Influences of Chinese Cultural Orientations and Conflict Management Styles on Construction Dispute Resolving Strategies
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135, Issue 10
Abstract
Investigating styles of handling interpersonal conflict across multiple situations, this study explores the orientations of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism versus collectivism, femininity versus masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term versus short-term orientation) influencing the choice of dispute resolving strategies in construction industry. Combinations of the five conflict approaches (collaborating, dominating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating) of the two concerns model are adopted to present the styles of handling conflict (or conflict management styles). Chinese residing in Taiwan are chosen as the focus group. 62 engineering students in universities and 64 engineers in industry practices, totaling 126, were interviewed, and their conflict management styles toward supervisors and equally ranked peers were assessed using Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. The cultural orientations are detected and articulated by the degree of people’s style adjustment that switches from one’s preferable style to another style to handle conflicts with his/her supervisors and peers differently. The results of the investigation data show that the adjustment of styles facing different situations clearly demonstrates the influences of cultural orientations. Our findings on Chinese cultural orientations (high power distance, femininity, and high uncertainty avoidance) may partially explain why Taiwanese-Chinese engineers prefer handling disputes through cumbersome administration routes and why most filed disputes will eventually escalate up to the central governmental authority for final settlements.
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Acknowledgments
We appreciate the students and the engineers who provided valuable data in our surveys. We thank the financial support from the R.O.C. National Science Council project (Grant No. UNSPECIFIEDNSC 96–2211-E-006–226). We must also acknowledge our indebtedness to Professor Janet Martinez and Professor Raymond Levitt at Stanford University for their kind sharing and insightful inspiration in this research.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135 • Issue 10 • October 2009
Pages: 955 - 964
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 9, 2007
Accepted: May 21, 2009
Published online: Sep 15, 2009
Published in print: Oct 2009
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