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Conflict Resolution Process in International Joint Ventures: A Theatre Metaphor Approach
Huu Le Nguyen, Ph D, Assistant Professor Department of Marketing
University of Vaasa Wolfintie 34, PL BOX 700, 65200 Vaasa
Finland Email: nghl@uva.fi
Jorma Larimo, Ph D Professor in International Marketing
Department of Marketing University of Vaasa
Wolfintie 34, PL BOX 700, 65200 Vaasa Finland
Email: jla@uva.fi
Abstract
Due to the reason that conflicts are the fact of life, they present in any organizations and
especially in hybrid organizations like international joint ventures (IJVs) where partners are
from different backgrounds, cultures, and having different motives in IJVs. In addition, it is
noticed in international business literatures that conflicts between partners are one of the
main reasons lead to lower IJV performance and even termination of IJV relationship.
Therefore, knowing how to manage conflicts between partners becomes crucial in IJV
relationship. In this paper, we build up a process model for managing conflicts between
partners in IJV relationship by employing theatre metaphor approach. In other words, we
discuss in details how conflict between partners can be resolved by going through each step
of the process. We conclude the paper by offering both theoretical and managerial
implications. also theorists, and by pointing out opportunities for further research. This paper
is believed to have significant contributions to IJV theory and conflict management
knowledge.
Keywords: Conflict management, theatre metaphor approach, international joint ventures
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Conflict Resolution Process in International Joint Ventures: A Theatre Metaphor Approach
1. Introduction
Firms often engage in international joint ventures (IJVs) with local firms when they expand
abroad (Dunning, 1995; Dinh, 1997; Li, 2003; Duan & Chuanmin, 2007; Meschi & Riccio,
2008). However, several studies show a high rate of IJV failure (Hennart, Kim & Zeng, 1998;
Bamford, Ernst & Gubini, 2004; Yeheskel, Newburry & Zeira, 2004). There are several
reasons for the failures. However, because firms often have different goals and ways of
operating, it is no wonder that inter-partner conflicts often arise (Fey & Beamish, 1999).
Thus, understanding conflict is crucial to organizations (Boonsathorn, 2007) since the
conflict resolution strategy of a parent firm will affect IJV performance (Fey & Beamish,
1999; Lu, 2006; Yavas, Eroglu & Eroglu, 1994). Parkhe (1993) pointed out that conflicts in
IJVs are one of the four key areas in IJV research besides partners’ motives, partner selection,
performance measurement. Recently, Ma, Lee and Yu (2008) note that conflict management
literature has still received little research attention. Ma et al. (2008) and Doucet et al. (2009)
suggest that further study is needed. Furthermore, researchers maintain that there lacks of
studies dealing with conflict management and resolution in IJV context (e.g. Lin and
Germain, 1998; Nguyen and Larimo, 2011).
On the other hand Sullivan and Daniel (2008) suggest that we need to be innovation and
novel in international business research. Palmer and Dunford (1996), Cornelissen (2004),
Schreyögg and Höpfl (2004), Vera and Crossan (2004), Mantere, Sillince, and Hamalainen
(2007) maintain that metaphor is an important approach for organizational research.
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Shepherd-Barr (2006) emphasizes of the role of theater metaphor on scientific research,
especially in the study of conflicts of interest. In conflict resolution, many times, it requires
new ways of imagining action and new language which is so rich in metaphors (Foster and
Docherty, 2013). This study applies theatre metaphor approach (Coopey, 1998; Elam, 1980;
Gardner, 1992; Graham-Hills and Grimes, 2001; Kerrshaw, 1992; Mangham and Overington,
1983, 1987; Rosen 1985; Shepherd-Barr, 2006) to manage conflicts between IJV partners.
This managing process is challenges because IJVs have two parent firms and firms are from
different countries with different cultures and often have different goals and ways of
operating. Therefore it is important to apply metaphor approach to understand and gain
insight the complex issues. This study is the first to apply metaphor approach in managing
IJVs. Thus, it aims to contribute to both joint venture theory and conflict management theory.
