Conflict resolution styles among COLLECTIVIST cultures: a comparison between Japanese and Koreans

Abstract

Traditionally, Koreans and Japanese have been considered collectivistic in their communication behavior, in comparison to U.S. Americans. However, the important cultural differences (possibly subtle) in conflict management styles among the two collectivist cultures have been overlooked. This article aims to explore how Japanese and Koreans may differ in their preferences for different conflict management styles, focusing on the importance attached to conversational constraints in conflict situations. This article focuses on the following four conversational constraints: (1) concern for clarity; (2) concern for minimizing imposition; (3) concern for avoiding hurting the hearers feelings; and (4) concern for avoiding negative evaluation by the hearer. Several hypotheses were formulated based on the origins behind the conversational constraints in relation to the cultural orientations of Japanese and Koreans. A total of 534 undergraduate students, studying in Japan N = 235) and Korea (N = 299), participated in the study. Each participant was provided descriptions of the three conflict situations and was asked to rate the perceived importance of each constraint in each conflict situation. The main findings of this study point to a picture that Koreans are more collectivistic in conflict communication styles than Japanese. Specifically, the results of this study seem to suggest different processes of conflict management in the two cultures: Japanese as focusing on clarity constraint (conveying the message clearly and efficiently) more than Koreans, and Koreans focusing on social-relation constraints (avoiding imposition to the hearer or loss of face by the hearer) more than Japanese.