The Impact of Culture on Workplace Conflict in the Caribbean

Workplace Conflict As An Aspect Of Business Performance Management

Today’s organizations are under tremendous pressure to perform, facing challenges from all directions in a world of information overload, global competition, unavoidable inter-dependence, and frenetic pace. Globalization creates many new business partners. Mergers are made which create multi-cultural work families. Manufacturing moves into ever more distant and low cost territories, while jaded, globe-trotting tourists explore ever more remote recreational sites. It soon becomes apparent that, in order to succeed, understanding other cultures is an imperative. Aligning the efforts of individual workers toward common goals and objectives is one of management’s key tasks. In an environment where speed to market can mean the difference between profit and loss, ensuring effective collaboration between work groups becomes a core competency for many firms. The responsibilities of management include providing a workplace in which people are not distracted from key tasks by co-worker hostility, a manager’s refusal to resolve problems, or executive feuds.