Cooperative Struggle: Re-framing Intercultural Conflict in the Management of Sino-American Joint Ventures

Abstract

Sino-American economic joint ventures are most often studied through a lens of technical rationality that typically emphasizes organizational efficiency, reduces culture to a manageable resource, and views conflict as discrete disruptions requiring efficient handling. Here, we conceptualize Sino-American business partnerships as sites of struggle where co-managers' accounts of intercultural disagreements reveal friction around action, voice, interests, and identity. We propose cooperative struggle as a critical management practice for working creatively with the multiple forms of difference that arise in this organizational form.

Keywords:

• Sino-American Joint Ventures
• Intercultural Conflict
• Power and Resistance
• Cooperative Struggle

The authors would like to thank Hongwei Xia for his assistance in conducting the research interviews. The authors also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Shiv Ganesh, for their helpful suggestions and insights. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the National Communication Association convention in New Orleans, November 2011.

The authors would like to thank Hongwei Xia for his assistance in conducting the research interviews. The authors also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Shiv Ganesh, for their helpful suggestions and insights. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the National Communication Association convention in New Orleans, November 2011.