Managing Across Cultures on Business Case Study 2022

Running head: MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES ON BUSINESS
Managing Across Cultures on Business
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MANAGING ACROSS CULTURES ON BUSINESS
The Seven Dimension of Culture model was published in “Riding the Waves of
Culture” by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner. The thesis statement of this
study is- The seven dimension culture model and contemporary overview is impactful in
managing business culture. The heterogeneous work culture and its management is a crucial
work for international organization managers. This model supplies an overview of how the
challenge could be met.
The model suggested that there are seven dimensions or dilemmas of culture. One
culture prefers one part of the dilemma and its identity is distinguished. According to
Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1998), the seven dimensions are-
1. Particularism versus Universalism
In particularism culture, the rules and regulations are set in terms of friendship and
human relationships. On the other hand, Universalism puts the importance of rules
and law in precedence to human relationships. Salary structures in Woolworths
are universalistic. The setting of ethical standards of an organization is done in a
particularistic manner.
2. Communitarianism versus Individualism
This dimension narrates the dilemma of functioning in a group and individual
work culture. In a communitarian culture, people put community before the
individual. Where individualism is just the opposite in practice (Glover, Friedman
and van Driel 2016). The projects group works of Tesla adopts the
Communitarian approach.
3. Defuse versus Specific
In defuse, culture, people have interwoven public and personal space. The
interactions are formal most of the time. In a specific culture, the public and
personal space are different, and people interact in informally mostly. The

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employees in the IT sectors are supposed to be more diffusive in workplace
environment.
4. Emotional versus Neutral
In emotional work culture, the emotions are spontaneously expressed, whereas the
neutral culture caters controlled emotions. In Amazon.com, while setting the
policies, neutral approach is adopted to reduce biasness.
5. Outer directed versus Inner directed
This dimension is designed according to the reactions of the people to their
environment. Outer directed people control their environment, whereas the inner-
directed people prefer to stay in harmony with the environment. In an
organizational setup, western people are more interested in controlling their work
environment as much as possible. Non-western people prefer to live harmoniously
with their environment (Gochhayat, Giri and Suar, 2017).
6. Synchronous time versus Sequential time
In an organization having Synchronous time work culture do not follow strict
work schedule; rather, it adjusts the group work according to the needs. The
organization with sequential time culture believes in “time is money” phrase.
Woolworths follow the synchronized work culture, while Amazon have sequential
work time.
7. Ascription versus Achievement
In ascription-oriented work culture, person's worth is determined by the status,
age, gender and position. On the other hand, in achievement-based work culture,
the position of a person depends on his work achievements. Most of the renowned
organizations like Walmart, Woolworths, amazon and NAB uses the achievement
based work culture.

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The work culture of organizations varied according to their treatment of these seven
dimensions. The international business has better contexts for cultural dimensions. This
model helps the manager to understand the alternative side of specific work culture (Zukhi,
Hussain and Husni 2017). This is necessary for merger works or trans-national projects. The
national cultures across the world differ, and this model helps the organization managers to
measure these cultural gaps.
However, some of the disadvantages of this model are that this is unable to address the
measures that need to be taken to manage the differences (Supriadi and Pheng, 2018). Also,
this does not take into consideration the personal characteristic's influence on organizational
behaviour.
Hofstede’s model of culture and people dimensions have six components and are
quite familiar to the seven-dimensional models in its approach. The components on these
models are different from those of Trompenaars. These are power distance, uncertainty
avoidance, individualism vs collectivism, and masculinity vs femininity, short term vs long
term orientation and restraint vs indulgence (Andrijauskienė and Dumčiuvienė 2017). Some
of the cultural models differ from the cultural difference model. Like Ohmae’s “Borderless
World” and Levitt’s “Globalization and Markets” models prefer to argue that, the national
borders are fading and the cultural differences are not quite prominent in the present time. In
spite of these statements, the seven dimension model actually addressed all the possible
cultural differences and dimensions (Zukhi, Hussain and Husni 2017). This could be stated as
the most effective model for the managers to understand the cultural difference in
international businesses.
The contemporary work environment is full of cultural diversity. The globalization
has enhanced the scope of business and people are migrating to different countries for their

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work purposes. The inclusive work culture in the organizations has more variations in
cultures of the workforce (Yerznkyan 2016). The internationalization of business increased
the need of this model for understanding the cultural dimensions.
The seven dimensions of culture theory of Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner talks
about the various dilemmas that are seen in organizations. This model is designed to give the
managers an idea of the difference between two work cultures in international business
aspects. People in the work environment could be better understood with the implication of
this model.

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References
Andrijauskienė, M. and Dumčiuvienė, D., 2017, October. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
and National Innovation Level. In DIEM: Dubrovnik International Economic Meeting (Vol.
3, No. 1, pp. 189-205). Sveučilište u Dubrovniku.
Glover, J., Friedman, H. and van Driel, M., 2016. Cultural Dilemmas and Sociocultural
Encounters: An Approach for Understanding, Assessing, and Analyzing Culture. In Critical
Issues in Cross-Cultural Management (pp. 53-60). Springer, Cham.
Gochhayat, J., Giri, V.N. and Suar, D., 2017. Influence of organizational culture on
organizational effectiveness: The mediating role of organizational communication. Global
Business Review, 18(3), pp.691-702.
Hampden-Turner, C. and Trompenaars, F., 1998. Riding the waves of culture: Understanding
diversity in global business. Hachette UK.
Supriadi, L.S.R. and Pheng, L.S., 2018. Organizational Culture and Institutional Forces. In
Business Continuity Management in Construction (pp. 75-100). Springer, Singapore.
Yerznkyan, B.H., 2016. The Influence of Culture on Economic Behavior. Theory and
Practice of Institutional Transformation in Russia, (35), pp.80-88.
Zukhi, M.Z.M., Hussain, A. and Husni, H., 2017. A New Model for Cultural-Based Emoticon
in Distributed Collective Interaction via CMC. Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic
and Computer Engineering (JTEC), 9(2-12), pp.19-23.