Isabelle Jensen

Arizona State University

Conflict in Organizations

I found the readings about conflict in the workplace extremely interesting and relatable to

organizations I have worked in. Conflicts come in all sorts of ways, shapes and forms, but there

is a common understanding that how people deal with the conflicts has a direct influence on how

high their cultural intelligence is. One reading about the giraffe and elephant gave an excellent

example of how people with low cultural intelligence see the world and other people’s issues. It

was easily relatable to the previous readings we have done on how people with privilege would

rather change those in need than fight for their rights.

One thing about conflict in the workplace that I found interesting is how people with

higher cultural intelligence manage conflict better (Gonçalves, 2016). Although I found that this

is scientifically proven from the study done, I don’t find it too surprising at all. As we have

reading in our previous readings, ignorance about cultures is rooted within privilege. Therefore,

those with lower cultural intelligence are likely to have an ignorance towards many issues

including conflicts, being the ones that cannot handle conflicts well in the workplace.

A lot of the connection between conflict management and cultural intelligence comes

from the ability to self-monitor (Gonçalves, 2016). Someone with the ability to self-monitor is

able to read a situation they are in and adapt to it, especially when communicating with other

cultures. This also would mean that they could self-monitor while in a conflict and adapt their

reaction to what is going on. This also means someone that cannot self-monitor would not be

able to adapt the conversation towards someone’s cultural conversation style, and they would

also not be able to control themselves in a conflict. This is a big motivating factor in why

organizations should have trainings on how to increase your cultural intelligence. Not only
 Isabelle Jensen
Arizona State University
would they be promoting a safe workplace with diversity and inclusion, but they would also

likely be lower the amount of conflicts that take place, increasing their overall productivity.

However, these concepts of cultural intelligence and conflict management immensely

help me understand the people within my workplace and the low cultural intelligence they may

have. It isn’t safe to assume that anyone in your workplace who deals with conflict in a bad way

has low cultural intelligence, but it does make you think about it and see them and their

behaviors in a different way.

In my current organization, we are only an architecture firm of about 15 employees.

However, we are very diverse, many people being from a different culture and country. One

conflict that occurred a couple years ago was when we had someone that was from China and

identified as a Jehovah’s witness. Respecting his religion and culture, we didn’t celebrate

holidays with our normal potluck’s or office parties, rather we kept it very low key. This created

a conflict in the office because many other employees were upset that we weren’t having our

office parties just for one specific employee’s beliefs. We were able to come up with a

negotiable dispute with the other employees and did have small get-togethers on these holidays

(Roosevelt, Woodruff, 1999). Although this was a minor diversity conflict, it is definitely an

issue that comes up in all organizations. It may be best for my company to look into diversity

trainings so the other employees can understand why we respect another employee’s beliefs.

I found the giraffe and elephant story very interesting because it gave me another way to

look at diversity from a perspective I hadn’t thought of before. However, it is easily connected to

the problems we are facing in America today. The giraffe would rather make changes to the

elephant than to his house, in the same way people who are not willing to change the laws and

procedures in America are trying to change people from other cultures by deporting them,
 Isabelle Jensen
Arizona State University
banning them from our country, or simply sitting back and doing nothing about how they are

unfairly treated.

One of my favorite key dynamic from the giraffe and elephant story was how they talked

about the giraffe, acting as the dominant culture, built the house and decided the policies and

procedures for that house. On the other hand, the elephant, acting as the subordinate cultures,

have little to no power, and have to figure out the unwritten rules of the house in order to make

adaptions to themselves (Ungerleider, 2008). Today, we find many Americans who believe that

since they built the house (America) and their ancestors wrote the policy and procedures of this

house, that we must stick to them blindly turning away from the issues caused by the policies and

procedures. The elephant represents any immigrant or minority in America who feels as though

they must adapt to our culture in order to fit in. This story was a great metaphor for the deeply

rooted issues we see today in our country.

These concepts have taught me a lot about how to stand up for others in the workplace

and not be afraid to take a stand against discrimination. These forms of discrimination are not

only in the form of discrimination against other races, but also people with a different sexuality

or sexual orientation as we saw in the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity game. These readings and

simulation have taught me how to look for discrimination that may not be right in front of me,

but hidden within emails, small talk, and hiring tactics. As someone who is likely going into a

field of HR, I am able to ensure that the organization I work for doesn’t tolerate these acts in the

workplace.

After all the readings and simulations, we have done this semester, my post-test scores

were very shocking to me. Instead of scoring higher, I found that I actually scored lower than my

pre-test score. This is mainly because I have become more aware of how I really interact with
 Isabelle Jensen
Arizona State University
people in other cultures and that I may have been ignorant about how much I really know about

these cultures during my pre-test. This lower-score shows me just how much I have learned

about privilege and recognizing your bias and prejudices against other cultures and languages.

Overall, I have learned a lot about how conflict management connects with cultural

intelligence in the workplace. I had no idea that an indication of someone’s cultural intelligence

would be found in how they handle conflicts, yet it also makes complete sense. If they aren’t

able to control themselves and monitor what they during a conflict, they also aren’t self-aware

enough to recognize their privilege. In the elephant and giraffe story, I gained a different

perspective on diversity than I ever had before. I learned just how hidden these prejudices and

discriminations can be in even the nicest of people. After taking my post-test, I can say for

certain that I have learned more in this class than I ever could have imagined and I believe

everyone, no matter their age, should take a class like this to become aware of their own

prejudices they may hold.

References

Gonçalves, Gabriela, et al. “Cultural Intelligence and Conflict Management

Styles.” International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 24, no. 4, Jan. 2016, pp.
725–42. Emerald Insight, doi:10.1108/IJOA-10-2015-0923.

Thomas, R. Roosevelt, and Marjorie I. Woodruff. Building a House for Diversity: How a Fable
about a Giraffe & Elephant Offers New Strategies for Today’s Workforce. AMACOM,
1999.

Ungerleider J. (2008) Conflict. In: Halverson C.B., Tirmizi S.A. (eds) Effective Multicultural
Teams: Theory and Practice. Advances in Group Decision and Negotiation, vol 3.
Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6957-4_8