ABSTRACT
Today’s globalizing and multicultural world can be stressful and confusing in many ways. However, it presents us with opportunities to engage in new ways to understand how we manage conflict in our daily lives. So far, studies on intercultural conflict management have been concerned with the comparisons of different conflict styles among culture-typed individuals. While the past research has helped chart the initial territory of intercultural conflict management, research focusing on culture-type individuals can no longer deal with the complexities of a multicultural/globalizing society. Bi- or multicultural individuals are increasingly recognized as an important segment of populations, yet much remains to be appreciated about their conflict communicative effectiveness in multicultural settings. Pointing toward the path beyond the previous focus on comparisons of culture-typed individuals in conflict management styles, this chapter aims to throw light on people’s bicultural identity experiences and corresponding conflict management behaviors. Multicultural identity can be seen as a part of psychological growth that benefits intercultural conflict management competence. The unique experience of frame switching among multicultural individuals can easily adapt to situationally salient cultural contexts and appropriate conflict management styles in organizations and interpersonal settings. Using multicultural perspectives, we can seek to understand new and creative ways of managing intercultural conflict.
