Culture Frameworks 81 TABLE 3. 2 Characteristics of Specific and Diffuse Dimensions dimension may be especially helpful to keep in mind for staffing and interpersonal relationships. Attitudes toward Time Trompenaars’s time dimension has two aspects. The first identifies where the culture’s primary focus is, whether it uses the past, the present, or the future as a lens to view the present. For example, in East Asia, traditional values are important, as are ancestors. History often plays an active role to help understand the present. In such past-focused cultures, change moves slowly. On the other hand, companies can take a long view. In contrast, present-focused cultures tend to neither plan nor dwell on the past. Now is what is important. There is a preference for short-term benefits and immediate results. Certain aspects of the U.S. economy, such as the culture of Wall Street and investors’ expectations, clearly fit this present focus, as do attitudes in some African countries. Future-oriented cultures plan, anticipate, and see a better world evolving. Here Canada, some Latin American and European countries, and aspects of the U.S. culture offer examples. The second aspect of the time dimension describes whether actions are sequential (monochronic) or synchronous (polychronic). Linear actions follow one another. The controlling image of time is a river or stream. Scheduling is done in CCULTURE FACTS discreet units with no overlap. In polychronic cultures, many actions can occur at more or less the same time. For example, several meetings may take place at the same time, in the same space, overlapping one another. Middle Eastern cultures tend to be polychronic. In Saudi Arabia the usual pattern of multiple, simultaneous meetings can be challenging for the untrained, non-native participant, who may feel insulted to not have full attention of people in the meeting. Attitudes toward the Environment Do we try to live in harmony with nature, or do we try to control it? Trompenaars’s dimension of internal vs. external direction is similar to Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s relationship to nature. In internal-direction cultures, people believe they control nature. In external-direction cultures, they believe the natural world controls them and they need to work with their environment. This dimension extends beyond the environment per se to the specific business context and is important for managers to consider. In external-direction cultures, where people tend to be responsive to external forces, a motivational approach that draws on self-directed leadership might be a costly misstep. Of course, training could change that. But a motivational approach that provides external resources such as rewards and regular feedback would be more in line with the cultural dimension of external direction. Another key issue is how people deal with obstacles—do they reconfigure them or adjust to them? Figure 3.7 illustrates an application of Trompenaars’s dimensions to China, Mexico, and the United States. Because they vary so greatly by subculture, the dimensions of time and environment are omitted. CULTURE FACTS @internationalbiz @London A U.S. manager got into more difficulty than he expected when in the London office he placed a British manager with a working-class East End Cockney accent (think Michael Caine or Idris Elba) as head of a department, overseeing several members who spoke clipped and posh English like the Queen. #eastendcockney #poshenglish #queenrules Specific Diffuse Communication is direct, to the point, purposeful Communication is indirect, seemingly “aimless” Style is precise, blunt, definitive, transparent Style is evasive, tactful, ambiguous, opaque Principles and moral stands tend to be universal Morality is situational (person and context) Source: Adapted and modified from Stanford Chinese Institute of Engineers, http://www.stanford.edu/group/ scie/Career/Wisdom/spec_dif.htm (April 12, 2014).
Geringer_InternationalBusiness
To see the actual publication please follow the link above