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1.2 Research objectives
This study has the following three major objectives: first and foremost, to empirically investigate the predominant conflict management styles of Chinese and Nigerian businesspersons respectively; second, to explore the differences in the preferred conflict management styles of the two target groups; third, to analyze the underlying factors that determine the discovered differences.
More specifically, this research aims at empirically exploring Chinese and Nigerian businesspersons’ preferences for conflict management styles and find out differences so as to gain better knowledge about the preferred conflict management styles of businesspersons in the two countries. Furthermore, the author intends to probe into the fundamental factors contributing to the preferences of the research objects to obtain a more comprehensive understanding about why businesspersons in these two countries tend to choose distinct approaches to handle conflicts.
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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous studies on conflict
The pervasiveness of conflict phenomena calls attention from scholars of various fields, such as philosophers, sociologists, economists, anthropologists and so on, who have studied conflict since long time ago. Since the present study is strongly linked with cross-cultural business communication, the concepts of conflict proposed by researchers in management and communication domains provide significant implications.
2.1.1 Definition of conflict and conflict style
The concept of conflict is developing over time. Putnam and Wilson (1982) explained conflict as “disagreements that arise from or can lead to incompatible goals, values and behaviors” (Putnam & Wilson, 1982:629). Similarly, Ting-Toomey (1985) defined conflict as “a form of interpersonal or intrapersonal tension between two or more parties based on goals, needs, desires, values, beliefs, and/or attitudes” (Ting-Toomey, 1985:72). Thomas (1992) maintained, “Conflict is the process which begins when one party perceives that the other has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect something that he or she cares about” (Thomas, 1992:265). Levinson (1994) specified the things that conflicting parties may care about by defining conflict as “a dispute between two or more individuals or groups over access to or control of resources including economic, political (power and leadership), social (prestige or status), and personal esteem”. Later, Geert Hofstede (1994) divided conflicts into ‘intended conflicts’, which were tangible, and ‘unintended conflicts’, which were intangible but could be perceived, and which often arose during intercultural encounters
