The rise of “globalization” has led to a variety of developments as we enter the new millennium. The most spectacular, probably, are the “anti‐globalization” demonstrations, such as at Seattle, Genoa, etc. One of the more positive developments is the increasing number of books aimed at facilitating cross‐cultural communication, so that globalization can proceed peacefully and productively for all members of the “global village” that is coming. We look at one of those books here.
The authors have a consulting group devoted to helping firms and managers build cross‐cultural competence. Their backgrounds are helpful to this end. Hampden‐Turner is British and Trompenaars is Dutch. Furthermore, each has a doctorate in Business, Hampden‐Turner from Harvard and Trompenaars from Wharton. This cross‐cultural combination is reinforced by their 18 years of research including 46,000 managerial respondents examining cultural values in 40 nations. The authors identify six dimensions of cultural diversity: Universalism versus Particularism; Individualism versus Communitarianism; Specificity versus Diffusion; Achieved Status versus Ascribed Status; Inner Direction versus Outer Direction; and Sequential Time versus Synchronous Time. All human cultures face similar situations but they respond to and evaluate them differently. The authors suggest that foreign cultures are reversals or mirror images of our own.
The goal of the book is to help the readers (including managers) develop cross‐cultural competence. Instead of the manager throwing up his hands in despair when facing a foreign culture, he should try to reconcile the conflicting values – or, as they say, “think in both directions”, taking a reverse view. Given this goal, the book is organized logically. Each odd‐numbered chapter identifies the contrast between one set of cultural values (what they call “the Dilemma”) and each even‐numbered chapter suggests how to reconcile the apparent conflict between these contrasting values. In addition to the 12 chapters, there are four appendices where the authors explain their theory and method of research. The authors’ original research was based on a questionnaire, which made respondents choose between universal rules versus particular exceptions, individual advantages versus community responsibilities, specific versus diffuse criteria of judgement, and so on. They then developed a new questionnaire which gave the respondents five choices instead of just two exclusive alternatives. This allowed respondents to choose some compromise and reconciliation between the exclusive alternatives. They found this to be more like how respondents function in “normal conditions”, and that there was a capacity to deal with and reconcile values in general. This capacity correlated strongly with the extent of international experience.
Each chapter includes numerous company and social examples, illustrating the various values and their strong and weak points. These make the reading more interesting and less academically intimidating. The majority of the examples are US, suggesting the USA as the primary audience. Apart from the corporate examples, there are many others from other sources and some are particularly interesting illustrations of the points being made. Some of the non‐corporate examples may be cited to note the relevance of non‐business illustrations for managers. After all, businesses and their people are part of the larger culture. These examples include films, books, individuals and events: Casablanca, Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, The Scarlet Letter, Horatio Alger, Alexander the Great, Douglas McArthur, The Vietnam War, the Oscars, the House of Lords. The book also has over 100 cartoons, meant to illustrate points being discussed. These also lighten the text, but not all of them are particularly helpful illustrations.
The suggested strategy for achieving cross‐cultural competence includes five steps:
- 1.
(1) Elicit the dilemma by identifying the opposing perspectives and values.
- 2.
(2) Chart the dilemma by identifying each actor’s position and note the positives of the other extreme value orientation.
- 3.
(3) Stretch the dilemma by noting the positives and negatives of the extreme use of each conflicting value orientation.
- 4.
(4) Identify possible solutions including those at each extreme value and possible compromises.
- 5.
(5) Reconcile the dilemma by finding a synergistic solution, a “win‐win” for the participants at each extreme.
As the title indicates, the authors’ goal is to help the reader develop cross‐cultural competence by creating wealth from conflicting values. The structure of the book and its many examples and illustrations are useful means to that end. The discussion gets a bit academic at times but, on the whole, the book is very helpful for those seeking to relate to, or operate within, cultures foreign to their own.
