A study of the interaction between cross-cultural communication and management of employment relationship in relations to conflicts within cross-cultural organisations : sample from housekeeping departments in two Norwegian hotels

This paper is a small pilot study and is attempting to look at the interaction between crosscultural communication and management of employment relationship, and how this may influence the managing of conflicts in a cross-cultural working environment. This paper will look at the phenomenon conflict within a cross-cultural working environment. The study in this paper is taking a qualitative approach, therefore, the results cannot be generalised outside the population chosen, but it may give an indication on how things works in a cross-cultural working environment. The aim of this study is to provide an in-depth and interpreted understanding of the social world of employees in a cross-cultural organisation – in this paper a group of housekeepers and managers in two different hotels in Norway, by learning about their social and material circumstances, their experiences, perspectives and histories when it comes to conflict, communication, cross-cultural work environment and culture differences. The paper tries to look closer into the importance of positive interaction between employer and employees, and communication when it comes to a cross-cultural work environment in managing conflict. The intention is to gain an enhanced understanding of the managing of conflict in a cross-cultural organisation, what the employees and the manager view as important in preventing and managing conflict and if the opinions and views between the employees and the manager compares. The scope of this study is limited to the hotel industry in Norway, and the sample population was employees and managers who work in the housekeeping department in two different hotels. The respondents varied in age, nationality, and work experience. One facility and service manager from each of the two hotels were interviewed; in addition five employees from one of the hotels and six employees from the other hotel. As this study is following an explorative design, communicating directly with the object is one of the most common research methods. Interviews were therefore chosen to collect primary data – the questions asked were open-ended and semi-structured. Secondary data has been used to establish the key issues relating to the concept of interaction between employees and manager, communication, conflict management and cross-cultural work environment, to compare responses from the interview to the theory, and to back up findings to gain the best result possible. In this study it has been discovere