Page 54 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

reserved and on distance but show emotions, share feelings and thoughts without any barrier in the nucleus family or among friends.
Specific versus Diffuse dimension is oriented to the extent in which individuals engage in single or multiple sections of their personal lives. Specific-oriented societies show the tendency of their members to a clear separation of work and personal lives. Also, each social group in this type of society shows different approaches to authority inside the group. Contrasting, members of the societies, characterised as diffuse- oriented, consider the separate elements of their life as connected, interrelated and emphasise that there is no exact difference and separation between the work-related area and the domain of personal life. A highly specific society can be observed in the US. In contrast, China, and to a certain extent, also Russia can be designated as examples of medium- and highly diffused societies. Internal versus External dimension relates to the effect of the environment on people’s lives. Societies with an internal or inner-directed orientation have a mechanistic approach to nature. They believe that nature is complicated and can be controlled with appropriate expertise. Additionally, members of internally oriented societies tend to have more outspoken, dominating attitudes and are reluctant of any change. On the contrary, members of outer-directed or external oriented societies have a more organic approach to the nature and the preferred mind-set is learning to live in agreement with nature and to adapt to the external situation. In general, they show a more flexible and adaptive approach and are at ease and ready to compromise with changes, to avoid disturbance and achieve harmony. Russia would be an example of an internal oriented society, while the Benelux and Scandinavian countries are more external oriented.
Regarding the Time Orientation dimension, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (2005) argued that there were two directions in which societies respond to the time. Related to time orientation, they mentioned the Sequential versus Synchronic dichotomy in regard with the members’ orientation towards the assigned position of the past, present and future. Societies distinguished on the base of the members’ preference for sequential approach prefer to do a single activity at a time and are strict in planning and scheduling. On the contrary, synchronic society’s members consider time as intangible and more flexible and tend to do a number of activities in parallel. They are ready to select actual activities based on upcoming priorities on their “to do” list, neglecting or following loosely to agreed schedules and confirmed agendas. Another distinction is the difference between the past, present and future oriented societies. Societies with a past- orientation, estimate the future as the irrevocable repetition of the past experiences and
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