Do Egyptian Managers Differentiate between Task and Personal Conflicts?

Distinguishing between different dimensions of conflict makes it easier to understand its effect on strategic decision making (SDM) and both decision and organisation outcomes. Previous empirical research in the US setting shows that people differentiate between task conflict and personal conflict. Hence, it is expected that one dimension of conflict will be found to play a positive role in SDM, while another dimension plays a negative role. Inconsistent with related research in the US setting, our study shows that Egyptian decision makers are not able to differentiate between personal conflict and task conflict in the SDM process. We conclude that in the era of increasing globalisation, culture is likely to have considerable power to explain differences in the perception of people of strategic management concepts and then their behaviours and actions.