The effects of collectivistic and individualistic values on conflict and decision-making : an experiment in China

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Publication Date

11-1-2010

Volume

40

Issue

11

First Page

2904

Last Page

2926

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.

Abstract

In an experiment with 80 participants in China, protagonists with opposing views in organizations that valued collectivism, compared to individualism, were found to develop cooperative goals, were confident that they could work, sought to understand, and demonstrated that they understood the opposing arguments, accepted these arguments as reasonable, and combined positions to create an integrated decision. The inductions comparing participants who valued harmony as a goal or a technique in which they pretended to agree were only partially effective and did not yield significant differences on conflict dynamics and outcomes. Findings challenge traditional theorizing that collectivistic values lead to conflict avoidance, and support recent arguments that strong, cooperative relationships promote the productive discussion of opposing views in decision making.

DOI

10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00686.x

Print ISSN

00219029

E-ISSN

15591816

Funding Information

Financial support of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, RGC Grant Project No. LU (LU3404/05H) to the first author.

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Tjosvold, D., Wu, P., & Chen, Y. F. (2010). The effects of collectivistic and individualistic values on conflict and decision-making: An experiment in China. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40(11), 2904-2926. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00686.x

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