Facework strategies and intercultural conflict management procedures between international undergraduates and Malaysian instructors at a private university

Abstract

Framed by the face negotiation theory and intercultural conflict management concepts, this study aims to identify the facework strategies used by international undergraduates in intercultural conflicts with Malaysian instructors at a private university, and investigate the preferred effective conflict management procedures for Malaysian instructors in managing intercultural conflicts with international undergraduates. This study uses a descriptive cross-sectional design using questionnaires for data collection.  A total of 317 participants were involved: 105 Indonesian undergraduates, 106 Chinese undergraduates, and 106 Malaysian instructors. The results showed that both Indonesian and Chinese undergraduate groups have similar tendencies for integrating strategies, although they differ in avoiding and dominating strategies. For intercultural conflict management procedures, the most favourable procedure is mediation and the least favourable is ombudsman service. These findings provide instructors with first-hand data for subsequent teacher development on face-saving application. By applying the appropriate facework strategy and ways to enact it, instructors can further develop their teaching skills by creating a healthy student-teacher relationship with international students.