In the next section, we will first review conflict management research in international joint
ventures. Then we elaborate theatre metaphor approach in detail. After that we build model
for managing international joint venture conflicts using theater metaphor theory. Finally we
discuss the implications of this model in both theoretical and pragmatic perspectives as well
as point out future research opportunities.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Research of conflicts and conflict management in IJVs
Existence of conflicts is a common characteristic of every organization (De Dreu &
Weingart, 2003). It is often regarded as a negative force, a harmful element (Boonsathorn,
2007) leading to discomfort, misunderstanding, and disruption of relationships or even
collapse of organizations (Robbins, 2005). In contrast, Bolton (1986) has more positive view
on conflict as he regards conflict as opportunity. Fisher (1990) suggests that conflicts can
arise when partners perceive the differences in their needs, interests, views, values, or goals.
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Moore (1996) divides conflicts into five different categories as follows: Data conflicts arise
when information is lacking, differently interpreted or withheld. Interest conflicts occur when
there are actual or perceived scarce resources such as physical assets (money or other tangible
things), procedural issues (how decisions should be made) or psychological issues (who is in
the wrong emotionally). Value conflicts erupt when people have different ways of life, deeply
rooted goals or varying criteria on how to evaluate behaviors. Relationship conflicts prosper
in environments of strong emotions, stereotypes, poor communication and historic negative
patterns. Structural conflicts result from structural inequities in control, ownership, power,
authority or geographic separation.
Fey and Beamish (1999) noticed that most researchers have focused their studies on how
partners can avoid conflicts. However, they argue that conflict must be dealt with because it
is inherent in the relationship. Thus, it is important to understand different kinds of conflict
resolution approach in a partnership, so that firms will be able to resolve conflicts with their
partners.
Fundamentally, conflict management styles are based on concern for self-interest or the
interests of another. Based on two dimensions of assertiveness (satisfying one’s own
concerns) and cooperativeness (satisfying the concerns of another), Thomas (1976) constructs
five conflict handling strategies: competing, collaboration, compromising, accommodating,
and avoiding. According to Rahim and Bonoma (1979), conflict management strategies
include dominating, obliging, avoiding, compromising, and integrating. Lin and Germain
(1998) and Lu (2006) categorize conflict resolution strategies into four main strategies:
problem solving, compromising, forcing, and a legalistic strategy.
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After carefully reviewing articles published in leading journals in the field of international
business and international management (Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of
International Management, International Business Review, Management International
Review, International Journal of Conflict Management, Journal of International Marketing,
Table 1. Key studies focusing on conflict resolution strategy from 1994-2013
Study Focus of study Method of study (type of study, data collection, sample size, data analysis method)
Results
Yavas et al. (1994)
Examining severity of various conflicts in Saudi Arabia
Empirical study, Survey 60 executives in Saudi Arabia ANOVA
Dynamic approach (close monitoring, frequent updating of goals and continuous cultivation of relationship) should be used to resolve conflicts in Saudi-US JVs rather than static approach
Ding (1996)
Examining Chinese management style in conflict resolution
Empirical study, Interviews 6 US Chinese JVs Comparative case analysis
Chinese managers tend to adopt contingent, long term, contextual, and holistic approaches to resolve conflict
Lin & Germain (1998)
Establishing the link between IJV context and a partner’s conflict resolution strategy
Empirical study, Survey 94 IJV managers, of whom 35 are Americans, 59 are Chinese LISREL
Cultural similarity stimulates a problem solving approach; the more power they have, the more partners use a forcing strategy and the less relevant a compromising strategy becomes. The longer an IJV relationship exists, the more likely partners are to use more problem solving and less legalistic strategies
Morris et al. (1998)
Examining culture and conflict management style
Empirical study Survey with MBA students 132 US, 100 Chinese, 160 Indians, 62 Philippines ANOVA
Chinese managers rely more on an avoiding style because of their relatively high value on conformity and tradition. US managers rely more on a competing style because of their relatively high value on individual achievement.
