The Role of Relational Goals in Explicating Dyadic Emotional Communication Processes in Dispute Resolution: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

Abstract

This study tested theoretical models that explicate the influence of anger on disputants’ communication tactics and relational outcomes across two cultures. Participants were undergraduate students in Hong Kong (N = 64) and the United States (N = 74) who formed intracultural negotiation dyads to resolve a dispute between roommates. Results indicate that anger had an indirect influence on both negotiators’ own and their counterpart’s desire to continue the relationship. Anger affected negotiators’ relational goals (affiliation vs. power) that prompted the use of differing facework (face-saving vs. face-threatening) and dispute resolution (interests- vs. power- vs. rights-based) tactics, which were associated with both one’s own and the counterpart’s relational outcome. Although the models received support in both cultures, anger had a stronger influence on rights-based tactics for Americans, whereas it had a stronger indirect influence on power-based tactics for Hong Kong Chinese.

Keywords

cross-cultural communication emotion interpersonal conflict negotiation dispute resolution relational goals

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