A Cross-cultural Contrastive Study On Chinese And American Business Students Managing Face Conflicts

With the rapid development of the world economy and boosting of Chinese reform and opening-up policy,cross-cultural economic and social activities have become more and more frequent which brings about more and more business activities.Due to the various cultural differences of different regions,people from different cultural backgrounds need to have cross-cultural communication.However,on account of different historical,social,geographical and cultural factors,cultural conflicts and communication failures often occur.Face,a kind of social psychological phenomenon and an important aspect of culture,plays a significant role in people's social communicative activities.The different understandings of the face and the different management styles between the Chinese and the American often lead to the communication misunderstandings or even conflicts.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore and understand the differences between the Chinese and the Americans' attitudes towards face conflicts and their respective strategies.From a cross-cultural perspective and adopting the Face Negotiation Theory developed by the psychologist,Ting Toomey,this study takes 206 Chinese business students from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and Jinan University and 50 American overseas students from these two universities as the objects to analyze the differences in dealing with face conflicts,combined with the qualitative and quantitative research methods.This study is going to answer three research questions: first,what are the Chinese and American business students' attitudes towards face conflicts? Second,what are Chinese and American business students' management styles when confronting with face conflicts? Third,how are Chinese and American business students different when managing face conflicts?The research concludes many findings.First,Chinese and American business students show different attitudes towards face conflicts.In the face conflicts,Chinese business students generally pay more attention to protecting others' face,trying to minimize the conflicts and maintain harmonious relationship.American students pay more attention to protecting their own face,dare to face the conflict and express their feelings and ideas.Second,Chinese and American business students show different management styles when confronting with face conflicts.Chinese business students generally try to avoid facing up to the conflicts,and are more willing to find acceptable and beneficial solutions to both sides.American students play a leading or a dominate role in the face conflicts and show a certain degree of aggression to maintain their face and poises.Third,due to the different cultural backgrounds,there are great differences between Chinese and American business students when confronting with face conflicts.Chinese business students,from a high-context society,are more willing to consider the feelings of others and avoid the embarrassment and conflicts caused by direct communication.However,American business students,from a low-context society,are more willing to face the conflicts and express themselves to protect their face and dignity.Fourth,stepping off from the stereotype of the Chinese and the American culture,this study notices that a small number of Chinese business students also pay attention to protecting their own face and dignity in the conflicts,which is due to the fact that the subjects of this study are the generations of 1990 s and 2000 s,who have relatively distinct personalities.At the same time,a small number of American students also pay attention to protecting the face of others,which also reflects the growing awareness of cooperation in American culture.This study explores the differences between Chinese and American business students when confronting with face conflicts from a cross-cultural perspective.Theoretically,this study shows the differences in the application of Face Theory in the new era,updating people's perception about Face Theory in some extent.Practically,this study helps Chinese and American students better understand and apply Face Theory,avoid conflicts or misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication,and makes contributions to better promoting cultural exchanges,business trade between countries and globalization.