Conflict of Perceptual Complexity

Dr John H.S. Craig

the research

all the managers in 13 large factories:

7 in China

5 in Poland

1 in Lithuania

the data

• 20 item Likert questionnaire

• expert benchmarking for each question

• formal interviews with 13 top managers

• informal interviews with other

managers

managers

hierarchies

air pollution

operatives

social cultures

national culture

ISO14001 affects

physical environment inside factory

knowledge

perceived realities

training

ground contamination

THE FACTORY CULTURE

(true) physical environment

outside factory

river pollution

groundwater contamination

communication

mgt. hierarchy

job boundaries

business rules

production dominance

no LCC language

interactive variables at factories

a selection of the variables

no LCC

social class

language empirical reality

perceived reality

mgt hierarchy

job boundaries

core peer groups

no LCC L H H H H H H

social class L H N M H H M

language H H H H H M M

empirical reality H H H L H H L

perceived reality H H H L H H H

mgt hierarchy H H H L L H M

decisions H M M L H H H M

job boundaries H M N M L H N

core peer groups H L L N H L L

Table 1 Interactions between researched variables

socio-cultural groups – core or fringe membership

• ideational coherent groups

• informal coherent groups

• informal differentiated groups

• fragmented groups

• fringes and token memberships

0 5 100

5

10communication is good

perception strength of feeling 0-10

Don

ggua

n P

rovi

nce

10

0

B17q

C17q

100 q

0 5 100

5

10Communication is good

strength of feeling 0-10

Po

lan

d7

0

J17 q

N17 q

100

2

q

human characteristics

• perceptions

• interpretations

• beliefs

• values

• imaginary realities

• conformity or conflict

• contingent actions

decision variables

• locational realities

• temporal realities

• meaningful communication

• incoherent communication

• motivation

• fear and revolt

• self-interest

inter-relational decision map

organization boss peers patch wars job security personal mores

perceptions

conceptions problem

perception

indeterminate utility

reasoning

beliefs

multi cultural arena

tacit knowledge,

habit, auto-response

vacillating preference

emotions

reasoning

emotions A B

decision consequences

means alternatives

DECISION

attitude desires

interactions

pass to boss

avoid decision

evasive behaviour

matrix relationships

C C

fringe dynamics

• individualistic mores

• token core-group memberships

• antithetic drivers

• different beliefs and values

• different or aberrant realities

• subjective cognitive models

changing situations

• China – rapid expansion, de-skilling

• Poland – rapid retrenchment, redundancy

• market threats and opportunities

• behaviour changes

• value changes

• language changes

• learned meanings & interpretations

linguistic variables

• social class

• education

• social peer groups

• factory peer groups

• management peer groups

• interface communication

• irrationalities

conflicts and contexts

• profit v. commons (resources)

• production v. environment (output)

• resources v. waste (material)

• design v. sustainability (process)

• space v. commands (management)

• dominant ideologies (culture)

societal drivers for conflict

• international• national • global market• society• community• family• factory• socio-cultural groupings

mediation of decisions

• China: fear of job loss

• Poland: fear and punishment culture

• job boundary restriction

• decision risk

• space

• understanding

contexts of dominance

• leadership style

• personal relationships

• language

• symbols

• meaning

contexts of language

• imagined-reality based meanings

• societal based meanings

• situation based vagueness

• deliberate or hapless ambiguity

• situation

• cross-cultural misunderstanding

• cognition barriers

summing up

• there are many variables• there is very little commonality of

perceptions• less commonality = ambiguity of decisions • fragmented realities = multiple complexities• imaginary realities = little predictability• little predictability = unbounded complexity• unbounded complexity = likely conflict

thank you for listening

QUESTIONS!