| During the past two decades, there has been a dramatical increase in two areas of scholarly research: intercultural communication and conflict resolution studies. Conflict is a pervasive aspect of existence, which occurs at all levels of social life: the interpersonal, intergroup, inter-organizational and international. It occurs not only between social units, but also within persons as well as within nations. The issues that may be involved in disputes are diverse in substance, significance and style. As a matter of fact, no completely conflict-free societies can be existed in this world. Conflict can be defined as"an expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scare resources and interference from others in achieving their goals"(Wilmot & Hocker, 2001:41). Once a conflict has become apparent and open disputing has commenced, there are many ways of trying to bring about a resolution.According to Ting-Toomey (1985), cultures differ in their preferred forms of handling conflict. Due to the cultural influences to the value, attitude and behavior of the individuals, even face the same conflict, people who having different cultural backgrounds may prefer to use entirely different ways to solve it. Since China's accession into the WTO, more and more Chinese enterprises have been rushing into America to look for new market, while at the same time, hundreds or even thousands of American companies are flouring into Chinese market to seek developing space. Along with this new tendency, the trade frictions between these two countries are also finding increasing, especially in the recent two years. Everyday the different versions of conflicts are playing on the Sino-U.S. negotiation tables. Facing those conflicts Chinese and American people, who have an entirely different cultural backgrounds, may also react in different ways and their resolution styles will be totally different from each other. Based on Jeanne M. Brett's Cultural Models (2001) and Wilmot & Hocker's Dual Concern Model (2001) of conflict resolution styles, this thesis endeavors to find out what kind of relationship between people's conflict resolution style and their cultural backgrounds is, and aiming to provide an insightful cultural perspective of conflict resolution styles adopted by American and Chinese negotiators to help them to handle cultural differences appropriately and improve their ability of foreseeing the possible pitfalls in Sino-U.S. negotiations.This study compares Chinese and American negotiating behavior by analyzing these combinations of high and low degree of the assertiveness and high and low degree of the cooperativeness. The preferred styles of Chinese negotiators are assumed to be avoiding and integrating as a function of collectivism, hierarchy and high-context culture, whereas the preferred styles of American negotiators are assumed to be dominating and compromising as a function of individualism, egalitarianism and low-context culture. This thesis will use 15 typical cases coming from the book, media and internet to verify the two assumes bout the conflict resolution preferences of American and Chinese negotiators and indicate how the negotiators of the two cultures adopt the styles in the actual business situation.This thesis falls into seven parts.A brief introduction goes initially, which gives a brief introduction of the relevant theories in the present research. Both the purpose and the structure of this thesis will also be given in this part.Chapter one first gives a brief survey of cultural values and cultural dimensions. Then a detailed review of the previous and present studies of intercultural communication abroad and at home is offered. Lastly this chapter gives a brief survey of conflict and a thorough review of the conflict resolution studies abroad and at home.Chapter two lays the foundation work for understanding how culture affects individuals'conflict resolution styles. It begins by describing Brett's Cultural Models (2000), which introduces the three dimensions of culture that play an important part in shaping a negotiator's behavior. Although conflicts can be solved in a variety of ways, negotiators'conflict resolution styles are typically based on a two-dimensional typology: concern for self and concern for other's interests and outcomes. Based on that, this thesis introduces Wilmot & Hocker's Dual Concern Model (2001) to analyze the concrete styles (competition, collaboration, avoidance, compromise and accommodation) which the negotiators usually use in solving conflicts as well as explain how culture works in this process.Chapter three describes the adopted methodology of this thesis. It illustrates the objective of the analysis and puts forward the research questions for this thesis. The research approach and data collection of the present research are also given out in this part.Chapter four makes an in-depth cultural analysis of conflict resolution styles adopted by American and Chinese negotiators from three aspects: collectivism versus individualism, hierarchy versus egalitarianism, high-context versus low-context. Case studies are also carried out in this chapter. The author will use Wilmot & Hocker's Dual Concern Model (2001) to analyze conflict resolution styles adopted by Chinese and American negotiators in the actual Sino-U.S. business negotiations.Chapter five first illustrates the research findings of this thesis. Based on that, it puts forward the practical implications: negotiators, especially Chinese negotiators should review the relationship between the two sides in Sino-U.S. negotiation and change their traditional attitudes toward conflict. In conclusion, the author brings forward several concrete suggestions for intercultural negotiators which include the cultivation of intercultural awareness and sensitivity as well as enhancing the adaptability and flexibility.At last, this thesis comes to the conclusion that although the negotiators'conflict resolution styles are strongly influenced by their cultural backgrounds, they are not exclusively unchanging. Both American negotiators and Chinese negotiators should take more flexible strategies when solving conflicts in Sino-U.S. business negotiations to ensure the negotiations can be going on more smoothly and both sides can come to a win-win situation.
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