Individualism-collectivism and Conflict Resolution Styles: A cross-cultural study of managers in Singapore

The trend of global economy and Singapore' efforts to become a regional hub of business have together brought in many MNCs and expatriate managers into Singapore. Due to cultural and managerial style differences, these managers and their local colleagues have encountered various conflicts. Building on the theory of Hofstede's Individualism-Collectivism (I-C) cultural dimension as well as Rahim and Bonoma's conflict management model, the current study examines how national culture, organisational culture, and managerial factors influence may these managers' conflict resolution styles through an empirical study of 600 managers in Singapore. The respondents were equally divided into four groups: Americans, Japanese, Chinese Singaporeans in MNCs and Singaporeans in local companies. The results show that although the I-C dimension did overall differentiate American managers from their Asian counterparts in their use of conflict resolution styles, the patterns of the relationship were often cursory. There was no clear line that separated the two camps. Some culture groups would often deviate from their expected culture values in handling conflicts. There were also considerable differences among various Asian culture groups. The findings suggest the phenomenon of culture regression. They also highlight the importance of introducing multi-culture groups instead of bi-polar, and multi-dimensional culture values instead of single I-C dimension for comparative studies. The trend of global economy and Singapore' efforts to become a regional hub of business have together brought in many MNCs and expatriate managers into Singapore. Due to cultural, social, economic and managerial style differences, these managers and their local colleagues have encountered various conflicts, some common to all organizations and others unique. How these managers may resolve conflicts in such a setting is a practically and theoretically interesting and significant question. The current study aims to explore this question through an empirical examination of conflict resolution styles by managers from various cultural backgrounds in Singapore. It examines how national culture and organisational