Future Orientation

 

It refers to the degree of which a collectivity encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors such as planning and delaying gratification. Some of the characteristics of societies that have high and low future orientation:

 

HIGH FUTURE ORIENTATION societies have characteristics such as...

• Propensity to save now for the future.

• Emphasize working for long-term success.

• Organizations tend to be flexible and adaptive.

• View material success and spiritual fulfillment as an integrated whole.

LOW FUTURE ORIENTATION societies have characteristics such as...

• Propensity to spend now, rather than save.

• Prefer gratification as soon as possible.

• Organizations tend to be inflexible and maladaptive.

• View material success and spiritual fulfillment as separate, requiring trade-offs.