DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2020.408
title: Cross cultural conflict management: the case of global Korean corporation and Thai subsidiaries

description: Extant studies have shown a correlation between cultural diversity and conflict in the workforce. Naturally, people tend to interact within cultures and the meaning of contextualization is often culturally specific (Glinow, Shapiro, Brett, 2004)Global Korean corporations operating in a global scope has started in the 1980s along with the government lead economic growth project. Globalization and localization of Korean corporations have been accelerated along with the influence of numerous products and services and the implementation of the new southern policy has pushed the focus on South-East Asian countries.Thailand has historically been a base for various manufacturing heavy industrial products. However, as the level of income and economic growth triggered penetration of various goods and services and the importance of the manufacturing base has been relatively declining since the 2000s.The need for adjustment in localization and organization management strategies for those existing and new global Korean corporations has been raised, however, there are limited studies that have been done until now. Past localization strategies on human resources management for Thai subsidiaries focused on cultural approaches such as Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory (1984), Globe model (2004).The studies concluded that understanding Thai’s national cultures and characteristics is essential for efficient management and negotiation. There were attempts to investigate focusing on conflicts however, most studies took a theoretical approach or relied on quantitative research. However, as proven in the extant research, the Thai employees are naturally relationship-oriented and tend to avoid conflict, aspect of conflict should be discussed in depth. This study intends to research employee experiences in these areas based on the approaches of cultural aspect causing issues in organization management. The author concluded that the differences manifesting towards face culture in the two nationalities cause misunderstanding and conflicts. The study selected two keywords in two cultures, 'Kreng-Jai and 'Chemyeon' which represents the perception and behaviors of each individual. The most frequent causes of conflicts occur in communication, time and work orientation, and the way two nationalities confront problems.Also, recent studies have stated that not only expatriates and the host company need to understand the local culture, but it is also important for local employees to understand the characteristics of host nationals. It is important to investigate the aspect of the conflict from inter-communication to reflect integrated and diverse situations in the workplace. Focusing on finding the root cause of conflict situations due to the differences in cultural contextualization among Thai and Korean in a cross-cultural environment. Understanding the cultural contextualization toward these two respective countries and implementing human resources management strategies can aid in improving organizational management and be a basis for successful localization. In this research, the author intends to investigate the underlying core cultural aspect in conflict situations specific to cases of global Korean corporations operating in Thailand.