Fey & Beamish (1999)
Formulating a strategy for managing conflict in Russian IJVs
Empirical study, Interviews 40 Russian IJVs Case analysis
Align partner’s objectives, ensure adequate communication, develop standard procedures for resolving conflict, consider gains for all parties, developing high tolerance and understanding for different cultures, discussing ways to avoid future conflict, ensuring all parties are committed to the IJV
Peng et al. (2000)
Examining conflict management style in Sino-US, Sino-French enterprises in China
Empirical study, Survey 374 Sino-American and Sino-French IJVs, and 150 from state-owned enterprises ANOVA
Chinese business tends to emphasize uncertainty avoidance more than western equivalents but both Chinese and Westerners tend to adopt compromising style
Lin & Wang (2002)
Examining association between the preference for conflict resolution strategy and relationship trust and commitment and relative power
Empirical study, Survey 106 Asians & 99 Chinese Factor Analysis and Structural equation modeling
Trust encourages partners to use a problem solving strategy. The more power partners have, the more likely they will use a legalistic strategy
Barden et al. (2005)
Developing organizational justice based on closer relating of parent control to parent conflict
Empirical study, Survey 75 Vietnamese IJVs Hierarchical and moderated regression
Level of conflicts in IJVs depends on the consistencies between control structure and parent’s contribution of proprietary resources, and between control structure and a partner’s ability to effectively monitor operations
Wang et al (2005)
Comparing cross-cultural differences in the preference of conflict handling style
Empirical study, Survey 463 IJV managers: 217 Chinese managers, 124 Asian expatriates, and 122 Western expatriates
Western managers tend to use forcing and problem solving more than Asian managers do. Asian managers tend to prefer compromising styles more than their western partners. Western managers tend to use legalistic approach more than Chinese partners
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MANOVA, ANOVA Lu (2006)
Examining the impact of conflict resolution strategies in IJV performance
Empirical study, Survey 76 Sino-Japanese JVs and 89 Sino-Taiwanese JVs Regression analysis
Compromising and legalistic strategies are positively related to IJV satisfaction in Sino-Japanese IJVs but not in Sino-Taiwanese IJVs
Onishi & Bliss (2006)
Exploring how managers from Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam differ in conflict management
Empirical study, Survey 1825 responses from Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and HongKong Chinese ANOVA, ANCOVA
Managers from Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam differ in their preferences for conflict resolution strategies
Boonsahorn (2007)
Analyzing the preferences for conflict management styles of Thais and Americans in multinationals in Thailand
Empirical study, Survey 250 Thais and 64 American ANOVA & Pearson´s correlation
Thais preferred avoiding and obligating strategies. There is a negative relationship between length of stay abroad for Thais and preference for a dominating conflict management style
Kim et al. (2007)
Examining how Chinese, Japanese, Koreans resolve interpersonal conflict with their supervisors and the influence of cultural factors on conflict management style
Empirical study, Survey 270 employees from Chinese, Japan, and South Korea Hierarchical regression analysis
Koreans more frequently used a compromising strategy than the Chinese and Japanese did. The Japanese used less dominant strategy but were more obligated to their supervisors
White et al. (2007)
Using transaction cost to explain how firms should formulate contractual governance to get better efficiency, lower costs, and minimize conflict with partners
Conceptual study Perceived transaction costs influence firms’ choice of contractual governance mechanisms and conflict resolution strategy in foreign ventures. Cultural distance, relative power, and interest alignment will play important roles in conflict resolution strategy
Komarraju et al. (2008)
Examining the role of horizontal and vertical individual-collectivism in explaining conflict management style
Empirical study Survey 640 undergraduate students (67%European American, 22% African American, 4% Latino American, other) Correlation and regression analysis
Individualists prefer dominating styles, collectivists prefer integrating styles.
Doucet et al. (2009)
Comparing conflict management behavior of Americans and Chinese
Empirical study, structure interview 62 American and 52 Chinese Inductive analysis
For Chinese, embarrassing the colleague, teaching moral lesson are important elements. For Americans, hostility and vengefulness are important elements
Speakman & Ryals (2010)
Examining conflict theory for management of multiple simultaneous conflict episodes
Conceptual study In dealing with multiple, simultaneous conflicts, managers need to consider the possible implication of chosen strategy along with the changing environment of their operation
Yuan (2010)
Examining how American and Chinese employees of multinational organizations deal with conflict between them
Empirical study In depth interviews 20 non Chinese American, 19 Chinese, 3 Chinese American from 28 MNCs in China Comparative case analysis
Both American and Chinese employees used various strategies to deal with conflict. American participants were more likely to confront a conflict than Chinese participants. Different motivations may lead to the exercise of a common conflict strategy
Bisseling & Sobral (2011)
To examine and compare the effects of emotional and task conflict on team performance and member satisfaction in two distinct
Empirical studies Survey with 366 team member Interviews with 20 team managers from the Netherlands and Brazil
Cultural differences between these two countries not only influence the way intragroup conflict is experienced, but also its impact on members’ satisfaction and group Performance
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cultures, Brazil and The Netherlands
Traavik (2011)
To investigate the similarities and differences between dyads and four-party groups in an integrative negotiation.
