7 valuing processes and the dilemmas they contain
Hampden-Turner, C & Trompenaars, F (1993) The Seven Cultures of Capitalism London: Piatkus
1. Making rules and discovering exceptions
- Universalism versus particularism
- How can the application of rules of wide generality (universalism) be reconciled with special exceptions (particularism)?
2. Constructing and deconstructing
- Analysing versus integrating
- How can analysis of phenomena into parts be reconciled with integrating such details into whole patterns?
3.Managing communities of individuals
- Individualism versus communitarianism
- Is it more important to focus upon the enhancement of each individual, his or her rights, motivations, rewards, capacities, attitudes, or should more attention be paid to the advancement of the group?
4. Internalising the outside world
- Inner-directed versus outer-directed orientation
- Which are the more important guides to action, our inner-directed judgements, decisions, and commitments, or the signals, demands, and trends in the outside world to which we must adjust?
5. Synchronising fast processes
- Time as sequence versus time as synchronisation
- Is it more important to do things fast, in the shortest possible sequence of passing time, or to synchronise efforts so that completion is coordinated?
6. Choosing among achievers
- Achieved status versus ascribed status
- Should status of individuals depend on what they have achieved and how they have performed (achievement) or on some other characteristic, such as age, seniority, gender, education, potential, family connections (ascription).
7. Sponsoring equal opportunities to excel
- Equality versus hierarchy
- Is it more important that we treat colleagues as equals so as to elicit from them the best they have to give, or to emphasise the judgement and authority of the hierarchy that is coaching and evaluating them?
Jim Cambridge, CEIC, University of Bath, July 2000