writercises | TECH: A List of Dilemmas (Reply)

Original Posting: Sun, 7 Aug 1994 18:35:01 JST

Howdy, folken. Having stumbled across a lovely list of cultural dilemmas, I've decided to post the seven little dilemmas. Please take your time, and then fire your best shots at the target...

We might as well argue about known significant problems, right?

1. Universalism vs. Particularism

When no code, rule or law seems to quite cover an exceptional case, should the most relevant rule be imposed, however imperfectly, on that case, or should the case be considered on its unique merits, regardless of the rule?

2. Analyzing vs. Integrating

Are we more effective when we analyze phenomena into parts, i.e., facts, items, tasks, numbers, units, points, specifics, or when we integrate and configure such details into whole patterns, relationships, and wider contexts?

3. Individualism vs. Communitarianism

Is it more important to focus upon the enhancement of each individual, his or her rights, motivations, rewards, capacities, attitudes, or should more attention be paid to advancement as a community which all its members are a part of?

4. Inner-directed vs. Outer-directed Orientation

Which are the more important guides to action, our inner-directed judgments, decisions, and commitments, or the signals, demands, and trends in the outside world to which we must adjust?

5. Time as Sequence vs. Time as Synchronization

Is it more important to do things fast, in the shortest possible sequence of passing time, or to synchronize efforts so that completion is coordinated?

6. Achieved Status vs. Ascribed Status

Should people's status depend on what they have achieved and how they have performed, or on some other characteristic, i.e., age, seniority, gender, education, potential, strategic role?

7. Equality vs. Hierarchy

Is it more important that we treat people as equals so as to elicit from them the best they have to give, or to emphasive the judgment and authority of the hierarchy that is coaching and evaluating them?

You might start by thinking of various issues which fit into these extremely generic dilemmas. Then start swinging your broadswords, macing your lances, or whatever mode of dancing around the poles you like...

Or, of course, you might write stories...

[note: dilemmas listed in:
The Seven Cultures of Capitalism
Charles Hampden-Turner and Alfons Trompenaars
Doubleday, 1993
ISBN 0-385-42101-X]