Face negotiation theory
[3][4] Erving Goffman also situated "face" in contemporary Western research and conceptualized the terms lien and mien-tzu as identity and ego.
[2] Further research by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson on politeness suggests that the desire for face is a universal concern.
In fact, researchers Brown and Levinson posit that face is something that "is emotionally invested, and can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction".
[12] Ting-Toomey expanded this thinking and conceptualized face as an individual's claimed sense of favorable social self-image in a relational and network context.
[13] Facework is defined as clusters of communicative behaviors that are used to enact self-face and to uphold, challenge/threaten, or support the other person's face.
[22] Drawing on the research of Geert Hofstede, face-negotiation theory notes that while individualism and power distance are two separate dimensions, they are correlated.
Self-construal is an individual level of the construct in face-negotiation theory, and it can be regarded as an additional alternative to understand cross-cultural conflicts,[24] and it is also closely related to cultural variability.
There are four opportunities a mediator has in regards to their concern for self-face, your personal image and other-face, the counterpart's image of themselves that define face movements: Ting-Toomey asserts that several conditions must be perceived as severe in order for a negotiator to feel his face is threatened; the importance of the culturally approved facework that is violated, feelings of mistrust because of a large distance between cultures, the importance of the conflict topic, the power distance between the two parties, and the perception of the parties as outgroup members are all conditions which must be made salient for face-threatening communication to occur.
On a broad level, individualistic cultures operate with a more direct, low context facework with importance placed on verbal communication and nonverbal gestures for emphasis.
Preventive strategies include credentialing, appealing for suspended judgment, pre-disclosure, pre-apology, hedging, and disclaimers.
Examples of Integrative tactics may include listening to the other, respecting their feelings, and providing their own personal viewpoints in a manner that assists in the negotiation.
Facework competence is conceptualized as an optimal integration of knowledge, mindfulness and communication skills in managing self's and other's face-related concerns.
[4] To act competently in an intercultural conflict episode, the theory posits that individuals have to enhance their cultural knowledge and mindfulness in applying context-sensitive facework interaction skills.
Knowledge here refers to the process of in-depth understanding of phenomenon via a range of information gained through conscious learning and personal experiences.
Adapting face-negotiation theory, and also in combination with various communication researches such as Critical Incident, Intergroup Negotiation Simulation etc., Ting-Toomey designed a detailed three-day training session.
Motherhood of the Construction of "Mommy Identity" – Heisler & Ellis Face Negotiation Theory suggests that, "USA culture simultaneously encourages connection and autonomy among individuals.
[34] Kristin Kirschbaum applied face-negotiation theory to the health communication context, and specifically in the operating room environment.
[35] In the research, a survey was administered to anesthesiologists and surgeons at a teaching hospital in the southwestern United States to measure three variables commonly associated with face-negotiation theory: conflict-management style, face concern, and self-construal.
The results strongly support the theory, and significant positive correlations were found between independent self-construal and self-face concern for anesthesiologists and surgeons.
Along this line of thinking, the research recommended physician communication training to address both unique language considerations and different orientations to face concern and self-construal.
Gust Yep, noticing the potential vulnerability and emotional volatility of sexual interaction, applied face-negotiation theory to the safe sex negotiation context.
[36] The study integrated various components of face-negotiation theory, and eight propositions are derived from empirical testing in intimate communication scenarios including east–west romantic dyads.
[38] Research into the world of community gift-giving on livestream services found that face plays a role in purchases on live video streaming platforms.
Though research found it is easy to make purchasing decisions online, face plays a role in moderating how much someone is willing to give gifts to a person on a livestream.
[39] Research was conducted to gauge how disabled persons interact with able bodied individuals with regards to protecting one's face and self-identity.
In fact, the study found that disabled students viewed asking help from able bodied individuals as a face threatening act.
For the study, twelve reviews from the periodical Literatūra ir menas (Literature and Art) were randomly selected.
A study was conducted among 317 Chinese and American participants to determine how the cultural variation between the two affected the intention to apologize.
The study thus found that Chinese participants had a greater intention to apologize especially if their act threatened the positive face of the other individual.
The researchers compared five hypotheses on relationship between the central constructs of face-negotiation theory and victims’ behavioral consequences.
