Research on cross-cultural psychology, sociology, and anthropology suggests that the influence of face on social interactions is both pervasive and powerful in Asia. Face, however, has not gained general acceptance as an important theoretical concept in the literature on Asian organizational behavior and management. In this paper, we propose face as a key variable that can explain much of the complexity of social interactions in Asian organizations. We attempted to elaborate on the concept and dynamics of face in Asia in such a way as to capture its pervasive, significant but often subtle influences on organizational behavior. We also examined conditions, functions, and consequences of face dynamics to generate testable propositions for future research. We argue that scholars have to go beyond the individualistic assumptions about human behavior implicit in theories of organizational behavior in the West to better understand the richness of organizational behavior in Asia. In Asia, organizational behavior is better predicted by an individual's external attributes such as face than internal attributes such as desires, emotions, and cognition.
‘Face’ is a sociological concept that refers to a positive self-image that one presents or is assumed to present to others in public. Although face is considered a universal phenomenon, there are substantial cultural differences in how it is conceptualized and operationalized between collectivistic Asia and the individualistic West. Asian face is more complex and dynamic than Western face because of its multi-dimensional nature. Asians are also far more obsessed with face than Westerners are in general. I propose that the multiple dimensions of Asian face such as power/favor/relations, mask/image and moral/honor are responsible for Asian facism. I also examined how the multiple dimensions of Asian face would affect organizational behavior and international management.
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