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It is important not to make important decisions alone. Individual: All people should have equal rights, and one should have complete control over one’s own destiny. When we have to make a decision as a group, it should be: one person, one vote. ). S. culture reveal the following traits: • • • • • Is future oriented Focused on doing Emphasizes individualism Aspires to be dominant over nature Believes that human nature is mixed; some people are good and some are bad In contrast, generalizations about traditional eastern cultures show the following traits: • • • • • Is past oriented Focused on being Emphasizes collateral (group) relations Aspires to be in harmony with nature Believes that people are fundamentally good The VOM theory recognizes that there are differences even within a culture.

They regard jokes as casual behavior and prefer graphs and charts to the flashy phrases that Americans tend to use in their presentations. In a meeting with a Scandinavian firm, Americans used tough aggressive language peppered with sports analogies. This was not favorable to the Scandinavians who prefer a softer, matter-of-fact approach in their business meetings. In a meeting among the British, Italian, and the French business people, the French would be the frankest of the three; the Italian would tend to be the most voluble, while the British would be the most subtle.

Source: Lassiter (1999). The VOM Approach Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) presented a taxonomy of cultural values and proposed a Values Orientation Model theory (Hills 2002). According to them, every individual, regardless of culture, has to deal with five basic universal questions. Cultural anthropologists termed these as value orientations though essentially they are cultural patterns. The basic premise of this model is that humans share biological traits, which in turn gives birth to the concept of culture, and that people in general feel that their cultural traits and heritage are normal and even superior to those of others.