences into consideration when resolving or mediating conflict. These differences contribute to how a person thinks, perceives information, and acts. Every culture is different and we have to understand how best to resolve conflict, negotiate, collaborate, and mediate within each one. For example the Iraqi culture is very different from the United States and how this culture resolves conflict is very different from ours. The German Culture is very similar to the culture of the United States based of the 5-d Model. Very few of the conflict resolution, negotiation, collaborating, and mediating ideas would have to be modified when trying to come to a conflict resolution with someone from this culture.

Hofstede’s 5-D model of cultural dimensions is designed to help understand how, on average, people from different cultures view and solve basic problems. The 5 dimensions are the Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity/Femininity Uncertainty avoidance, and long term orientation. (What About Germany, 2013)

The Power distance dimension is the extent to which members of a society accept that power in institutions and organization is distributed. People in large power distance societies often accept a hierarchical order; meaning everybody as a place. People in small power distance societies tend to strive for power equalization and demand justification for inequalities. The German score for this dimension is a 35; where the United States has is a 40. This shows that the German culture and the United States cultures are on the lower power distance level. (What About Germany, 2013) Both cultures value equality and demand...