Interpersonal Conflicts that aren’t as Personal
It is no longer news that globalization has prevailed. In view of this, the outsourcing of work across geographical regions has become a norm over the past decade. It is thus commonplace for multi-national corporations to have teams comprising of members across different time zones and cultures, leveraging on electronic-mail (email) as the standard means of communication among members of these teams.
The email above was adapted (with details censored) from an email exchange within a software company between the lead user interface designer in the company’s California office and the lead software engineer in its India office. These individuals are two of the most important people in each product release, and they have to work together to ensure the quality of the product both in terms of its functionality and design.
As is exemplified in the email exchange, interpersonal conflict of varying degrees is common and unavoidable whenever two individuals work together. However, for these two managers, who are talented in their respective fields and well liked among their peers, interaction seems to end up each pointing fingers at the other. Compared with other more serious incidents, this email exchange is a relatively mild example. In addition to obvious lack of cross-cultural understanding with regard to working habits and cultural traditions, the inability to contact each other with short notices has also increased the level of anxiety and mistrust. Communication through email, without personal face-to-face interaction, is also a possible cause for conflict. All this has resulted in both parties often feeling frustrated working together, which in turn has brought about the reduction of efficiency in the company. The Vice-President of Product Development, who oversees both teams, also has to deal with the additional workload of managing the interaction and conflict between the two.
Given the knowledge of the various methods of resolutions for interpersonal conflict, how can we adapt these methods for a similar cross-cultural communication situation using email, a medium that limits the dimension of interaction, as the main mode of communication? In addition, what can we do if in the near future if we encounter a similar situation involving two conflicting parties?