Written by: Stella Ting-Toomey

Face - Negotiation Theory (FNT) was developed by Stella Ting-Toomey (1985), a communication professor at California State University, Fullerton Face according to sociologist Erving Goffman is the positive social value of a person effectively claims for her/himself by the line others assume s/he has taken during a particular contact.

 Born in Hong Kong She move to the U.S. in the summer of 1972, to attend the University of Iowa. She was attende at three U.S. universities
1. 2. 3.

Iowa New Jersey Southern California

Professor at California State University at Fullerton (CSUF) Mother to a biracial child.

Concept that deals with how different people and cultures place importance and value on identity and how conflict is handled by those within those cultures.

Idea of face as representative of the identity a person has and how the culture someone is in places importance on the individual and society.

Deals with how people gain positive or negative face, based on how others perceive them.

 Represent the two major differences between the Collectivist and Individualistic cultures. Three important differences between the two.
i. ii.

iii.

Perceive one-self Personal goals Duty

1. Two-thirds of the worlds

are born into collectivist cultures, while just under

2. One-third of the worlds

population lives in the individualistic culture

Collectivistic
A collectivist culture is a people tend to view themselves as members of groups and usually consider the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of individuals
a) b) c) d)

Families Work units Tribes Nations

 Freewheeling
our self-concern with individual rights, not group

responsibilities
Moral stance

Attitude or view point that helps you make a decision

 People within a culture differ on the relative importance they place on individual selfsufficiency or group solidarity
1.

2.

Interdependent Independent

Step to which people conceive of themselves as relatively independent from, or connected to others.

 Collectivism emphasizes the interdependence of every human being.

Political Religious

Economic
Social outlook

Interdependent self-construal dene themselves in terms of their relationships with others.

 Concept of self is prevalent within individualistic cultures

self-reliance autonomy competition personal control individual goals

Relational reality of self-image

Overlap shows that an Individual might have more interdependent than a person raised in Collectivistic with a relative high independent self-construal.

 Every culture is always negotiating face. FNT states that people from individualistic, low context cultures interact differently from collectivistic, high context cultures.

 Public self-image that every member of society wants to claim for himself/herself. Differs depending on differences in cultural and individual identities.
Individualistic 1. Self-Face Maintenance Collectivistic 1. Mutual-Face Maintenance 2. Other-Face Maintenance

Face-restoration - protecting your own autonomy Face-saving - protecting the autonomy of another person Face-giving - protecting another's need for inclusion Face-assertion - protecting your own need for inclusion

 The ways which various cultures view face and their individual role in face-work will determine the approach to conflict management. FNT maintains that intercultural conflict can be reduced by recognizing, understanding, accepting, and adapting to the differences with another's culture.

Obliging- accommodating Compromising- bargaining Avoiding- withdrawing Integrating- problem-solving Dominating- competing

 Communication in all cultures is based on maintaining and negotiating face. Face is problematic when identities are questioned. Differences in individualistic vs. collectivistic and small vs. large power distance cultures profoundly shape face management. Individualistic cultures prefer self oriented face-work, and collectivistic cultures prefer other oriented face-work. Behavior is also influenced by cultural variances, individual, relational, and situational factors. Competence in intercultural communication is a culmination of knowledge and mindfulness.