Communication: Conflict Resolution Techniques in the Workplace

Running head: COMMUNICATION 1
Communication
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COMMUNICATION 2
Communication
It is imperative to note that for there to be winners, there must be losers at some point
in time. However, for conflict, resolution, there must not be winners or losers, but both teams
can reach a consensus. For instance, I have been working on a particular software project
whose clients were Japanese. As the project manager, I had to interact with Japanese clients
fully. My team is fully composed of Americans. However, it was clear that the variation in
terms of my clients and my team’s cultural heritage as well as the value system had a clear
difference. In this case, they approved a set of business issues or even affected the decision-
making process. The issue of decision-making resulted from the fact that the Japanese are
looking for sheer perfection. The Japanese try their best to simplify the issue at hand to the
lowest of details since they are looking for clarity as well as certainty. In this case, they are
not inclined toward risks and try as much as possible to aim at long term profits. On the
contrary, Americans do not try their best to avert risk since they are generally risk takers. All
the situations presented to them are considered as a challenge hence aim at exploring it at full
potential. Therefore, Americans are fast to make decisions as well as aim at short-term profits
without focusing on the long term benefits.
It is because of such cultural differences that there were many conflicts occurring in
the initial phase between the American team and the Japanese clients. The Japanese client
team believed that the team was too casual with the process of decision-making. On the other
hand, our team was convinced that the client team was too cautious as they make decisions
affecting the project. The communication, as well as the synergy, was affected because of the
cultural issues affecting the teams (DeVito, 2019). The following five techniques can be used
for conflict resolution in the workplace.