Differences Due to Self-construal
Independent and interdependent self-construals affect one’s communication (Kim & Leung, 2000). Oetzel and Ting-Toomey (2003) reported that independent self-construal associates primarily with “self-face concern” and competing conflict strategies.
Interdependent self-construal associates with “other-face concern” and use of avoiding and integrating conflict strategies. Self-face concern involves protecting one’s own identity when one’s own image is threatened during a conflict episode. Other-face concern focuses on protecting and accommodating the other conflict party’s identity during a conflict episode. A third face concern, mutualface concern, represents efforts to protect both parties’ images and the image of the relationship (Oetzel, Ting-Toomey, Masumoto et al., 2001).Thus, independent self-construal tends to be indicative of individualist cultures where low-context communication and self-face concern are emphasized. According to Ting-Toomey (1994), independents with self-face concern appear to select dominating conflict styles more than do interdependents. Conflict for this style of communicator arises due to incompatible personalities, goals, or beliefs. Interdependent self-construal, on the other hand, represents collectivist cultures that emphasize high-context communication, other-face concern, and mutualface concern. High-context, interdependent communicators during conflict are more likely than independents to use third-party help when trying to resolve conflict (Ting-Toomey, Oetzel, & Yee-Jung, 2001). Similarly, interdependents focusing on other-face concerns are more likely to use avoiding and integrating conflict styles than their independent counterparts (Oetzel & Ting-Toomey, 2003; Oetzel et al., 2001). As an additional note, Ting-Toomey (2010) found that biconstrual individuals (i.e., people who highlight both independent and interdependent selves) tend to have more diverse strategic conflict tactics than do independent, interdependent, and ambivalent (low on both independent and interdependent selves) people.
The above findings might suggest (and several researchers argue) that people from collectivistic cultures are more cooperative in their conflict management behaviors versus people from individualistic cultures. Also, people from both kinds of cultures report that they rely first on negotiation conflict tactics, then avoidant conflict tactics, and then direct fighting tactics (Cai & Fink, 2002).
In summary, research indicates that cultural variability and self-construals combine to affect conflict behaviors. The dimensions of individualism-collectivism, power hierarchy, and low-context versus high-context communication reflect cultural variability. More directly relevant to conflict, independent and interdependent self-construals affect conflict tactic choices that people make. Overall, however, people across cultures use cooperative, then avoidant, and then competitive conflict strategies and tactics. Interdependent people do focus more on mutual face needs when managing conflict. The following section reviews a theory that specifically explains how and why face needs are met.