Interpersonal Relationships Versus Cultural Factors. Theoretical Framework and Comparison of the Impact of Cultural Values in Three Cases of Conflict in France, Canada and Russia
This article proposes a new conceptualization of interpersonal conflicts in organizations. This conceptualization is based on the articulation of four main dimensions: escalation processes in interpersonal communication; psychosociological phenomena such as social facilitation and identity processes and group life; individual trajectories, notably in terms of habitus; and contextual factors (including cultural dimensions). The study gauge the impact of cultural differences in proximity (local) management and conflict regulation. We apply this conceptual framework to three cases in three different countries: a social Center in France, a university in Canada, and a cultural organization in Russia. In each case, interpersonal relations are the decisive factor, either in the escalation of conflict or in the construction of exit ways to conflict. We conduct a comparative analysis of the three cases based on indices of cultural values in the meaning of Hofstede (1994), which shows that these indices are of poor explicative capacity.