Every person's existence is based on relationships since we are social creatures. However, having a relationship inevitably leads to difficulties. The face negotiation theory discusses how a person's cultural background affects how they handle disagreement. Stella Ting-Toomey, a professor of human communication at California State University, developed the theory. Toomey explained how maintaining a "face" in society might include different approaches to resolving disputes.

Face-Negotiation Theory

Conflict resolution strategies vary throughout countries due to cultural variances. The philosophy supports the notion of keeping one's appearance in line with their cultures. The face is nothing more than an identity, the public character we present to the world. People exhibit an attitude that is appealing to them since their face is a representation of who they are in society. 

There are certain factors in negotiating face. They are

  • concern about one's own and other people's faces. It's critical to comprehend the value of a person's face and how crucial it is to preserve one because it reflects on other people.
  • While more individualistic people tend to dominate the dispute in order to retain their independence in society, persons from collectivistic cultures often avoid or absorb it.
  • Status in society, which creates power, is a further negotiation point. People are born into a specific status quo in a collectivistic society, and their uniqueness is less valued. People must earn the right to live in a more autonomous society.

The culture a person comes from has a significant impact on how they behave. The individual has been raised with this culturally imposed worldview. The negotiation of a conflict tends to reflect the specific culture since conflict patterns vary with culture and via socialization. The conflict styles are often categorized by two elements. In a collectivistic society, people retain a face for the benefit of the society, whereas those who belong to individualistic cultures want to preserve their personal faces. There are five different conflict styles based on these aspects.

  1. Domination: Individualistic decision-making by dominating or controlling is known as dominance.
  2. Avoiding- A collectivist strategy for avoiding the dispute
  3. Obliging: A communal strategy for giving up
  4. Compromising– An individualistic approach to negotiate to come to a solution
  5. Integrating– an individualistic approach to work together to reach a solution

Face-negotiation theory critics

Western nations have an individualistic culture that is heavily watched and adopted (promotes individual autonomy, responsibility, and accomplishment). Eastern nations, in contrast, value community and have a collective or group culture. However, certain civilizations in these nations adhere to different cultures, such as individualistic or communal cultures in the opposite direction. The generalization used in the cultural categorization is thus not applicable in this situation.