Seven Dimensions of Culture (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner)
Model of National Culture Differences.
Fons Trompenaars is a Dutch author and consultant in the field of cross-cultural communication. His books include: Riding the Waves of Culture, Seven Cultures of Capitalism, Building Cross-Cultural Competence, 21 Leaders for the 21st Century and Innovating in a Global Crisis. Trompenaars experienced cultural differences firsthand at home, where he grew up speaking both French and Dutch, and then later at work with Shell in 9 countries.
Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner have developed a model of culture with 7 dimensions. Note that the first 5 orientations are covering the ways in which human beings deal with each other. Following are the
7 Dimensions of Culture as described by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner:
- 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: This orientation involves the way in which societies look at time: Do we do things one at a time or several things at once?
- INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL CONTROL: This orientation is about the attitude of the culture to the environment: Do we control our environment or are we controlled by it?
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