Culture, gender, and conflict management styles : comparisons between Thai and American students

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the preferences for conflict management styles by Thai and American students and also by men and women. Thai participants were 245 undergraduate and graduate students who enrolled in international programs from Chulalongkorn University. American participants were 330 undergraduate and graduate students. Two measures, Rahim's Organizational Conflict Management Styles (Rahim, 1983) and Individualism-Collectivism Orientation (Hui, 1988), were used. The language in all instruments was English. The results are as follow: 1. There are significant main effects of gender and culture on individualistic-collectivistic orientation (p<.001). 2. Thais, who hold collectivestic values, differ significantly from Americans, who hold individualistic values (p<.001). 3. Women have more collectivistic values than men (p<.001). 4. Thais prefer using avoiding and obliging conflict management styles more than Americans do (both ps<.001). 5. Americans prefer using integrating, dominating, and compromising conflict management styles more than Thais do (all ps<.001). 6. Women prefer using avoiding, obliging, and compromising conflict management styles more than men do (all ps<.001). 7. Men prefer using dominating conflict management style more than women do (p<.001).