Here is another business model of cultural difference. I guess they have no focus on meaning or culture systems as such but rather on traits or self-identified values so that they can be used to facilitate business transactions. Maybe they are like static cross sections of culture, like the rings of a tree, but give you no sense about what you are looking at as a whole. Nevertheless I wanted to post this to remind myself I had read about them.
Trompenaars' model of national culture differences has seven dimensions:
- Universalism vs. particularism (What is more important, rules or relationships?)
- Individualism vs. collectivism (communitarianism) (Do we function in a group or as individuals?)
- Neutral vs. emotional (Do we display our emotions?)
- Specific vs. diffuse (How separate we keep our private and working lives)
- Achievement vs. ascription (Do we have to prove ourselves to receive status or is it given to us?)
- Sequential vs. synchronic (Do we do things one at a time or several things at once?)
- Internal vs. external control (Do we control our environment or are we controlled by it?)
Its interesting to think of these in terms of how cultures might change over time. For example, the trend towards the commodification of all social relationships based on the end of the welfare state and also the internet would suggest that the distinction between private life and working life has changed a lot in many countries. Likewise, the more highly specialised labour becomes perhaps there is a tendency towards more sequential thinking, if I were to hazard a guess
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