CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND WORKPLACE CONFLICT OF MULTINATIONAL OIL COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The aim of this research was to examine the extent to which cultural competence is a predictor variable to workplace conflict of multinational oil companies in Delta State and Rivers State, two of the highest oil producing states of the country. The researcher adopted the correlational research design and a total of 35 administrative management staff were sampled using the stratified sampling technique. The spearman correlation statistic was used in testing the hypotheses formulated. A total of 7 major multinational oil companies were investigated. The findings indicated that cultural competence influences intrapersonal and intergroup conflicts negatively and significantly. It was recommended that multinational oil companies should develop an enabling environment to enhance the propensity of employees to value culture personally and interpersonally thereby boosting a deeper sense of interconnectedness and harmony; likely prerequisites for greater cohesiveness and ultimately productivity and sustainability. Furthermore, organizations should enhance cultural competence as this will build confidence in the employees on all organizational processes, and this in turn will enable the workers share common understanding that will reduce intrapersonal and intergroup conflict in all their work endeavours. Key Words: Cultural Competence, Workplace Conflict, Intra-Personal Conflict, Intragroup Conflict Multinational Oil Companies CITATION: Uranta, R. S., & Konya, K. T. (2020). Cultural competence and workplace conflict of multinational oil companies in Nigeria. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management , 7(2), 285 – 295.