Data are collected from subjects experiment. A total of 182 participants completed a negotiation role play and questionnaire
For dyads the procedure used (considering more than one issue at a time) led to higher economic outcomes, and both procedure and problem solving were important for subjective outcomes. For four-party negotiations, problem solving was significantly related to higher outcomes. Problem solving was significantly more important for the groups than for dyads on economic outcomes.
Kern at al. (2012)
To investigate the limitation on the presumption that inter-cultural negotiation are doomed to generate low joint gains
Data collected from 45 bi-cultural Korean and 47 Americans
Inter-cultural dyads generate higher joint gain than Korean or US intra cultural dyads. Intercultural negotiators, one of whom is bi-cultural, who use language, especially the pronoun “you” to close social distance achieve higher joint gains than intra-cultural negotiators who do not
Nguyen & Yang (2012)
To conceptualize Chinese conflict management behaviors as contingent on the hierarchical relations of conflict parties in an organizational context and investigate individual characteristics as moderators in this contingency framework
Data collected from 704 employees across China. Multiple logistic analysis was used to analyze data
Chinese role-playing a supervisor in a conflict with their subordinate tended to use direct, assertive, strategies to resolve the conflict but the results depended on age, education, region, and work experience. As a subordinate in their conflict with their supervisor, Chinese chose indirect, harmony, preserving strategies. In a conflict with a peer, respondents used a broader spectrum of conflict management strategies, depending on their individual characteristics.
Kirk et al. (2013)
To test the impact of a self-regulatory strategy of goal pursuit on interactive bargaining task
Data collected from 132 German. Regression analysis used to analyze the data
The strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions led dyads to lead the largest joint agreement, compared to dyads that only use mental contrasting or if then plans. Participants who mentally contrast formed more cooperative implementation intentions than participants who mentally did not mentally contrast, mediating the effect of joint gain.
Gross et al. (2013)
To employ Weber´s analysis of conflict system, specifically the distinction between formal and substantive rationality to demonstrate that predominant method of analyzing of conflict management focuses too heavily on the managerial interests in administrative efficiency and productivity rather than on the needs of individuals and organizations
Conceptual paper Conflict management based on Weber´s theories of formal and substantive rationality will benefit organizations and society by promoting a more positive perception of corporate behavior
Academy of Management Review), we have identified the key studies on conflict
management strategies and have presented them in Table 1. The results in Table illustrate that
most previous studies either focus on analyzing the conflict management styles of parties in
one country (e.g. Ding, 1996; Fey & Beamish, 1999; Kirk et al., 2013; Nguyen & Yang,
2012) or on comparing those employed in two countries (e.g. Doucet et al., 2009;
Boonsathorn, 2007; Kern et al., 2012; Yavas et al., 1994; ) or in a number of countries (e.g.
Kim et al., 2007; Lu, 2006; Onishi & Bliss, 2006; Peng, He & Zhu, 2000). Some also
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compare the conflict management strategies of western versus Asian firms (Wang et al.,
2005; Peng et al., 2000). And, some researchers used one cultural dimension to analyze the
preference for conflict management strategy (e.g. Komarraju, Dollinger & Lovell, 2008).
In addition, previous studies also focus on providing strategies to avoid conflict (e.g. White
III, Joplin & Salama, 2007; Barden, Steensma & Lyles, 2005) or the effect of cultural
similarity, age of relationship, and the general relative power of partners (e.g. Lin &
Beamish, 1999) on the preference for certain conflict resolution strategies. In short, the past
studies on conflict resolution in IJVs are mostly tactics and lack of studies on the process of
conflict resolution. There is even more limited on conflict resolution studies in IJV context.
