EXAMINING CROSS‐CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOR: A STRATEGY FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Studies of cross‐cultural differences in conflict management behavior are reviewed. This review shows that existing studies are difficult to interpret, because researchers applied Western theories and Western measures to non‐Western cultures, without testing the cross‐cultural equivalence of the constructs and the measures and without searching for emic constructs that might contribute to an understanding of non‐Western behavior. These three problems are discussed, and guidelines to help researchers avoid these problems are proposed.