Comparing Conflict Management and Avoiding among Ethnic Chinese, Japanese, and Americans ： Interpersonal and Organizational Settings

This paper presents an introduction to cross-cultural studies on interpersonal and organizational conflict styles. It addresses the typologies of collectivist-individualist and interdependent-independent, focusing on two styles of conflict management in particular: integrating and avoiding. The studies under review primarily concern participants identified as Chinese or Japanese. Other Asians, as well as Americans, are also reviewed for the purpose of comparison. At the same time, in discussions about East versus West, or group-values versus individual-values, several researchers suggest not to overgeneralize. Whether evaluating cross-culturally or intra-culturally, the research and opinions covered in this paper, and elsewhere, convey interactions that are far more complex in real life than such dichotomies as Asian/non-Asian or individual/collective.Articl