A cross-cultural comparison of Ecuadorian and United States face, facework, and conflict styles during interpersonal conflict: An application of face-negotiation theory

ABSTRACT

This study applied and extended face-negotiation theory in a cross-cultural comparison of face, facework, and conflict management styles between Ecuador and the United States (US). Participants included students from the United States and Ecuador. Participants completed a questionnaire that measured face, facework, and conflict style preference in one of two recalled conflict situations that varied in relational closeness (i.e., intimate, nonintimate). Results reveal that Ecuadorian and U.S. students did not differ in their self-face, other-face, and mutual-face concerns. Ecuadorian and U.S. students differed significantly in their preference for facework and conflict style preferences across the two conflict situations, however.

KEYWORDS:

• Face
• facework
• conflict
• conflict style
• face-negotiation theory

Notes

1. An inclusive exposition of the complete set of 24 propositions of face-negotiation theory is beyond the scope of this study. Interested readers should consult Ting-Toomey (2005).

2. An EBSCO search using the term Ecuador was conducted with the following journals, Communication Education, Communication Monographs, Communication Reports, Communication Research Reports, Communication Quarterly, Human Communication Research, Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and Western Journal of Communication. The term Ecuador did not show up in the title of any article within these journals. The term Ecuador did appear in the text of three articles but was used only as a brief example. No study in any of these journals included Ecuadorian students as participants.