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Pyramids, Machines, Markets, and Families: Organizing Across Nations 325

its ten years from now, and responsibility toward employees were rated
equally as unimportant as responsibility toward society in general and

patriotism. Our first article about the business goals project described
Brazilian business leaders as family entrepreneurs; to a greater degree
than their colleagues in most other countries, they focused on their own
inner circle, without much concern for other stakeholders, the longer-term
future, society, and nation.
The two other countries in Table 9.2, China and Germany, were the
most dissimilar from the international average. China’s profi le neverthe-
less resembled India’s in a number of respects. Both China and India put
patriotism much higher than average, together with power, and both rated

this year’s profits and staying within the law less important than aver-
age. Notable differences between China and India were that China placed
respecting ethical norms even higher than the United States, while India
put it at the bottom. China also rated responsibility toward society in gen-
eral much more important than average, as well as face (the Chinese term
for honor and reputation); face surpassed personal wealth, which was rated
much less important.

Germany’s profile represents almost a reversal of the international

ranking in Table 9.1. In Germany four of the five international top goals
were rated less important, and responsibility toward society in general was
rated even higher than in China. As in India (and China), profits ten years

from now were rated more important than this year’s profi ts.

The fifteen goals were, naturally, not entirely independent of each other.
38
Statistically, they split into fi ve clusters, which can be seen as dilemmas:
(1) continuity and power versus honor, laws, and ethics; (2) wealth and fam-
ily versus responsibility toward employees; (3) game and creativity versus

patriotism; (4) short-term profits versus long-term profits; and (5) growth

versus responsibility toward society.
As could be predicted, cluster 4, the relative importance of this year’s

profits over profits ten years from now, reflected a country’s long-term
orientation score. 39
Cluster 5 opposes growth to responsibility toward society in gen-
eral. Table 9.1 shows that in the average ranking, growth was strongly
dominant. In fact, the extent to which responsibility toward society in
general was balanced against growth in a country turned out to be the
main determinant of how much that country deviated from the overall
40
average. Scores on cluster 5 showed that the United States, Australia, and
Hong Kong most strongly focused on growth; the Netherlands, Germany,