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Face Concerns in Interpersonal Conflict

A Cross-Cultural Empirical Test of the Face Negotiation Theory

Stella Ting-Toomey

This study sought to test the underlying assumption of the face-negotiation theory that face is an explanatory mechanism for culture’s influence on conflict behavior. A questionnaire was administered to 768 participants in 4 national cultures (China, Germany, Japan, and the United States) asking them to describe interpersonal conflict. The major findings of this study are as follows: (a) cultural individualism-collectivism had direct and indirect effects on conflict styles, (b) independent self-construal related positively with self-face and interdependent self-construal related positively with other-face, (c) self-face related positively with dominating conflict styles and other-face related positively with avoiding and integrating styles, and (d) face accounted for all of the total variance explained (100% of 19% total explained) in dominating, most of the total variance explained in integrating (70% of 20% total explained), and some of the total variance explained in avoiding (38% of 21% total explained) when considering face concerns, cultural individualismcollectivism, and self-construals.

Key Words: interpersonal conflict • cross-cultural communication • conflict • styles • self-construals • face theory

Communication Research, Vol. 30, No. 6, 599-624 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650203257841


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