Work

Perceptions of Conflict Management Styles in Chinese Intergenerational Dyads

Year: 2005

Type: article

Abstract: We examined intergenerational communication and conflict management styles in China. Older and younger Chinese adults were randomly assigned to evaluate one of four conversation transcripts in which an older worker criticizes a young co-worker. The young worker's communication was varied across the transcripts to reflect four conflict management styles: competing, avoiding, accommodating, and problem-solving. As expected, older participants favored the accommodating style over the problem-solving style. Young adults either preferred the problem-solving style to the accommodating style, as predicted, or judged the two styles as equally positive. The results illustrate the juxtaposition of tradition and modernization/globalization in the changing Chinese cultural context, and demonstrate how such cultural changes are reflected in interpersonal communication between the generations.

Source: Communication Monographs

DOI: 10.1080/0363775052000342535

Authors: Yan Bing Zhang, Jake Harwood, Mary Lee Hummert

Institutions: University of Arizona, University of Kansas, University of California, Santa Barbara

Language: English

Topic: Conflict Management and Negotiation

Subfield: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2148725304

FWCI: 8.835

Cites: 60

Cited by: 98

Related to: 10