Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.1

Topic 2: Cultural dimensions and Dilemmas

The value-orientation concept

Kluckholn & Strodtbeck define value orientations as

• being complex principles

Three assumptions:• Universal nature of value orientations• Many ways of solving problems• Preferences in choosing solutions

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.2

Five orientations

Five problems common to all human groupings • Human nature orientation (goodness or badness

of human nature)• Man-nature orientation (harmony-with-nature/mastery-over-nature)• Time orientation (past/present/future)• Activity orientation (being, being-in-becoming

and doing)• Relational orientation (Man’s relation to other men)

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.3

Trompenaars’dimensions

• Trompenaars goes beyond the framework of anthropology/ sociology

• He shows how the following dimensions affect the process of managing cultures:- relations with other people- relations with time - relations with nature

Trompenaars standpoint:- Each culture has its own specific solutions for universal problems

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.4

Seven dimensions

• Relations to the others– Universalism vs Particularism (Society Vs.

personal)– Individualism vs collectivism (Self Vs. Group)– Neutral vs affective relationships (Emotion-

related)– Specific vs diffuse relationships (Specific Vs

Integrated)– Achievement versus ascription (doing vs. being)

• Relation to time: Sequential/Synchronic• Relation to the environment: Inner vs outer

directed.

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.5

Relations to the others

• Universalism/Particularism: societal versus personal obligation

• Individualism/Collectivism (Communitarianism): personal versus group goals

• Neutral/Affective relationships: emotional orientation

• Specific/Diffuse relationships: contract versus contact

• Achievement/Ascription: legitimating powerand status

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.6

Management dilemmas & dimensions

In practice dilemmas are typically between:

1. Universalism-Particularism • Legal contracts and loose interpretations • Low cost strategies or premium strategy • Extending rules or discovering exceptions

2. Individualism- Collectivism (Communitarianism)

• Profit or market share strategy • Originating ideas or refining useful products

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.7

Management’s dilemmas & dimensions(Continued)

3.  Neutral or Affectivity • Long pauses or frequent interruptions• Being professional or engaged

4.  Specific-Diffuse• Data and codification or concepts and models• Being results-oriented or process- oriented

5.  Achieved or ascribed status• Pay for performance or vindication for worth • Head-hunting or developing in-house

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.8

Management’s dilemmas & dimensions (Continued)

6.  Sequential or synchronic time• Highly rational, standardized production or Just-

in-time production• Keeping to schedule or being easily distracted

7.  Inner or outer directed• Strategically oriented or fusion oriented• Dauntless entrepreneur or public benefactor

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.9

Trompenaars versus Hofstede dimensions

• The nature of Trompenaars’ dimensions and Hofstede dimensions is very different in approach:

• Trompenaars: - cultures are more like circles with ‘preferred arcs

joined together’ - seen as a ‘model-to-learn-with’ • Hofstede: - linear forms where cultures are positioned high

or low or in the middle. - seeking ‘the perfect model’

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.10

Reconciling cultural dilemmas

• The dilemmas in each of the seven dimensions require some kind of resolution.

• Trompenaars’ methodology aims to reconcile what appear to be opposing values within the dimensions.

• Cultures are seen as ‘dancing’ from one preferred end of a dimension to another.

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.11

How does reconciliation work?

• The process of reconciliation leads to a dynamic equilibrium between seemingly opposed values, which make up a dilemma.

• There are different alternatives:

1. processing: a dilemma is made into two processes.

2. contextualising: what is text and what is context.

3. sequencing: every process of reconciliation is a sequence.

4. synergizing: adding the word through between the two opposite alternative orientations.

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.12

Conclusion Topic 2

• The Trompenaars’ dimensions reflect the value-orientation concept proposed by Kluckholn and Strodtbeck.

• The cross-cultural manager has to face universal dilemmas, but the way they are resolved is culturally determined.

• Rather than the dimensions themselves, it is the concept of reconciliation which distinguishes the work of Trompenaars (and Hampden-Turner) from that of Hofstede.

Browaeys and Price, Understanding Cross-cultural Management, 1st Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2009Slide 5.13

Class Exercise

• In groups, discuss real cases/encounters where cultures clash and how the reconciliation process takes place.