Trompenaars' Seven Dimensions

1. Universal-Particular
"pure" types of judgement:
Golden rule - "Do not lie. Do not steal. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" Don't hurt and show kindness."
Universalist/rule-based tends to be abstract (strict rule like Germany) imply equality. Situations are ordered by categories." others " are not human - rules may not apply. -(German example)
Particularist-exceptional nature of present circumstances- special claims on my love or my hatred - I must sustain, protect or discount this person no matter what the rules say -based on the logic of the heart and human friendship.
Particularist believe that when writing on a subject as important as food you have a universal obligation to truth. 
(Japaness and Indonesians-strongly universalistic stance on corporate confidentiality.)

2.Communitarianism - individualism

(Contract can be too rigid to develop good relationship - let them feel not being trusted
importance of relationship having a flexibility and durability - doing more than the contract requires)

Individualism  - a prime orientation to the self -  dignity, autonomy, privacy and the opportunity for the person to develop.
Communitarianism: a prime orientation to common goals and objectives" 

Success and the inevitability of individualism
Wisdom on this subject derives from the individualistic West, especially from theorist: writing in English. - cultrual belief( not a fact)
(Czechs, Poles, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Russian get high individual credit.)


3. Affective - neutral cultures
Neutral: do not telegraph their feelings but keep them carefully controlled and subdued. 
High in affectivity: people show their feelings plainly by laughing,grimacing...etc.;they attempt to find immediate outlets for their feelings
In cultures where everyone emotes, we may not find words or expressions adequate for our strongest feelings, since they have all been used up.
Control of our feelings is a sign of civilization.
"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of."    - Pascal

Japanese "only a dead fish has an open mouth." English "Empty vessels make the most noise"


4. Specific - diffuse cultures
Specific-oriented cultures- segregates out the task relationship he or she has with a subordinate
Diffuse-every life space and every level of personality tends to permeate all others. Reputation always leaks to some extent into other areas of life.The configuration is circular.

Being admitted into one public layer is not a very big commitment. You "know" the other for limited purposes only.
Private spaces are large and diffuse.
In the USA a title is a specific label for a specific job in a specific place
U-type sees as impersonal something the G-type sees as highly personal

Losing face
"Do not take this personally"-a frequent observation.
The principle of losing face - what happens when something is made public which people perceive as being private.

In diffuse cultures, everything is connected to everything.
Argentinians were surprised by the American's apparent belief that you could use logic to force someone to agree with you.
Specificity and diffuseness are about strategies for getting to know other people. sometimes called low and high context - how much you have to know before effective communication can occur.....

It is similarly hard to feel fully accepted within the richness of French culture with its thousands of diffuse connections. It is hard to every foreigner to get wholly "inside".

5.Achievement - Ascription
All societies give certain of their members higher status than others.
Some accod status to people on the basis of their achievements-achieved status(doing),
other ascribe it to them by virtue of age, class, gender, education and so on.- ascribed status(being).
Capitalism its moving spirit
French and Italian managers were much more emphatic about "knowing all the answers" than managers from many other countries
EU is an ascribed self-fulling prophecy

6.sequential - synchronic
sequential-a series of passing events-a line of discrete events
synchronic-with past, present and future all interrelated so that ideas about the future and memories of the past both shape present action.- time as a circle, revolving so that the minutes of the hour repeat 
It is a clue to the meanings its members find in life and the supposed nature of human existence.
1. present-oriented(timeless, traditionless and ignores the future)
2. past-oriented(maintain and restore traditions in the present)
3. future-oriented(more desirable future)

time is an idea (subjective) rather than an object

The present has three dimensions - the present of past things, the present of present things and the present of future things. - Saint Augustine " Declarations"

An important part of creativity is to assemble past and present activities, plus conjectures about the future, in new combinations.

Sequential   -----The person who conceives of time as a dotted line with regular spacings. They preferred to do things right rather than do the right thing. - Order is order punctuality
Synchronic ------track various activities in parallel

7.inner-directed - outer-directed
inner---- tend to identify with mechanisms
outer---- tends to see an organizationas itself a product of nature

What happens to me is my own doing
Sometimes I feel that I do not have enough control over the directions my life is taking.
Fate Destiny

Greeks--the world was ruled by natural god-like forces:beauty(Aphrodite), truth(Apollo), justice(Athena, passion (dionysus)
Virtue was to achieve harmonia, harmony among the natural forces acting through you.
These struggle to tame nature are not expected to end in tragedy.
The implication is that the outer-directed person is offering an excuse for failure rather than a new wisdom.

Technique is the translation into action of man's concern to master things by means of reason, to account for what is subconscious, make quantitative what is qualitative, make clear and precise the outlines of nature, take hold of chaos, and order it. --------Jacques Ellul