Suchergebnisse

PurposePrevious studies examining the relationship between gender and conflict-management strategies have generally reported weak or inconsistent results. This paper aims to study extends past research by examining the main and interactive effects of gender on conflict-management strategies over time. The authors propose that conflict-management strategies commonly employed in the workplace are impacted by worker gender as predicted by face negotiation theory and vary over time based on the "generation" of the worker.Design/methodology/approachTo test the study hypotheses, a field study was conducted to assess main and interactive effects of gender and generation on the five strategies for conflict management: Integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding and compromising. Questionnaire data were collected over four decades (1980s-2010s) from employed students (N = 6,613). Data analysis was performed using a multivariate analysis of covariance.FindingsThe results suggest female employees consistently use more noncompeting strategies (integrating, obliging, avoiding and compromising) than male employees and male employees consistently use more competing strategy (dominating) than female employees. All the main and interaction effects were significant.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study involved primarily students in the USA studying management at two major public universities, there may be implications for a more global population of workers. However, the results support the notion advanced by face negotiation theory that men will generally seek to save face while women will generally avoid conflict in consideration of others.Practical implicationsThis study demonstrates that workers employ different conflict-management strategies over time and the use of certain strategies varies by gender. An implication of this study is the need to regularly reassess selection, training and evaluation processes for managers. In addition, supervisors should encourage employees to enhance the effective use of cooperative (integrating, obliging and compromising) strategies and focus on specific situations when uncooperative strategies (dominating and avoiding) may be needed.Originality/valueBy using face negotiation theory as the organizing framework to examine changes in conflict-management strategies over time, this study contributes in a substantial way to the understanding of how gender and generation interact to influence the selection and use of conflict-management strategies in the workplace.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to test the validity of national culture as an explanatory construct for international operations management decision‐making.Design/methodology/approachNational culture is multi‐dimensional thereby allowing for much finer grained comparisons than are possible when examining differences based purely on geography or the level of industrialization. This proposition is examined from the theoretical standpoint then empirically investigated using an existing database.FindingsThis article finds that national culture significantly explains international operations management behaviors among similar manufacturing plants in the same industry located in different cultures.Originality/valueThis study represents a first attempt at using national culture to explain differences of operations decision‐making.