Answer the following statements true (T) or false (F)

Question

1. People from collectivist cultures tend to apply a forcing style of conflict with colleagues more
than do people from individualist cultures.
2. Creating common experiences for all employees would help organizations reduce
organizational conflicts.
3. Resolving differences with the opposing party through direct communication is not as
comfortably applied in collectivist cultures.
4. Buffers tend to resolve conflict by reducing the level of interdependence between the
conflicting parties.
5. Integrators have direct authority over the departments they integrate and they rely on
legitimate power to manage conflict and accomplish the work.

Answer 1

1. FALSE
People from collectivist cultures are motivated to maintain harmonious relations and,
consequently, are more likely than those from low collectivist cultures to manage
disagreements through avoidance or problem solving rather than forcing style.
2. TRUE
Creating common experiences would reduce differentiation among employees. This would
reduce the possibility of conflicts among employees.
3. TRUE
People in collectivist and high power distance cultures are less comfortable with the practice of resolving differences through direct and open communication.
4. TRUE
A buffer is any mechanism that loosens the coupling between two or more people or work
units. Buffers help to reduce the interdependence between conflicting parties.
5. FALSE
Integrators rarely have direct authority over the departments they integrate, so they must rely
on referent power and persuasion to manage conflict and accomplish the work.