This study is therefore to fill this gap.
2.2. Metaphor approach
A metaphor gives directions of interrelationships that are normally nonexistent. A creative
metaphor builds a bridge between two different conceptual domains, which encourage new
visions, innovation and new product development (Cacciaguidi-Fahy and Cunningham,
2007). Metaphor can be used to simplify the complex description of organizations, to convey
information and ideas, ways of thinking using languages (Cacciaguidi-Fahy and
Cunningham, 2007), to highlight the evolution of strategic alliance (Hunt and Menon, 1995)
to understand organizational situations and problems (Palmer and Dunford, 1996).
According to Gibson and Zellmer-Bruhn (2002), metaphor can help firms to build
multicultural teams with common vision. Furthermore, Smith and Eisenberg (1987) view that
metaphors are important in organization as they help members to understand or have cues
from one context to another. In addition, conflict resolution is about change parties´
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behaviors. Thus, metaphor approach is important in the field because metaphors are used to
introduce changes (Palmer and Dunford, 1996). Through communication, metaphor enables
the connection of different cultures and bonds all stakeholders in joint venture regardless of
their national or organizational cultures (Cacciaguidi-Fahy and Cunningham, 2007).
Theatre metaphor and conflict resolution
Theatre metaphor approach has been widely applied in organizational research (Kendall,
Kendall, and Lee, 2005) since the use of theater as a metaphor to explain and structure a
neurological explanation of consciousness of decision makers (Melody, 2007), and to depict
conflict of interest (Shepherd-Barr, 2006). Furthermore, the theatre metaphor approach looks
at a pre-play period of communication between actors. This period is important as actors have
not decided which strategies to use to resolve conflicts. Therefore, this is a chance for actors
to position themselves and influence each other to have a common solution. According to
Smith and Eisenberg (1987) theater is highly structured, rules governed presentations in
which individuals play clearly defined roles designed to bring about an intended effect.
Another key point of using theatre metaphor approach in resolving conflicts is that the stand
point of actors can change via emotion and rationalizations. Actors in the scene will try to use
emotion and rational debate to influence their own and others´ beliefs and values. This is an
advanced technique since actors cannot simply choose rational moves in isolated
environment with them and with other´s emotions. Thus theatre metaphor approach suggests
that actors´ choices of moves are not only basing on instrumental rationality but also on their
beliefs about the opportunities they perceive, and on characteristic of the players and the
environment they are in. The outcome of attempting to resolve conflict according to theatre
metaphor approach is the result of the interactions related to the evolvement of emotions,
reasoning, exploring, debating, exchange of threats, and promises.
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The nature of theatre is to help the people to understand issues through metaphoric
communication and providing a communal experience. Using theatre metaphor in conflict
resolution in IJVs is a process of stimulating and sustaining participation of partners using the
world of the theatre to achieve real solutions to practical problems that occur in partnering
relationship affecting IJV operation. Employing theatre may help to transform the people
from being the object to the subject of development. Applying the theatre metaphor in
resolving conflict helps IJV partners to hold effective discussions, constructive dialogue,
understanding and trust toward partners and therefore work out strategies for dealing with
problems that affect them.
The logic of theatre works by creating a fictional narrative of special ongoing relationship
and conflicts which are subject to change by the playwrights and participants. In addition,
theatre work also explores all the aspects of situation, real life understanding, and
relationship. Furthermore, theatre also emphases on conflicts of personality, attitudes,
emotions, interests, and morals. The use of theatre metaphor approach is useful in conflict
management in IJVs as it may help to diagnose the nature of conflict as it re-enacts in a
fictional scene of the dynamics of human interaction and motivation which cause conflicts.
Furthermore, playing roles in theatre; partners have opportunities to understand the other
partners´ viewpoints as they play the antagonists or play third parties. Therefore, partners will
view the conflicted problems more objectively, leading more easily to resolve them.
