Social face concerns and conflict avoidance of Chinese employees with their Western or Chinese managers

Abstract

This study explores behavioral strategies in conflict avoidance and how they are related to social face concerns. One hundred and thirty-two Chinese employees recalled an incident where they avoided a conflict with their supervisors. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the categorization of yielding, outflanking, delay, and passive aggression as alternative approaches to avoiding conflict. Overall, other-face was positively associated with yielding and delay, whereas self-face was positively associated with passive aggression. The associations of social face concerns and avoidance were stronger among employees who interacted with Chinese managers compared with those working for Western managers. In conjunction with recent studies, findings challenge the traditional theorizing that the Chinese value of social face leads to passive avoidance

Distant Relations: The Affordances of Email in Interorganizational Conflict

“…When asked, Chinese subjects would declare that an option like “avoid” was for them cooperative, and failure to answer an email implied consultation and reflection, and that failing to compete was in itself uncooperative. Such insights are in line with the long-held view that in East Asia, more importance is attached to social presence, because of the intertwining of personal and business relationships (Carlisle & Flynn, 2005; Chen, Huang, & Sternquist, 2011; Dunning & Kim, 2007; Gao, Ballantyne, & Knight, 2010; Peng & Tjosvold, 2011).…”

Measurement Invariance of the Five Factor Model of Personality: Facet-Level Analyses Among Euro and Asian Americans

“…As observed also in previous research with Asian and African nationals (Rollock & Lui, 2016; Zecca et al, 2013), cross-loadings of agreeableness facets (e.g., trust and altruism ) on extraversion likely indicate cultural expectations in interpersonal relatedness. Thus, Asian American individuals may be more likely to use high-context communications styles to avoid rupturing social harmony and to preserve face for themselves and others (Chunyan Peng & Tjosvold, 2011; Leong & Lee, 2006; Zane & Yeh, 2002). Alternatively, the present findings also may reflect a differential preference of high activity and arousal levels to subdued energy among Euro Americans (Tkach & Lyubomirsky, 2006).…”

Acculturative Family Distancing, Mother–Daughter Relationship, and Well-Being Among Asian Americans

“…Although our results did not support connectedness having a protective function in the relationship between acculturative family distancing and psychological well-being (i.e., our first hypothesis), it appears that when conflict enters the picture, connectedness may serve to reconstitute what is usually considered a "negative" experience into one that helps to maintain or even enhance well-being. Perhaps unconditional love from the mother (i.e., high connectedness) frees up one's energies to be truly authentic rather than expend efforts to protect another by hiding how one truly feels, a phenomenon shown to be associated with conflict avoidance (Peng & Tjosvold, 2011) and psychological distress (Mak, Chen, Lam, & Yiu, 2009). As acculturative family distancing relates to values and communication differences that are positively associated with family conflict (Hwang, Wood, & Fujimoto, 2010), the importance of high connectedness in turning conflict into an opportunity for growth may be of particular value.…”