Difference and Conflict

In this chapter, two understandings of ‘conflict’ are derived from a mul­ ticultural East­West experience: As fundamental threat to a core view of self in which conflict is normally avoided, and as competitive games in which conflict is associated with the adoption of social identities as part of confrontation and negotiation with the other. These understandings are rooted in traditions developed prior to the Velvet Revolution, and represent polar opposites on a continuum. It is argued that it is the view of conflict as competitive games that is promoted through managerialism and that it is this view that is largely being transferred to post-Iron Curtain countries, despite the fact that conflict as competitive games does not lend itself easily to HR and management practice in cross­cultural situations. The chap­ ter finishes by echoing the end of the previous chapter-questioning the impact that the others and the individual have on each other in the work environment.