Fons Trompenaars (1953- ) and Charles Hampden-Turner (1934- )
Trompenaars (Dutch, pictured right) and Hampden-Turner (British, pictured right below) are world renowned
experts on managing different cultures.
Key books
The Seven Cultures of Capitalism
(1993)
In a globalized world, businesses must be sensitive to and learn from people’s native cultures,
because they are the most important influence on their values and human relationships.
Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s research of 15,000 managers in the USA, Britain, Sweden, France, Japan, the
Netherlands and Germany found that they differed in the following ways:
1. Universalism
(applying rules universally)
Where?
USA, Britain, Germany, Sweden.
2. Particularism
(applying rules to a particular situation)
Where?
France, Japan.
3. Analysis
(analysing the different parts of a problem separately)
Where?
USA, Britain, Netherlands, Sweden.
4. Integration
(interrelating the different parts of a problem)
Where?
France, Germany, Japan.
5. Individualism
(emphasizing the individual)
Where?
USA, Britain, Netherlands, Sweden.
6. Communitarianism
(emphasizing the organization as a community with different people to serve)
Where?
Germany, France, Japan.
7. Inner-direction
(self-reliance)
Where?
USA , Britain, Germany.
8. Outer-direction
(learning from others)
Sweden, Netherlands, France, Japan.
9. Status by achievement
Where?
USA, Britain, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Japan.
10. Status by ascription (position)
Where?
France.
11. Equality
(equal treatment of employees)
Where?
USA, Germany, Britain, Netherlands, Sweden.
12. Hierarchy
(emphasis on hierarchical power)
Where?
France, Japan.
13. Time as sequence
(doing sequential tasks quickly)
Where?
USA, Sweden, Netherlands, Britain, Germany.
14. Synchronized view of time
(converting tasks into a co-ordinated process)
Where?
France, Japan.
Key quotes on culture and
globalization
Cultural preferences, or values, are the bedrock of national identity and the source of economic strengths and
weaknesses.
Our future success depends on how well we understand the deepest motivations of our trading partners.
Riding the Waves of Culture (2nd edition,
1997), first written
by Trompenaars in 1993
There is no ‘one best way’ of management.
What works in one culture may not work in another, because there are behavioural differences
between them (as discussed in The Seven Cultures of Capitalism above).
Success depends on understanding our own culture as well as other people’s.
Key quote on culture and
globalization
Understanding our own culture and our own expectations and assumptions about how people “should” think and act
is the basis for success.
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