A survey questionnaire was designed to identify the key differences of
national culture and the five styles of conflict management between
Japanese managers and Thai staff of Japanese manufacturers in Thailand.
Significant differences were found between these two nationalities. Thai
staff emphasize collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. Thai staff,
however, support collectivism with Thai nationalities and exclude Japanese
managers from their collective society. Thai staff try to avoid uncertainty at
the workplace as they do not want to be reprimanded by the Japanese managers
because of unclear instructions and responsibilities. Thai staff respect
paternalistic managers who take care of both personal and work-related
issues of their subordinates. For conflict management style, both nationalities
support collaboration but otherwise, Japanese managers support competition
while Thai staff support compromise. Japanese managers and Thai
staff also accept an accommodating style but the Japanese accommodating
style is a mixture of accommodation and compromise or accommodation
and avoidance. This style is observed in the process of Japanese managers’
adaptation to Thai culture. The results of this study will help the manage-