Hofstede identified five cultural dimensions. These are power-distance, collectivism versus individualism, femininity versus masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation versus short-term orientation. A disadvantage of power-distance is that high power-distance cultures have centralized power and people are expected to do as they are told. Low power-distance cultures view people as being closer together. Collectivist cultures value the shame that is placed on behaviors of people, whilst in individualist culture emphasis is placed on individual rather than group power. Masculine cultures use the traditional view that women should obey the male, whilst feminine cultures say that both men and women are equal and capable of achieving the same results. Cultures with high uncertainty avoidance have formal rules and those with low uncertainty avoidance focus more on long-term strategies whilst being more informal. Long-term orientations are present in cultures that have age-old philosophies, whilst short-term orientations focuses more on people acquiring skills and education, regardless of their class, thus making everyone equal. Trompenaar developed a model alongside Hampden-Turner that looked at the differences in national cultures. Some of these questions are similar to those posed by Hofstede. Some examples of these include individualism versus collectivism and internal versus external control. Trompenaar and Hampden-Turner also looked at neutral versus emotional. They questioned whether we should display our emotions or hide them. By hiding emotions, people may be unaware of how people are feeling, and they may not realize that certain actions will upset them, whereas if the emotions were displayed there would be no doubt as to where a person stands. However, by displaying emotions some people may view this as a sign of weakness. Sequential versus synchronic is another question posed. By doing more than one thing at a time we may have a better overall view of something but by doing one thing at a time we will have a more in-depth knowledge of each particular aspect.
