Japanese and Thai Differences in Conflict Management : Implications for Adaptations

A survey questionnaire was designed to identify the key differences of national culture and five styles of conflict management between Japanese managers and Thai staff of the Japanese manufacturers in Thailand. Significant differences were found between these two nationalities. Thai staff emphasize collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. Thai staff, however support collectivism with Thai nationalities and exclude Japanese managers from their collective society. Thai staff try to avoid uncertainty at work place as they do not want to be scolded by the Japanese managers because of uncertain work instruction and work responsibility. Thai staff respects paternalistic managers who take care of both personal and work related issues of their subordinates. For conflict management style, both nationalities support collaborating style as the most favorable conflict management style but for other styles, Japanese managers support competing style while Thai staff support compromising style. Japanese managers and Thai staff also accept accommodating style but the Japanese accommodating style is a mixture of accommodating with compromising or accommodating with avoiding. This style is observed in the process of Japanese managers’ adaptation to Thai culture. The results of this study will help the management of Japanese companies operating in Thailand and throughout Asia manage conflict more effectively and prepare their expatriates and Thai subordinates to be more adaptive to working together. It replicates the conflict management styles identified in the literature but provides a different empirical foundation in the context of Japanese and Thai managers.