Long Term Orientation sits along with Power Distance, Individuality, Masculinity and Uncertainly Avoidance as one of the measured cultural differences from Hofstede’s research.
As the name of this characteristic suggests, it is a measure of a culture’s perspective of the future, how it impacts on life and business and how life and business impacts on the long term view of the culture.
The cultures with the highest an therefore the longest view of things are the asian cultures of China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea with Brazil and India coming along next on the list, at the other end of the scale are Pakistan, Nigeria, Spain, Canada, Great Britain and the United States. Those countries with the long term orientation are structured to expect rewards and returns for their efforts to manifest somewhere in the future and as such place high social value on perseverance, thrift, willingness to subordinate themselves for a higher purpose and adaptiveness, the short term oriented societies place their values on short term returns and rewards, regard spending as normal behaviour and while these societies also have a high regard for traditions, they also place a high value of social status and obligations.
Many of these differing views when applied to business are readily visible in todays marketplace where China and India with their long term views are engaged in acquiring access to many of the worlds natural resources from short term oriented companies and countries who are equally delighted with the short term gains their societies are making through the sale of these national assets.
From a project communications perspective, how best to manage communications between cultures with divergent long term views?
- Cultures with the long term view value understanding how the project objectives will benefit the company’s market position and its future, they have a preference toward formally structures, familial organisations and feel more comfortable when they and their colleagues are treated more alike, they also have an interest in training and development opportunities that will benefit both themselves and the organisation/project. Along with which individuals from these cultures are more likely to join a company for the long term relationship they believe will be forthcoming, so communication styles that are inclusive, open and work toward building a relationship will be most effective.
- Personnel from Short Term Oriented cultures value more individual freedom and a meritocracy, as such, they are more interested in how the project will benefit the company’s immediate bottom line and the current years profits along with their own immediate rewards and prospects. These individuals are more likely to be motivated by their own status within the project and their loyalties will be to themselves rather than the organisation. Communicating with them as individuals rather than as units will typically be more effective, and when required, individual and immediate motivational techniques will typically be more effective than long term career opportunities.
On the surface, long term orientation appears to be relatively apparent in different societies and it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that as such it is easy to manage, however, the nuances of its impact on the societies and individuals is very complex, as such, I would caution not jumping to any fixed conclusion but to carefully observe the development of relationships and communication patterns across the life cycle of the project and adapt communication styles to reflect developments.
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