Face N egotiation Theory

By Steve Schierholz

M ain Ideas
Summarizing the theory and authors
Evaluating the theory
Where is the theory today?
Ways to improve the theory

Author

Stella Ting-Toomey

Sum m arizing Theory

How we manage our face in a conflict
Face: The public image people display
Positive face: Be liked and admired by others
Negative face: Desire to be autonomous and free
from others
Face work: Actions used to deal with face
needs/wants of self and others

Avoiding

Compromisi
ng

Oblige

Some of the methods used are:

Face Saving: Efforts to avoid embarrassment or
vulnerability
Face Restoration: Strategy used to preserve autonomy and
avoid loss of face

Integration

Dominating

Evaluating Theory
Allows us to analyze an interaction
Puts labels on what we do within an interaction
Allows us to better understand how we
navigate an interaction
Be able to look at past interactions to formulate
a better way to handle it in the future
Only feedback is being able to apply this theory
to a group interaction
This theory has been used to formulate other
theories

n
di
i
o
Av

Co
mp
ro

mis
ing

Obliging

Face

W here is the theory today?

Intercultu
ral

Emotion

Face
Negotiati
on Theory

Faceboo
k

Physicia
n

H ow can the theory be im proved?

Group interaction
Communicate better in a
group since this type of
interaction happens in our
everyday life
Many different types of
interactions to ensure the
face we portray is the one
we want