Integration of the Confucian Culture on Cross-Cultural Conflict Management: The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Xiaoqin Liu; Wenzhong Zhu; Yanmei Liang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.694646

Integration of the Confucian Culture on Cross-Cultural Conflict Management: The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Front Psychol. 2021 Jun 10:12:694646. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.694646. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiaoqin Liu¹, Wenzhong Zhu², Yanmei Liang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China.
² School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Cross-culture conflict management is the major challenge for the Chinese enterprises going global along the Belt and Road Initiative. This study explores the feasibility of integrating the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management, and a special role is given to the COVID-19 pandemic. We combine the Confucian culture values and Hofstede's cultural dimension theory and adopt the questionnaire survey methods on the Chinese multinational enterprises' employees. The Cronbach's Alpha method is also deployed to test the reliability and validity of the data. We find the significant integration of the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management. Furthermore, 16 sub-values of the Confucian culture are suggested to mitigate the cross-culture conflicts in multinational enterprises effectively. The findings imply that Chinese enterprises should consider new strategies to manage the cross-culture conflicts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; confucian culture; cross-cultural conflict management; integration; the Belt and Road initiative.