Trompenaars’ Seven Dimensions Of Culture, Cultural Intelligence And Population Demographics In International Management

Trompenaars’ seven dimensions of culture

The Onion model of Trompenaars is a framework that delves deep in to cross cultural which is applicable to general business management. The first contrast that is highlighted in the Onion model is Universalism versus Particularism. Universalism professes those business ideas and motives that can be applied to any business context without any modification (Thi, Trang and Latt 2017). On the contrary, Particularism professes that individual business circumstances actually determine in what ways business ideas as well practices ought to be applied.

The next dimension discusses the contrast between Individualism and Communitarianism. In this context, individualism implies the significance of individual talents in development of business. On the contrary, Communitarianism professes that organisations flourish as an impact of the combined efforts of work groups in various companies.

The next comparison depicts the stress between neutral and emotional workplace culture. The Japanese and the British firms generally reflect the Neutral working culture (Trompenaars and Greene 2016). Some exquisite specimens of emotional work cultures are that of Mexico, Italy, and Spain and so on.

Another way in which the Trompenaars’ model differentiates work culture is under the columns specific and diffuse. In specific workplace culture, individuals occupy large public spaces which other employees. On the contrary, Ferwerda and Schedl (2016), states that in diffuse culture, individual employees substantially guard their public spaces because in such cases entry in to the public domains gives the externals license to enter their private spaces as well. The culture of diffusion in workplace is specifically observed in the German companies’ executive standards.

Achievement and in its contrast ascription forms another dimension of comparison according to Trompenaars. In the domain of achievement, people reach their designated professional status based on the credibility of the functions they perform to fulfil the organisational goals. As per Beugelsdijk, Maseland and Van Hoorn (2015), in ascription culture, status or power is assigned to an individual based on the social identity of a person. Achievement based culture is demonstrated by the organisations in Austria, UK, Switzerland and so on. On the contrary, Venezuela, Indonesia and China are exhibitors of ascription culture.

Moreover, Sequential time culture and in its comparison synchronic culture is constituting another aspect of the Onion Model. In the sequential mode of culture, people prefer that events occur in chronological fashion. Punctuality is reflected in the professional lives and work regime of sequential people through the scheduling and plannification that is achieved by them. The synchronic culture of working recognizes specific time periods as of high significance and importance and meeting deadlines is the key objective based on which they make preferential distribution of their time.

Application of model of personal culture

The last aspect of contrast is constituted by the differential controlling authority of organisations. Prolific and dynamic business agencies often control the industry they operate in and thus they exemplify internal business control. On the other hand, Lo, Waters and Christensen (2017), opines that external control is reflected by those organisations that have become potentially rich by utilising the favourable business prospects of the business atmosphere in which they operate.

Figure 1: The Onion Model of Trompenaars’

(Source: Trompenaars and Greene 2016)

In my working atmosphere, the culture of Communitarianism is highly followed. Perform-ability is basically analysed based on how well each employee can deliver within the deadline set by the clients. Again, the organisation is bred in synchronic culture, since for any employee of our organisation it is important that he or she gives the best performance hat that time of the day while serving the deliverables of the clients within affixed deadline. Individual achievement is also greatly acknowledged here. However the culture of communication between the various work teams in my organisation is very diffusive. The members of any work team cannot communicate openly regarding task affairs within work hours. This is however, systematised by the HR department so that client details of one team do not get leaked to the other teams.

The ABS population clock database have developed an excellent ERP software for the international managers. The managers can create own population clock database through which they would be always aware and updated with the demographic statistics and other professional data of the entire database (Krockenberger 2015). Statistical databases like the CIA world Fact book helps managers of international organisations to analyse representative group of potential customers. This analysis helps the managers to get an in depth, accurate and cost effective snapshot of the projected market. As an impact of this implemented planning, the management do not need to attempt conducting census of every individual customers. Statistical databases like the ABS population clock, the CIA work book and so on provides standalone figures along with hard evidences which in turn provides a level of certainty to the companies. As per Daly (2016), this helps the mangers to take more precise decisions based on risk weighted assets. These statistics can serve as fundamental for business relationship also. For evidence, careful analysis of the data reveals a link between variables like specific sale offers and revenue changes, as also dissatisfied customers and purchased products. Lastly international standard quality assurance program carried out in companies based on Six Sigma or Lean management, can make use of statistics as a means for measuring and controlling production processes for the minimization of variations leading to error and/or waste.

