Preferences for Third-Party Help in Workplace Conflict: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Chinese and Dutch Employees

Giebels, Ellen 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.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2009 Wiley
Faculty:	Behavioural Sciences (BS)
Research Group:	Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) Psychology of Conflict, Risk & Safety (PCRS)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/68569
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-4716.2009.00044.x
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Metis ID: 258569