Exploring the Influence of National Culture on the Intercultural Conflict Management Styles in Virtual Teams

Abstract

Conflict is a disagreement between two or more people. It is considered unavoidable and stressful in everyday workplace interactions. It becomes even more problematic when dealing with team members from a different culture and when dealing with them through digital communication tools. Virtual teams are often international and include culturally diverse members, making conflict management more difficult. This research examines the influence of a virtual team leader's cultural background and level of intercultural competence on the choice of conflict management styles in two types of conflicts - task and relationship conflicts - in two situations, with people from their home culture and with foreigners. In this quasi-experimental research, a serious game was used as an innovative data collection method to assess intercultural competence and intercultural conflict management style. The sample consisted of 106 Thai, 114 French, and 119 American participants (339). The results of this study concluded that cultural background and intercultural competence influence the choice of intercultural conflict management style as well as the adaptation of intercultural conflict management style to culturally different team members. Specifically, it was partially confirmed that intercultural conflict management styles vary across cultures, Americans preferred to use dynamic style and accommodation style, while Thai and French teams were similar in using discussion style as their preferred style. A significant relationship was also found between intercultural competence and conflict management styles, as well as the adaptation of conflict management styles to cultural differences and adaptation, Thai and French significantly used the argumentative style more than the dynamic and accommodation style. Meanwhile, Americans significantly used the dynamic style, followed by the accommodation style and the discussion style.