Face Negotiation Theory

Stella Ting-Toomey's Face Negotiation Theory explains how each person within different cultures are constantly negotiating "face" in a scientific way. In the book, A First Look at Communication Theory a chapter on Face Negotiation Theory based on Ting-Toomey's ideas says "face may be described as the projected image of one's self in a relational situation". The main ideas of her theory are based on Edward Hall's distinctions between high-context and low-context cultures. Examples of high-context cultures are Asian countries such as Japan, China, or Korea. They all focus their meaning on relationships and they value everyone's needs and goals rather than individual's. On the other hand, Americans, who are members of a predominantly low-context society, actual works have the greatest significance and the people work for their individual rights rather than for the group. From these explanations, Ting-Toomey encounters the ideas of face concern and face need. Face concern asks "whose face are you trying to save?" and face need inquires "do you want autonomy or inclusion?"

Ting-Toomey goes on to describe four ways of negotiating public self-image. The first is named face- restoration, and refers to giving yourself freedom and space. The second phase is face-saving and that symbolizes the respect for the other person's need for freedom and dissociation. Next, the face-assertion stage defends and protects one's need for inclusion. The final phase is face-giving which defends and supports the other person's need for inclusion. Ting-Toomey says that individuals can negotiate face using one of a combination of the previous four approaches.

As Ting-Toomey continues in her explanation of theory, she describes five ways to manage conflict. The first is avoiding the situation. Next is obliging or giving into the group's ideas. Third, compromising in a conflict means having a "give and take" attitude. Dominating, the fourth, is being firm in supporting your side of the issue at hand. Finally, integrating means that group members exchange information and solve the problem together. I have observed each of these in various classes here at Ohio University. The one that constantly works best is integrating. Students that work together and build off of each other's ideas solve their problems in the most efficient way. It is the same way in businesses.

Griffin, E. (1997). A First Look at Communication Theory. (Third Edition,

pp.419-431). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

To learn about another author's view on the theory, check out Mark's research report.

For a comparison to real life, look at Steve's application page.

An evaluation of this theory can be found on my critique page.

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Check out a page on Genderlect Styles to see how communication between men and women differs.