“化繁为简”:跨文化情境下中国企业海外项目团队如何管控冲突?

Reduce Complexity to Simplicity:How Can Chinese Multinational Teams Manage Conflicts under Cross-cultural Situation?

随着海外项目团队日益活跃于国际市场上,多元文化背景的团队成员结构在激活文化创造潜力的同时也增加了由文化异质性引发的跨文化冲突问题。然而,对于海外项目团队如何管控冲突仍未得到充分的理论解释。本文基于文化嵌入视角,选取4家中国企业的海外项目团队进行多案例比较研究,探讨海外项目团队的跨文化冲突来源及冲突管控策略。研究发现:第一,海外项目团队的跨文化冲突主要来源于价值导向与管理规范的异质性;第二,由于文化嵌入的优先性会影响团队策略选择,因而海外项目团队在管控跨文化冲突时,需要对文化内外部嵌入的优先性进行权衡考量;第三,在不同文化嵌入的作用下,海外项目团队可以通过结构型、功能型与混合型策略进行跨文化冲突管控,来缓解跨文化冲突的掣肘。本文最终形成的跨文化冲突整合模型,能够为后续海外项目团队层面的跨文化冲突管控研究提供新的理论解释,并响应近期国际商务领域学者对于扩展跨文化理论研究边界的呼吁。

Throughout the global market, more and more multinational enterprises, such as Volvo, GE and Siemens, have adopted the form of project teams to successfully operate globally. How overseas project teams manage conflicts under cross-cultural circumstances has become a hot issue of common concern in both the academic and the industry circle. Regarding the research topic of cross-cultural conflict management, the existing literature, believes that the main source of cross-cultural conflicts is the heterogeneity of cultural values at the national level, and focuses more on the cultural value dimensions such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and collectivism. No literature has yet fully explained the cross-cultural conflicts at the level of overseas project teams.This paper focuses on the core question of"How to manage conflicts among overseas project teams of Chinese enterprises under cross-cultural context?", specific research conclusion as followed: firstly, under the cross-cultural context, Chinese enterprises overseas project team often face challenges brought by the cultural heterogeneity conflict,but the team has a different heterogeneous sources of cross-cultural conflict.Based on the case study of cross-cultural conflicts at the level of overseas project teams, this paper finds that cross-cultural conflicts originate from the heterogeneity of value orientation and management norms.Secondly, when conducting cross-cultural conflict management and control, overseas project teams of Chinese enterprises need to consider the internal and external priority of cultural embedding. When team culture is embedded internally and externally, they should pay more attention to achieving a balance of internal and external cultural embedding to achieve effective management and control of cross-cultural conflicts.Thirdly, the overseas project teams of Chinese enterprises manage cross-cultural conflicts through structural,functional and hybrid strategies under different cultural embedding. Specifically, when cultural embedding is focused internally, overseas project teams will choose a structured conflict management strategy.When cultural embedding is focused externally, overseas project teams will choose functional conflict management strategies.When embedded culture at the same time focus on internal and external, overseas project team will choose conflict of hybrid control strategy, constantly adjust the coupling of structural control and functional control degree that reach the state of the mutual coordination between the management culture embedded in the internal and external equilibrium at the same time,achieve the goal of intercultural conflict control.Theoretical contribution of this paper is mainly focused on three aspects: firstly, in this paper, the source of cross-cultural conflict from two aspects, management norms and value orientation of deconstruction, also explained the value guidance and management standard level of the microcosmic basis of the formation of cross-cultural conflict, expand and extend the Hofstede classic cross-cultural analysis framework, contribute to the migration and deepening of the cross-cultural dimensions theory. Secondly, this paper explores the key role of culture embedded in the selection of conflict management strategies for China’s overseas project teams, and provided a new theoretical perspective for the follow-up research on the management and control of cross-cultural conflicts.Thirdly, based on different culture embedded situation refined structural and functional conflict with hybrid control strategy, a further extension of Tjosvold, etc.(2006) study of cross-cultural conflict control China team, cross-cultural conflict broke through the traditional control theory frame, to reveal the micro mechanism of the cross-cultural conflict control, deconstruction team level for the cross-cultural conflict control study provides important theoretical basis.