“Face” conflict and conflict resolution in Thai-Japanese MNCs in Thailand

Abstract

To test the argument that “face” is a fundamental cause of interpersonal conflict and explore the similarities and differences of conflict resolution between Thai and Japanese MNCs participants. Additionally, the correlation between face concerns and conflict management styles of the two cultures was examined. The research explored the Face-Negotiation theory (FN) version 2 to test that “face” is an underlying assumption and/or an explanatory mechanism for conflicts in the organization. The adapted version of Rahim Organization Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II) was employed to test the differences and similarities of conflict management styles. There were a total of 155 returned questionnaires. Moreover, 6 out of 155 participants were purposively selected for in-depth interviews by using Personal Attitude Construct (PAC) analysis. The findings of this research illustrated that “face” is a fundamental cause of interpersonal conflict for Thai and Japanese participants. Thais rated themselves higher for all types of face concerns: self-face, other-face, and mutual-face, than Japanese. Regarding the similarities and differences of conflict resolution, Thai participants preferred using integrating, avoiding, obliging and compromising more than Japanese participants. The relationship between face concerns and conflict management style showed that the more self-face and other-face concerned the Thai participants were, the more they reported using obliging. Additionally, the more mutual-faced concerned they were, the more they reported using integrating. Whereas for Japanese participants, the more self-face concerned they were, the more they reported using dominating. Additionally, the more other-face concerned and the more mutual-face concerned they were, the more they reported using integrating. Most of the findings from the PAC analysis (interview) supported the results of the quantitative parts (questionnaire); however, the preferences in styles of conflict resolution for Thais found some differences.