Values Differences Handout
• Past means we look to history to tell us how we should behave in the present. This orientation values history. Today’s behaviors should never dishonor, embarrass, or lose face for one’s family or ancestors. In deciding what to do today, we might ask “how have we done this in the past?”
• Present means the current moment is everything. Make the most of it; don’t worry about tomorrow. Planning into the future has limited meaning because, in fact, we cannot know what the future holds. The important question is “What will work for us now?”
• Future orientation suggests planning, goal setting, and control over destiny. A little sacrifice today will bring a better tomorrow. The question is “What can we do today that will help us achieve our future goals?”
• Task begins with what we need to achieve or do. Relationships are developed as we work together.
• Relationship means how we think about, feel about, and work with each other. We develop a relationship, which then helps us accomplish our work together.
• Formal approach typically uses status or hierarchy to determine who we work with and how we work together. Titles are used in addressing each other, and hierarchy is strictly followed.
• Informal approach assumes equality, resulting in use of first names rather than titles, and allows people to ignore hierarchy to talk and work with anyone who is appropriate to the situation.
• Tradition means we do things “the way we have always done them.” There is little motivation to change anything that is not seriously ineffective.
• Modify refers to the willingness to change how things traditionally have been done if the old way is no longer working very well. This is not total change but a modification of the old way to fit the new situation or circumstances.
• Change means doing something new even if the old way still works. This is an approach of trying something new simply because it might be better or because there is something new to try. Change in itself is the reward.
• Fixed rules says that there is an existing rule or law that is applied to everyone in every situation—there are no exceptions.
• Flexible rules means that there is a rule, but we appreciate individual situations that can require “exceptions” to the rule. The rule remains for most people or situations, but the rules can be shifted situationally.
• No rules says that each situation and each individual are responded to differently. Even if there are written rules, they are rarely used because each person or situation is different.
• Control actions and outcomes refers to the belief that the human challenge is to conquer and control nature and events. If we work hard enough and long enough, we can be anything we want to be and do anything we want to do.
• Control actions but not outcomes indicates that we can control what we do, but not the outcomes. This is a value often held by those who have worked hard to change their status but have consistently found that external forces have had a greater impact than their own efforts.
• Control neither actions nor outcomes is a fatalistic perspective that says life is largely determined by external forces such as God, fate, or genetics; we cannot rise above the conditions life has set.
• Harmony most important means that conflict virtually never occurs. If something you do has a negative impact on me, I will resolve it myself without discussion with you. Conflict or open discussion about discord does not occur.
• Key issues must be resolved means that only the bigger issues will be discussed in order to regain harmonious relationships. The smaller issues, those things I can resolve myself, will be managed without discussion.
• All issues must be resolved is a value that says I discuss with you virtually everything that is troubling to me so that we can continue to better understand each other and persistently regain or maintain harmonious relationships.
• Individual orientation says that we are supposed to take care of ourselves, to be autonomous. We all identify and seek to achieve our own wants and needs, thinking about self first.
• One-to-One, or being collateral, means we are both individuals and members of many groups and subgroups. We are both independent and interdependent at the same time. We identify what we want or need in the context of our group membership(s).
• Group orientation places the needs of the group first. Individual wants/needs are subordinated to those of the group. In extreme group orientation, the individual may not even be able to identify individual needs/wants outside of the group—the group is the individual.
• Equality means we are all the same. Regardless of title, age, gender, and so on we all have equal status. An individual can work, communicate, or disagree with any other individual because we are all equal.
• Status earned means that some individuals have greater status than others, but we all must earn the respect that comes with the status. A boss, for example, may have the title, but she will receive the respect that comes with the title only by demonstrating that she has earned it.
• Status given is an orientation that says if someone has a title, has achieved a certain age, or has a particular role, that person is automatically given respect consistent with the title. Bosses, parents, teachers, and others are never challenged because the title or role itself indicates how they are to be treated, regardless of how they behave.
Sources*
Casse, Pierre. Training for the Cross-Cultural Mind.
Kluckhohn, Florence, and Fred L. Strodtbeck. Variations in Value Orientations.
Lustig, Myron W. “Value Differences in Intercultural Communication.” In Intercultural Communication: A Reader. 8th ed., edited by Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter.
Stewart, Edward C., and Milton J. Bennett. American Cultural Patterns: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Rev. ed.
© Executive Diversity Services, Inc., Seattle, Washington, 1996.