FACE NEGOTIATION THEORY Of: Stella Ting-Toomey


by:Allison Darrah

Stella Ting Toomey's work discusses communication between eastern and western cultures,specifically between Asia Pacific or high-context cultures, and Unites States and Canada or low-context cultures.She does this in terms of collectivism and individualism. Individualistic and collectivistic dimensionteaches the most about differences between cultures.Ting-Toomey connects these terms with the concept of identity, one example being how do we see our sense of self?Individualistic cultures emphasize the "I" identity and collectivist cultures emphasize the "we" identity.These dimensions are affected by the relational and communication patterns.

Ting-Toomey describes four ways of negotiating public self-image. The first is face-restoration and refers to giving yourself freedom and space. The second is face-saving which symbolizes the respect for the other person'sneed for freedom and dissociation. Third, face assertion defends and protects one's need for inclusion.The fourth way of negotiating public self image is face-giving, or defending and supporting the other person's need for inclusion.

Finally, Stella Ting-Toomey gives five styles of managing conflict.First is 'avoiding' the situation all together. Second is 'obliging' or giving into the group's ideas. The third style is'compromising' or having a "give and take" attitude. The fourth style is 'dominating' or being firm in supporting your side of the issue.The final style of managing conflict is 'integrating' which is when the group members exchange information and solve the problem together.

Say for example that you are on a committee for student rights at Ohio University. You are working on the upcoming years pamphlet and a member of your group did not complete his task. The pamplet had to be submitted to the University in 2 days, and it would take just about that much time to complete the slacking members part. Stella Ting-Toomey's experiments show that if you are from a low-context culture, you will most likely manage this conflict using either the dominating style or the integrating style of managing conflict. An american student is more inclined to get the job done right and on time, than avoiding confrontation with that member of the group. I know that I personally, work with myself in mind, even when involved in group projects. First and foremost is that my portion of the work is done correctly and that everyone else's work is done correctly before it becomes a group effort. Almost everything I attempt to accomplish starts and end's with the myself as an individual in mind.

To find out if Face Negotiation is more scientific or humanistic visit

Kellie's page

Sarah's page
Check out a research of Face Negotiation dealing with "conflict","face"

& "facework" on Matt's page

For examples on how Face Negotiation applies to life, click on Jen's

page

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To learn about the Genderlect Styles of Deborah Tannen click here. Tannen uses the idea of the communication between the male and female as "the clash of two cultures," and Face Negotiation deals with the differences in communication between actual 'cultures' and how they deal with 'face' situations.

Griffin, E. (1997). A First Look At Communication Theory. New York: McGraw Hill.