Culture, gender, organizational role, and styles of conflict resolution: A meta-analysis

The popularity of self-report five-style conflict resolution instruments, spawned by Blake and Mouton's [(1964). The managerial grid. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing] dual concerns theory, resulted in a plethora of research studies examining possible differences in culture, gender and organizational role. Using the Managerial Grid, dual concerns theory postulates that conflict involves balancing the desire to meet production goals (x) versus concern for personal relationships (y). Five styles of managing conflict are then revealed: smoothing, withdrawing, compromising, problem-solving, and forcing. Numerous studies using instruments derived from this theory validate its basic premises, but results have provided confusing results. Given the disparity of results, a meta-analysis was conducted to provide a clearer overall picture for the variables of culture (individualistic versus collectivistic), gender, and organizational role (superior, subordinate, and peer). Based upon 123 paired comparisons within 36 empirical studies, the results of the meta-analysis indicate: (1) individualistic cultures choose forcing as a conflict style more than collectivistic cultures; (2) collectivistic cultures prefer the styles of withdrawing, compromising, and problem-solving more than individualistic cultures; (3) in individualistic cultures, compromising is endorsed more frequently by females; (4) females are more likely to endorse the use of compromising than males, regardless of culture; (5) males are more likely to report using forcing than females in individualistic cultures; and (6) with regard to organizational role, males are more likely than females to choose a forcing style with their superiors. Further research is needed, particularly on the variable of cultural status. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.