A Comparative Study Between Chinese Business School Students And Indian Ones

Communication among different countries and cultures has been increasing thanks to globalization and conflicts are inevitable during the process. For example, people from different countries conduct business or work in a same multinational company. Managing these conflicts is crucial to the effectiveness of communication. For better understanding and managing conflicts, different conflict management models have been proposed, and it is held that every person has a fixed conflict management style. This thesis focuses on how people deal with conflicts with peers at the same rank and leaders in one group from two different countries, China and India.This thesis, from the aspect of intercultural communication, is intended to explore the answers for the following questions: (1) What intra-group conflict management styles do Chinese culture and Indian culture foster respectively? (2) What is the effect of the status of the persons in the conflict? (3) What is the relationship between intra-group conflict management styles and societal cultural values?The theoretical framework of this research is based on: Thomas-Kilman Conflict MODE Instrument, Kraybill Conflict Management Style Inventory, Hofstede's cultural dimensions and GLOBE societal cultural values. An empirical comparison study was conducted to explore the research questions between Chinese business school students and Indian ones.Major findings include: (1) Chinese culture fosters the Compromising Style of conflict; and Indian culture, the Directing Style. (2) When the other party in a conflict has the higher status, the primary conflict style is still adopted, both in China (Compromising Style) and in India (Directing Style). (3) The Compromising style of conflict reflects an individual's orientation toward Collectivism 2 (GLOBE societal cultural value); the Directing style, Assertiveness (GLOBE societal cultural value). This thesis explores the conflict management style fostered by the Chinese culture and Indian culture and also explores the relationship between conflict management styles and societal cultural values. Certainly, further studies are needed.