The culture that people come from has played an important part in shaping any society. Almeida (2002) defined culture as the behaviours, contents and the way people think. Culture is of vital importance since it assist in the way people live hence articulating the manner in with information among people is administered. Miscommunication often arises due to the differences in cultures that exist hence this leads to people misunderstanding others cultural contexts. Individuals from certain cultures may deal with conflict easily while others tend to find it difficult in dealing with it amenably hence this leads to the system of sweeping it under the carpet (De Dreu et al., 2007). Conflict is triggered when there are cultural differences between individuals within an organisation or through general interaction with one another. This often leads to cross-cultural conflict which generally occurs in the context that individuals are not willing to understand each other’s diversity in cultures. The research study main objective is to examine the cultural differences that influence conflict within an organisation. The sampling techniques used was Quota Sampling were data was grouped according to ethnicities. Research study was qualitative in nature and made use of semi-structured interviews which were carried out with fifty participants from three ethnic groups. Data was analyzed using Qualitative Content analysis. Findings were put forward on ways management could reduce conflict by creating an environment were all cultures interact with one another freely.
Keywords: Conflict, Culture, cross-cultural conflict, cultural differences
