Premium
Email adaptation for conflict handling: A case study of cross‐border inter‐organisational partnership in East Asia
Author(s) -
Lee Joyce YiHui,
Panteli Niki,
Bülow Anne Marie,
Hsu Carol
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
information systems journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.635
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2575
pISSN - 1350-1917
DOI - 10.1111/isj.12139
Subject(s) - general partnership , covert , adaptation (eye) , context (archaeology) , blame , conflict management , public relations , conflict resolution research , east asia , social psychology , political science , knowledge management , sociology , psychology , conflict resolution , computer science , china , geography , social science , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , neuroscience , law
Abstract This paper explores the context of email‐based communication in an established but fragile, inter‐organisational partnership, which was often overlain with conflict. Drawing upon adaptation theory, this study explores how participants adapt to the use of email to handle conflict. Extensive data were obtained during a 6‐month field study of a case of cross‐border inter‐organisational collaboration in East Asia. We observed that the individuals involved in the cross‐border partnership used email as a lean form of communication to stop covert conflict from explicitly emerging. In contrast to prior research on the leanness of email in managing conflict, we found that under the described conflict situation the very leanness of email was appreciated and thus, exploited by those concerned to manage the conflict situation. Specifically, we identified 4 key conflict‐triggered adaptation strategies, namely, interaction avoidance, disempowering, blame‐protection, and image‐sheltering that drove the ways in which email was adapted to maintain organisational partnerships under conflict.