Culture, Conflict Styles, and Understanding: Cultural Impacts on the Use of Conflict Styles in Cross-Cultural Communication

Abstract

Today, we live within communities that are becoming increasingly globalized. Technological advancements allow us to engage, in real-time, with individuals on the other side of the globe, giving us the ability to connect with one another on a scale never witnessed before in human history. For all the benefits this ability to freely communicate affords us, conflict, that timeless feature of human interaction, remains ever present. Conflict, and our understanding of it, is further complicated when it occurs cross-culturally. Triandis (2000) notes, “[C]onflict is greater when the two cultures are very different than when they are similar” (Triandis, 2000, p.145). Different cultures have their own unique ideas on how conflicts are approached and managed when communicating with others (Brett, 2000; Carnevale & Choi, 2000; Leung et al., 2011; Tjosvold et al., 2001; Triandis, 1989; Triandis, 2000; Triandis et al., 1971). This uniqueness, if not properly understood, can result in misunderstandings between individuals of differing cultures, leading to an escalation in conflicts. Understanding the existence of differences in how different societies approach conflict is the focus of this study.