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    Preferences for third-party help in workplace conflict: a cross-cultural comparison of Chinese and Dutch employees

    Giebels, E. and Yang, Huadong (2009) Preferences for third-party help in workplace conflict: a cross-cultural comparison of Chinese and Dutch employees. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 2 (4), pp. 344-362. ISSN 1750-4708.

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    Abstract

    This study examines conflict parties’ preferences for different types of third-party help and how this may be influenced by cultural differences in terms of individualism/collectivism. We focus our analysis on process-related nonsubstantive help and identify three types of thirdparty help in interpersonal conflict situations: relational help, procedural help, and emotional help. In a pilot study with Chinese and Dutch students (N = 93), we first developed and validated three new scales to measure preferences for the three types of third-party help. To further test specific hypotheses we used another sample of Dutch and Hong Kong Chinese bank employees (N = 71). In line with our expectations, Chinese employees report a higher preference for relational help, while Dutch employees report a higher preference for emotional help. In terms of procedural help, there was no significant difference between Dutch and Chinese employees. Furthermore, additional analyses revealed a gender effect on the preference for emotional help, showing that—regardless of their cultural background—females prefer this type of third-party help more, presumably because they experience more conflict stress.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): conflict management, third-party intervention, cultural differences, individualism/collectivism
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School
    Depositing User: Huadong Yang
    Date Deposited: 12 Mar 2013 09:36
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:02
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/6221

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