3. Theatre metaphor in conflict resolution in IJVs
In conflict resolution process under theater metaphor approach, partners agree on the context
and the purpose the conflict resolution process. During the process IJV partners will attend
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warm-ups for building trust toward each other. Furthermore, they are trained to understand
partner´s skills and function so that they are willing to accept differences which come from
partners´ cultural background and their management styles. In addition, they should be able
to express their true feelings about the conflicts so that when the conflicts are solved, they are
gone and there are no hidden agenda.
Table 2: Actors in conflict resolution in IJVs
Actors in theatre Actors in IJVs
Playwright:
A person who create the fiction, invents the
situations and characters
Experts or specialists who are directly responsible for
solving conflicts
Director:
A person who manage context of event and the
fiction context
Foreign parent firms and local parent firms
Actors:
Persons who play out the characters in fiction
context
Managers/employees from both foreign and local
partners
Audience (also critic):
Persons who watch, observe, respond, and reflect
on the dramatic action
Representatives of different departments that are
involved in the conflicts.
The theatre process includes scriptwriting, initial reading, workshopping, rehearsals, and the
actual performance (Kendall, Kendall, & Lee, 2005). In scriptwriting stage, through
observation, discussion with involved parties to identify sources cause conflicts, how serious
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the problem is, and how IJV have been affected by conflicts and how urgently need to solve
conflicts by following IJV performance. As different type of conflicts have different natures
and therefore they require different type of players and their responsibility. A typology of
conflict is useful when the issues in a conflict are centralized in one of the five categories
discussed above.
When different conflicts occur, different responses to conflicts are required. For example, if
a conflict is primarily a data conflict, sharing information and being sure that each party is
interpreting the facts the same way is useful. However, if the conflict primarily is about
values, sharing factual data alone will not solve the problem. In this stage firms may have
initial plan for conflict resolution with its stand and strategies.
In initial reading stage, partners make a plan for different steps of conflict resolution. In this
stage they evaluate advantages and disadvantages when to select specific strategy to solve
conflicts. In initial stage, firms analyze their strategies and anticipate reaction of their partners. For
conflict to be resolved, it is important to know in terms of cultural aspects: not only know
what but know why and how the other partner behaves in such a way. The conflict resolution
process is the continuous development process. Partners need to recognize the forces or
sources causing conflicts. The point in this stage is to know why conflict occurs in IJV
relationship between partners.
In workshopping stage, the plan of partners for conflict resolution does not fix but it opens to
change. Under guiding by parent firms, conflict management teams or conflict negotiators are allowed
to act and try out different alternatives. Through workshopping stage, the players are able to learn
how to respond properly when the other have different moves. In rehearsal stage, negotiation
teams are practicing their negotiation steps, tactics and strategies to get partners to agree with
their proposed solutions. In addition, in this stage, different solutions and alternatives are
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rehearsed in case if the first priority alternative strategy fails to solve the conflicts, partners
will go on the second best one and so on. Before entering to negotiation table, partners have
to agree on the fundamental of theater that they will be willing to suspend of their disbelief
about the stereotype toward each other or their belief that there is only one solution for the
problem.
Table 3: Process of stages in conflict resolution applying theater metaphor approach
In the performing stage, conflict resolution team meets with their counter partners to negotiate for
conflict resolution. Partners then need to influence the other so that they do recognize the
Process stage in Theatre activities
Process stage in Conflict Management in IJVs
Actors Purposes
Scriptwriting - Problem identifications and evaluation
- Strategies formation
Representative of partners, parent firms
- To find out sources, types, and levels, and roles of conflicts
- To find out different approach and strategies to solve conflicts
Initial Reading
Initial walkthrough steps of conflict resolution plan
Representative of partners, parent firms
Evaluating advantages and disadvantages for different conflict resolution approach and strategies
Casting actors and actress
Conflict negotiation team formation
Representative of partners, parent firms, and conflict resolution teams
To select team that will performance successfully conflict resolution
Workshopping Brainstorm strategies to resolve conflict
Conflict resolution team
Conflict resolution team will test different approach and strategies to solve the conflicts to find out the different best options
Rehearsals Practicing of conflict transformation
Conflict resolution team
The team practice to negotiate with partners to agree with their solutions
The performance (The show)
Actual conflict resolution negotiation between partners
Representative of the other partner, and conflict resolution team
The conflict resolution team and the representative of other partners meet to negotiate for conflict resolution
Post Performance, (Critique, publicity)
Evaluating and trust rebuilding
Partner firms, IJV conflict management team, customers
To follow up conflict resolution stage
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strengths of cooperative behavior and thus encourage partners to create positive responses. It
is important in resolving conflicts that partners try to avoid direct negative comments. To
resolve conflicts in IJVs, partners need also to understand the other and also to make others to
understand their own points. These can be done only through open discussion. Through open
discussion about conflict areas, it is possible to change the ways the other partners perceive,
and therefore they act toward common goal as to maintain IJV performance and therefore
solve the common problems between partners.
