6 Examples of Saving Face

John Spacey, updated on November 23, 2016

Saving face is preserving one's social status after a failure, mistake or disagreement. A person may attempt to save their own face and people in a group may help them. Alternatively, members of a group may attempt to embarrass or humiliate someone who has made a mistake, causing them to lose face. The following are examples of saving face.

Tact

Disagreeing with people indirectly when you feel they are wrong with techniques such as "That's a good idea but..."

Indirect No

Saying "no" to a job candidate or salesperson may cause them to lose face. Approaches such as "Your skills are impressive but we ended up choosing a candidate with more banking industry experience", are a way of saying no that is face saving.

Humor

A colleague apologizes for something and you reduce the tension with humor and forgiveness.

Employment

A senior employee appears to have health problems that are interfering with his position. He is kept on as a "special consultant" until retirement age but removed from office duties.

Embarrassing Moments

A person has food on their face during a meeting. Everyone pretends not to see it. The person beside them whispers "you have a little something ..."

Hints

Indirect feedback that sounds positive but contains criticism as hints. In cultures where saving face is common, people learn to read between the lines to see such criticism.

Overview: Saving Face
Type	International Business
Definition	Allowing a person to avoid embarrassment in the context of failure, mistakes, criticism or disagreement.
Value	Embarrassing someone who intensely doesn't want to be embarrassed can have interpersonal, political and commercial repercussions.
Notes	Saving face is particularly common in China, Japan and Korea. However, it is by no means exclusive to Asia and is a reasonably common social behavior in many countries.
Related Concepts	Office Politics