Illuminating a cross-cultural leadership challenge: When identity groups collide

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Management

Publication Date

11-2007

Abstract

When societal conflicts between social identity groups spill over into organizations, leaders face the formidable challenge of attempting to bridge differences and manage the conflict in order to accomplish work. After reviewing the literature on intergroup conflict, workplace diversity and social identity theory, we examine four potential leadership strategies for managing identity-based conflicts. The four leadership strategies are decategorization, recategorization, subcategorization and crosscutting. Examples drawn from an interview-based study are used to illustrate theoretical constructs found in the literature. We then consider each of these strategies in cross-cultural contexts and generate propositions to reflect differences in the effectiveness of the strategies in collectivist versus individualist cultures.

Comments

This article was originally published in International Journal of Human Resource Management. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for free download through ScholarWorks @ CWU.

Journal

International Journal of Human Resource Management

Rights

Copyright © 2007 Taylor & Francis

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