When a Confucian Manages Individualists: A Study of Intercultural Conflict Between Chinese Managers and Western Subordinates

Past studies have largely focused on cross-cultural comparison of conflict management and concluded that Westerners tend to use competing, problem solving and aggressive approaches to handle their conflicts; whereas, Chinese tend to use avoiding approach to manage their conflicts. To date, no literature is available on intercultural conflicts between Chinese managers and Western subordinates. This study investigates conflict situation involving Chinese managers with Westerner as subordinates. Through field observation in a multinational company and in-depth interviews with a diverse group of Chinese managers and Western employees, this study found that Chinese managers tended to switch their conflict strategies overtimes while Western subordinates kept their confrontational strategy rather consistently even they were at a lower organizational status. Face was found an important influencing factor on choice of conflict strategy by Chinese but Westerners felt severity of conflicts, credibility and inter-relation were most influencing factors. This study of intercultural conflicts in the superior-subordinate relationship confirms some cultural patterns as well as adaptability in the context.