Catherine Tinsley, PH.D

CULTURE, DIVERSITY, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Leading and managing a diverse workforce means understanding how to acknowledge and navigate differences to create more inclusive cultures. Why are interactions with those who differ so problematic? Why can we not better leverage our diverse perspectives? My research suggests social categorization processes often trigger inter-group pathologies. In particular, differentiating an “other” evokes strong stereotypes that are resistant to updating and may have a negative bias (during situations of conflict). Together the hyper-awareness of the counterpart’s “differences” from the self and the relative lack of awareness of how one’s own goals and strategies are shaped by culture help explain why intercultural interactions are fraught with suspicion and misunderstanding. With a more problem solving approach these obstacles are surmountable.

Relevant Papers

Tinsley, C.H. & Pillutla, M. (1998). The influence of culture on business negotiations in the U.S. and Hong Kong. Journal of International Business Studies, 29 (4): 711-728.

Brett, J.M., Adair, W., Lempeurer, A., Okumura, T., Shikhirev, P., Tinsley, C. & Lytle, A. (1998). Culture and joint gains in negotiation. Negotiation Journal, 14 (1): 61-86.

Aslani, S., Ramirez-Marin, J., Brett, J. M., Yao, J., Semnani-Azad, Z., Zhang, Z., Tinsley, C., Weingart, L. R. , &Adair, W. (2016). “Dignity, face, and honor cultures: A study of negotiation strategy and outcomes in three cultures". Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(8), 1178-1201.

Dillon, R. L., Lester, G., John, R.S., Tinsley, C.H. (2012) Differentiating Conflicts in Beliefs vs. Value Trade-offs in the Domestic Intelligence Policy Debate, Risk Analysis, 32 (4): 713-728.

Cronin, M.A., Bezrukova, K., Weingart, L.R., & Tinsley, C.H. (2011). Subgroups within a team: The role of cognitive and affective states. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32: 831-849.

Adair, W. A., Brett, J. M., Lempereur, A., Okumura, T., Shikhirev, P., Tinsley, C., Lytle, A. (2004). Culture and negotiation strategy. Negotiation Journal, 20(1), 87-111.

Brett, J.M., Tinsley, C.H., & Shapiro, D.L. (2007). Intervening in employee disputes: How and when will managers from China, Japan, and the U.S. act differently? Management and Organization Review, 3 (2): 183-204.

Tinsley, C.H. (2005). The heart of darkness: Advice on navigating cross cultural research. International Negotiation: A Journal of Theory and Practice 10 (1): 183-192.

Adair, W. A., Brett, J. M., Lempereur, A., Okumura, T., Shikhirev, P., Tinsley, C., Lytle, A. (2004). Culture and negotiation strategy. Negotiation Journal, 20(1), 87-111.

Wong, C.S., Tinsley, C.H., Law, K., & Mobley, W. (2004). Development and validation of a multidimensional measure of Guanxi. Journal of Psychology for Chinese Studies.

Tinsley, C.H. & Weldon, E. (2003). Responses to a normative conflict among American and Chinese managers. International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 3 (2): 181-192.

Lee, C., Tinsley, C.H., & Bobko, P. (2003). Cross cultural variance in goal orientation and their effects. Applied Psychology, April issue.

Tinsley, C.H. (2001). How Negotiators get to yes: Predicting the constellation of conflict management strategies used across cultures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86 (4): 583-593.

Tinsley, C.H. & Brett, J.M. (2001). Managing work place conflict in the United States and Hong Kong. Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 85 (2): 360-381.

Tinsley, C.H., Curhan, J., & Kwok, R. (1999). Adopting a dual lens approach to overcome the dilemma of differences in international negotiations. International Negotiations, 4: 5-22.

Tinsley, C.H. (1998). Models of conflict resolution in Japanese, German, and American cultures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83 (2): 316-323.

Brett, J.M., Adair, W., Lempeurer, A., Okumura, T., Shikhirev, P., Tinsley, C. & Lytle, A. (1998). Culture and joint gains in negotiation. Negotiation Journal, 14 (1): 61-86.