{"id":109,"date":"2025-09-10T17:03:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/long-term-vs-short-term-orientation-4-11\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:19:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:19:28","slug":"long-term-vs-short-term-orientation-4-11","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/chapter\/long-term-vs-short-term-orientation-4-11\/","title":{"raw":"4.11 Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation","rendered":"4.11 Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation"},"content":{"raw":"
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Long-term orientation focuses on the future and not the present or the past. As such, there is a focus on both persistence and thrift. The emphasis on endurance is vital because being persistent today will help you in the future. The goal is to work hard now, so you can have the payoff later. The same is true of thrift. We want to conserve our resources and under-spend to build that financial cushion for the future. Short-term oriented cultures, on the other hand, tend to focus on both the past and the present. In these cultures, there tends to be high respect for the past and the various traditions that have made that culture great. Additionally, there is a strong emphasis on \u201csaving face,\u201d (or a person\u2019s public image), fulfilling one\u2019s obligations today, and enjoying one\u2019s leisure time.<\/p>\n

At the long-term end of the spectrum are countries like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, whereas countries like Pakistan, Czech Republic, Nigeria, Spain, and the Philippines are examples of short-term. The United States ranked 31 out of 39, with Pakistan being number 39.<\/p>\n

The values prevalent in business and the focus of business are different in long-term and short-term orientation. Hofstede et al. (2010) report the values of freedom, rights, achievement, and thinking for oneself are important in short-term orientation. In long-term orientation, the values of learning, honesty, adaptiveness, accountability, and self-discipline are key. While a business\u2019 \u201cbottom line\u201d with a focus on \u201cthis year\u2019s profits\u201d is important for short-term orientation, the focus is on the market position and importance of profits ten years from now for long-term orientation (Hofstede et al., p.251).<\/p>\nThis section is adapted from Cultural Cha<\/span>racteristics and Communication <\/span><\/a>in Interpersonal Communication\u00a0Copyright \u00a9 by\u00a0Jason S. Wrench; Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter; and Katherine S. Thweatt available at Interpersonal Communication \u2013 Simple Book Publishing<\/span><\/a>\u00a0licensed under a\u00a0Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/span><\/a>, except where otherwise noted.\n\n<\/div>","rendered":"

\n

Long-term orientation focuses on the future and not the present or the past. As such, there is a focus on both persistence and thrift. The emphasis on endurance is vital because being persistent today will help you in the future. The goal is to work hard now, so you can have the payoff later. The same is true of thrift. We want to conserve our resources and under-spend to build that financial cushion for the future. Short-term oriented cultures, on the other hand, tend to focus on both the past and the present. In these cultures, there tends to be high respect for the past and the various traditions that have made that culture great. Additionally, there is a strong emphasis on \u201csaving face,\u201d (or a person\u2019s public image), fulfilling one\u2019s obligations today, and enjoying one\u2019s leisure time.<\/p>\n

At the long-term end of the spectrum are countries like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, whereas countries like Pakistan, Czech Republic, Nigeria, Spain, and the Philippines are examples of short-term. The United States ranked 31 out of 39, with Pakistan being number 39.<\/p>\n

The values prevalent in business and the focus of business are different in long-term and short-term orientation. Hofstede et al. (2010) report the values of freedom, rights, achievement, and thinking for oneself are important in short-term orientation. In long-term orientation, the values of learning, honesty, adaptiveness, accountability, and self-discipline are key. While a business\u2019 \u201cbottom line\u201d with a focus on \u201cthis year\u2019s profits\u201d is important for short-term orientation, the focus is on the market position and importance of profits ten years from now for long-term orientation (Hofstede et al., p.251).<\/p>\n

This section is adapted from Cultural Cha<\/span>racteristics and Communication <\/span><\/a>in Interpersonal Communication\u00a0Copyright \u00a9 by\u00a0Jason S. Wrench; Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter; and Katherine S. Thweatt available at Interpersonal Communication \u2013 Simple Book Publishing<\/span><\/a>\u00a0licensed under a\u00a0Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/span><\/a>, except where otherwise noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"menu_order":11,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-109","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":88,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/109\/revisions\/110"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/88"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/109\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryresources.nse.org.ng\/professionalandtechnicalcommunication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}