‘Ren Qing” versus the ‘Big Five’ The Role of Culturally Sensitive Measures of Individual Difference in Distributive Negotiations

By Leigh Anne Liu, R. Friedman, S. Chi. Management and Organization Review, 2005

98 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this study, we examine culture-specific relationships between individual differences and distributive negotiations. We measured individual characteristics and their effects on distributive negotiations in both American and Chinese cultures, using a Western-based scale (the ‘Big Five’) and a Chinese-based scale (CPAI). We found that agreeableness and extraversion (from the ‘Big Five’) affected negotiations for Americans, but not for Chinese. We found that harmony, face and Ren Qing (from the Chinese-based scales) affected negotiations for Chinese, but not for Americans. Specifically, we found that in the American culture, those higher in extraversion and agreeableness achieved lower economic gain, whereas in the Chinese context that those high in harmony, face, and Ren Qing were more likely to be influenced by opening offers and achieve lower economic gain in distributive negotiations. Our study highlights the need to examine negotiations using culturally sensitive constructs and measures.

Subfields: Communication, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a06d3a81f80c42fdc6ef72a3c887ddc628f1c028

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Citations in the corpus

Cross-cultural organizational behavior. (2007, background): “Similarly, Farh et al. (1997) developed an indigenous OCB measure in Taiwan and found that although altruism, conscientiousness, and identification qualified as etic dimensions of OCB, sportsmanship and courtesy were not found to be part of the OCB construct in the Taiwanese sample.”
Creativity: The Influence of Cultural, Social, and Work Contexts (2010, background): “However, within the sphere of the Chinese collectivist culture, those personality dimensions are not likely to produce significant differences in the already culturally dictated high level of social engagement’ (Liu et al., 2005: 229).”
The Contributions of Personality to Organizational Behavior and Psychology: Findings, Criticisms, and Future Research Directions (2008, background): “For example, extraversion and agreeableness are liabilities in distributive bargaining, due to the tendency of extraverted and agreeable individuals to be disadvantageously forthcoming with information (Barry & Friedman, 1998; Liu, Friedman, & Chi, 2005 ).”