A Study Of The Interrelations Among Overseas Experience, Intercultural Sensitivity And Conflict Management Styles

The intercultural competence is highly recognized in both domestic and foreign context nowadays, intercultural Sensitivity is one of its most important components. According to Guoming Chen and Starosta(2000), intercultural sensitivity is composed of interaction confidence, interaction attentiveness, interaction assertiveness, interaction enjoyment and respect for cultural difference. In the mean while, with the development of science and technology, we are living in a "global village". Conflict can rise due to different opinions about things, unfair income distribution in work and invasion of benefit in life. Conflict management style means the way a person handle conflicts. It is the key to get along well with people around us. Different conflict management styles can lead to totally different results. According to Rahim and Bonama (1979) there are five conflict management styles:integrating, avoiding, obliging, compromising and dominating.From1978to2012,2,644,700Chinese students studied abroad. In2012alone,399,600Chinese students studied abroad.In the year of2012-2013, there were819,644foreign students in the U.S, among them,28.7%were from China. From the data, it can be seen that studying abroad has been a trend. Experience of studying abroad can provide students with valuable opportunities to cultivate their cross-cultural communication competence (ICC) by studying, interacting and living with the local people and other international students. Through the practices of intercultural interactions, their intercultural communication competence is strengthened. The improvement of intercultural competence will very likely change their attitude toward the conflict and further change their preference for conflict management styles. This thesis was intended to explore the relationship among overseas experience, intercultural sensitivity and conflict management styles.Sixty university students in Chengdu were taken as subjects of the research. Thirty of them (group1) have exchange experience in the United States and the other thirty (group2) have no such experience. A survey was carried out firstly. The survey was complemented by a semi-structured interview. The main purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between the five factors in intercultural sensitivity and the selection of the five conflict management styles. The study was also intended to explore the status quo of participants intercultural sensitivity and their preference for conflict management styles, to compare the respondents’intercultural sensitivity and preference for conflict management styles of the two groups then find out the effects of overseas experience on participants’ intercultural sensitivity and preference of the conflict management, to explore the correlation between the length of time staying in the United States and the general level of Intercultural Sensitivity, and also to study the interrelations of the five factors of intercultural sensitivity.The thesis found out that integrating way of handling a conflict is in significant correlation with intercultural sensitivity which is in accordance with the findings of Zhou and Zhang (2011). This finding suggest that if a person with high level of intercultural sensitivity, he or she is tend to adopt integrating way to handle a conflict.The thesis also found out that the overall level of the participants’ intercultural sensitivity is relatively high (both groups). No significant and obvious correlations have been found among the five factors in intercultural sensitivity except between respect for cultural difference and interaction enjoyment (r=.636, p=.000).This highly suggests that higher interaction enjoyment is accompanied with higher respect for the culture difference. No significant difference have been found between the two groups in terms of intercultural sensitivity which may suggest that overseas experience does not necessarily enhance one’s intercultural sensitivity.Participants in both groups prefer to adopt integrating and compromising than obliging, avoiding and dominating. Participants without oversea experience prefer the dominating the least. Students without overseas experience are found more likely to choose avoiding to settle a conflict. From the result of the interview it can be concluded that students who stayed in the U.S. for1year and longer changed in both their attitudes toward conflicts and ways of handling conflicts. They regard conflict as normal and can be benefit in building a healthy relationship if handled properly. They are more likely to use the style of integrating than styles of avoiding or compromising after coming back from the U.S.