Conflict Management in a Multicultural Workplace: Causes and Solutions

This report delves into the critical issue of conflict management within multicultural workplaces. It begins by highlighting the significance of this topic, especially given the increasing diversity in modern workplaces. The report identifies various causes of conflict, including lack of acceptance, lack of unity, poor communication, lack of understanding, and differing expectations among employees from diverse cultural backgrounds. It then explores the negative consequences of such conflicts, such as a polluted work culture, reduced employee productivity, and decreased employee engagement. To address these challenges, the report recommends that companies establish policies that promote equality and acceptance. It suggests training employees on effective communication and workplace ethics, and creating opportunities for employees to discuss their concerns with management. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of proactive measures to foster a harmonious and productive work environment.

Running Head: MANAGING CONFLICTS IN A MULTI CULTURAL WORK PLACE
MANAGING CONFLICTS IN A MULTI CULTURAL WORK PLACE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MANAGING CONFLICTS IN A MULTI CULTURAL WORK PLACE
Introduction:
Conflict management is a major matter of concern, especially, in the case of workplaces
where people from diverse cultural as well as ethnic background work together. Conflict in a
multicultural workplace does not only pollute the work culture but also hampers the peace of
mind of the employees. This in turn, cast upon a negative impact on the productivity of the
employees. The purpose of this report is to throw lights on the causes as well as consequences of
conflicts in a multi-cultural workplace. The final section of this report provides effective
recommendations for resolving conflict.
Causes of conflict:
Brett (2018), has pointed out several factors that fuel conflict related to the intercultural
interaction in a workplace.
Lack of acceptability:
Lack of acceptability towards the employees of different ethnic as well as cultural
background is one of the reasons that give birth to conflicts in a multicultural workplace.
Lack of unity:
Often the lack of unity induced by the lack of acceptability towards the people with diverse
cultural background becomes the reasons behind the intercultural conflicts at the workplace.
Poor communication:
Poor communication induced by the difference in the languages of the employees of distinct
cultural and ethnic background, often becomes ne of the vital causes of conflicts of employees
belonging to the multicultural background.

2MANAGING CONFLICTS IN A MULTI CULTURAL WORK PLACE
Lack of understanding:
Sometimes, the false perception, narrow-mindedness as well as the poor communication gives
birth to the lack of understanding among the employees of different cultural background working
together in an workplace.
Differing expectations:
Again, the difference in the expectation levels induced by the lack of understanding also
escalate conflict among employees of distinct ethnic as well as cultural background
Consequences of conflict:
As the consequence of the conflicts, the peace in the workplace as well as the minds of
the employees hampered, this in turn paves the way for more conflicts. The work culture of a
company becomes polluted. This cast upon a spillover effect on the productivity of the
employees as well as employee engagement. In other words, the productivity of the employees
declines and they feel less engaged with the company.
Recommendations and Conclusion:
As a suggestion to solve such workplace conflicts, every company consisting of workers
from different ethnic as well as cultural background should formulate policies which foster
equality as well as acceptability. For example, IBM, on e of the most popular MNC which
operates in the fields of information technology, prioritize talent management in an environment
full of employees with different cultural background without compromising on the part of the
individualized care for employees. Thus IBM generates the message of equality, integrity and
acceptability towards people with multicultural background (Ibm.org 2019).

3MANAGING CONFLICTS IN A MULTI CULTURAL WORK PLACE
Hence, in the conclusion it can be said that, Firstly, at the time of induction all the
employees should be trained about the norms and rules regarding effective communication as
well a workplace ethics to deal with people from diverse cultural background at workplace.
Secondly, there should be opportunities for the employees who belong to different cultural
background, to discuss with the management about the problems they are facing for preventing
further escalation of those issues.

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References
Brett, J., 2018. Intercultural challenges in managing workplace conflict–a call for research. Cross
Cultural & Strategic Management, 25(1), pp.32-52.
Ibm.org (2019). IBM.org - Policies. [online] Ibm.org. Available at:
https://www.ibm.org/responsibility/policies [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].