Organizational Conflict and Socialization Processes in Healthcare - A case study of intercultural organizational conflict and socialization processes in healthcare

Abstract

As the World is becoming more and more globalized, organizational members not only have to do their jobs, but also take factors such as interculture and language barriers into consideration on a daily basis. All of this may at times lead to workplace conflicts. This study concerns intercultural organizational conflict in relation to organizational socialization. The research questions are, to what extent organizational conflict in healthcare can be related to cultural backgrounds, and to what extend organizational members in healthcare feel integrated into the organization. In order to answer these questions a case study at a major Swedish organization in the healthcare-sector was conducted. 80 permanent employees working at Attendo answered a questionnaire that lay as ground for the study. Results from this study indicate that conflicts among Attendo personnel to a high degree are related to intercultural factors. The results furthermore indicate that the Swedish employees to a higher extent consider language to be a contributing factor to these conflicts whereas the non-Swedish employees to a higher degree consider cultural differences to be the cause. Furthermore, great differences between the two groups have been found when it comes to feeling integrated into the organization. Whereas the majority of the Swedish employees feel integrated into the organization, a large part of the non-Swedish employees does not feel this to be the case. As almost 35% of the non-Swedish employees do not feel integrated into the organization, and thus might feel separated and isolated, we draw the conclusion that there is a connection between this lack of organizational socialization among the non-Swedish employees and the high rate of intercultural organizational conflict at Attendo.