The chance for partners to change comes from an active metaphorical dialogue about conflict,
transformation and resolution. Moreover, for conflicts to be solved, partners some time may
need to improvise the solutions as the situation development. They may also need to take off
their shoes and step into the other partners´ shoes to understand the other better. This
changing role helps partners to enter to change their mentality and nature of the negotiation
toward the common solution.
In post performing, parent firms are interested in the feedback and reviews from critics and
audiences such as board of IJVs, representatives of each related departments or even
customers of the IJVs. After conflicts have been resolved, it is important to monitor the short
term and long term effects of the conflict resolution (Nguyen, 2011). In addition, as in
theatre, it is important to have follow-up period to observe, to collect the feedback of the
partners to know if they are really satisfied with the solutions that are implemented.
Furthermore, the effect of the solutions to IJV performance should also be observed.
Depending on the conflicts types and level of conflicts, the length of this post-performance
will last. Mechanisms for follow-up are evaluating partner actions, behaviors, and
performance against what have been agreed upon during the resolution process (Nguyen,
2011). In addition, social exchange and personal relationships may help to regain trust and
neutral negative energies of the ventures and help to reaffirm commitment of partners into
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IJVs. Personal connections and relationships are not only crucial for conflicts resolution but
also for post conflict follow-up.
4. Conclusions
Metaphor approach has been proven as an important approach in management research (e.g.
Mantere et al., 2007) as it enables us to make sense of the complex and unfamiliar problem
(Foster & Docherty, 2013). We adopted theatre metaphor approach to analyze conflict
resolution between partners in IJVs. The theatre metaphor provides partners opportunity to
solve the conflicts by stepping out their current reality with current thought, constraints, and
viewpoints to allow them to try different solutions as well as to understand other partner´s
view point, logic and motives. This will allow partners with creative thinking and coming up
with problem solving solution.
Applying theatre metaphor approach can help partners to realize different cultural awareness,
and to have collective thought. In addition, theater metaphor can help partners to objectify
the various stands in understanding sources of conflicts between partners. Conflict resolution
leads to a higher level understanding of each other. By discovering the value of different
opinions, progress in conflict resolution becomes possible. Theatre metaphor approach helps
partners to step into others´ shoes and thus they can see the issues from the other partner´s
viewpoints. Thus, it helps to avoid deadlock in conflicts resolution since it allows the
viewpoints to be changed.
Since previous studies on conflicts resolution in IJVs are very tactics (see table 1), and
assuming that conflict resolution is one time transaction, this study offers the process model
that specify which actors, actions, and activities are needed in each step of conflicts
resolution. As the present study is the first to apply theater metaphor approach to the process
of conflicts resolutions in IJVs, it enriches IJV literature. Furthermore, the study benefits for
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managers of IJVs in such a way that managers know how to manage to resolve conflicts with
their partners through step by step of the process model proposed earlier.
Limitations and Future Research
This paper offers the process model of conflict resolution using theater metaphor approach. In
general the model could be applied for any conflict resolution in IJVs. However, the conflict
should be concerned to strategically important for partners really take time and go through all
stages of the process to ensure the success of problem solving. In addition, employing the
theatre metaphor in conflict resolution does not work if partners do not hold on to the
agreements and decisions reached in the process. Furthermore, this is only a theoretical
discussion; future studies can use empirical data to test our proposed model. As the model
proposed in this paper is a process model, longitudinal studies will have better chance to
capture the issues and therefore they are of interests for further research.
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