CONFUCIAN VALUES AND CONFLICT BEHAVIOR OF ASIAN MANAGERS: A COMPARISON OF TWO COUNTRIES

Abstract

It has been speculated that the conflict behaviors of Chinese and Japanese managers are more or less the same since both cultures are considered as collectivistic and high-contextual; and they inherit Confucian teachings as the cornerstone of their social and moral codes. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether there was a difference between the way that the managers of these two countries handle conflicts and whether the conflict behavior of these managers was influenced by traditional Confucian values. The results indicated that there was little difference found between them in terms of value orientations even though Japanese managers tended to employ more assertive styles than the PRC Chinese managers do in dealing with conflict situations.