Role of ABS Population Clock, CIA World Fact Book and others

Cultural Intelligence also known as cultural quotient is recent concept applicable to business domains. This is basically a parameter that measures the potential to relate with people and work effectively across cultures. The concept is actually aligned to cross-cultural competence, however going beyond that to test the business intelligence in the form of intercultural capabilities. According to the opinion of Ang and Van Dyne (2015), this concept is developed out of the behavioural, motivational as well as metacognitive aspects of individual employees when he or she have to adapt to people of various cultures in the workplace.

In my opinion cultural intelligence is the spontaneity with which we are capable with dealing client base of various demographic origin than ours. Often the work breakdown structure of the clients from various cultures are different. In order to cope up with the variegated needs, the “think-tank” of our company have to engage in intense market research. In another context, culture intelligence is an aspect that influences the management of our organisation when they deal with the employee base of outstation perks.

The first aspect is that they run their business in autonomous way by giving lots of freedom to the workers along with the team having its own board of directors, internally comprising of senior executives. Secondly, they expect the people working with them to work honestly and ethically by observing laws and regulations. Thirdly, they give their suppliers a respected position in their business. The fourth value is that they look after the working environment of their workers and make that safe and fulling for the workers. The fifth value holds an important place among all the values. According to this, they expect that the business they are currently doing would make positive and solid contribution to the society around them. The final corporate value that holds great significance for Wesfarmers is there are many people who are unable to perform to certain values and in that case they becomes very much strong and decisive and takes action in a fast manner.

Becoming indispensable is actually a reflection of the mutual value generation of the respective employee or the work group and the employer as well. An agent can generate value towards the company only when they have synchronisation with the other work departments and/or the clientele of direct client communication is a part of the job role. The respective employee should attempt to make significant contribution towards innovation or development of the learning factors that the company have been adopting. However, as per the opinion of Fischer and Friedman (2015), one important consideration in this respect is that the employee(s) have to strive to get promotion from their entry level position in the shortest possible span. Betting promoted to higher position gives the employees the discretionary power to intervene in the policy decisions. Another factor of becoming indispensable is always remaining towards organisational changes. The Chinese Ideogram is highly favourable in this respect. This insists that in crisis situations danger in organisational context should be perceived as an opportunity. Those employees who can rise above average amidst crises, becomes the cradle of new restructuring within the organisation.

References

Ang, S. and Van Dyne, L., 2015. Conceptualization of cultural intelligence: Definition, distinctiveness, and nomological network. In Handbook of cultural intelligence (pp. 21-33). Routledge.

Berman, E. and Wang, X., 2017. Essential statistics for public managers and policy analysts. Cq Press.

Beugelsdijk, S., Maseland, R. and Van Hoorn, A., 2015. Are Scores on H ofstede’s Dimensions of National Culture Stable over Time? A Cohort Analysis. Global Strategy Journal, 5(3), pp.223-240.

Daly, A.J., 2016. Leading Cross-border Collaboration in the USA-Mexico Border Region: What is important?. Cross Border Studies, p.23.

Ferwerda, B. and Schedl, M., 2016, July. Investigating the Relationship Between Diversity in Music Consumption Behavior and Cultural Dimensions: A Cross-Country Analysis. In UMAP (Extended Proceedings).

Fischer, D. and Friedman, H.H., 2015. Make yourself indispensable: Skills employers desperately need to succeed in the knowledge economy.

Krockenberger, M., 2015. Population growth in Australia. Australia Institute.

Lo, K.D., Waters, R.D. and Christensen, N., 2017. Assessing the applicability of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for Global 500 corporations’ Facebook profiles and content. Journal of Communication Management, 21(1), pp.51-67.

Thi, T., Trang, T. and Latt, K.Z., 2017. Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges between Swedish Managers and Burmese and Vietnamese Employees: How are those Communication Challenges related to GLOBE’s Cultural Dimensions?.

Trompenaars, F. and Greene, R.J., 2016. Reconciling Universalistic with Particularistic Perspectives. In Rewarding Performance Globally (pp. 55-72). Routledge.