Emerging cultural variation effects on multicultural teams performance: an evaluation of conflict management strategies among project teams in DRC’s Province of Katanga

ABSTRACT

Multicultural teams are strategic tools for transforming organizations into high productive
entities that respondent effectively to market demands for robust, yet high quality, reliable,
and valuable product and services grounded in their intense creative and innovative
capabilities. Democratic Republic of Congo’s province of Katanga is a region with an
increasing rate of international and domestic investors who often works as contractors and
rely on the skills and experience of teams composed of individuals from different geographic
locations and cultural background to build and sustain business activities. The outstanding
benefits of these multicultural teams, however, suffer from the effect of destructive
intragroup conflict, which necessitates effective conflict management strategies. On the other,
cultural intelligence is high rated multicultural team management requirement for achieving
high team performance. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship
between conflict management strategies (collaboration, compromising, and competition) and
team performance mediated by cultural intelligence (motivation and behavioral).
The primary data collection for this study was conducted through a structured questionnaire,
which was distributed through the assistance of organization managers to project managers
and team members (N=100) of four contracting companies working at Mutanda mining
company. SPSS version 25 was used to analyze data from all 100 properly completed
questionnaires. Respondent’s demographic profiles showed 29 % of respondents were
expatriates while 71% were domestic workers. ANOVA and Multiple Linear Regression
were used to determine and test the variance and mediation between the variables,
respectively. The findings support the study’s hypothesis that conflict management strategies
are positively associated with team performance mediated by cultural intelligence. Overall,
the results provide general support for previous findings while suggesting and recommending
implications and directions for future research.

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Author: Jean Mwimbi | Founder and Research Lead © Core23lab.org | Linkedin: Jean Mwimbi