The document discusses cultural dimensions and dilemmas in cross-cultural management. It describes Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's concept of value orientations as complex principles with universal nature but many ways of solving problems. Trompenaars identifies seven dimensions that affect managing cultures, including relations with others, time, and nature. These dimensions often present dilemmas for managers between opposing orientations like universalism vs particularism. Trompenaars' methodology aims to reconcile apparent conflicts within dimensions by finding dynamic equilibriums between values.

1. 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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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 power
and status

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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’

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.