Individualism versus Collectivism

Running head: INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM
Individualism versus Collectivism
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INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM1
Literature Review
This paper shall elaborate on developing a conceptual understanding of the role and
importance of cultural constructs. The importance of cultural constructs shall be highlighted
with a main focus on any one of the many cultural constructs. The chosen cultural construct
is that of Individualism and collectivism.
Culture and Cultural Constructs
The cultural and social aspects of society for its nature. As per Hendry (2017),
“culture” is the essence of society. It can be described as the system of several interrelated
values that are active enough for influencing and conditioning the judgement, perception,
behaviour and communication in a particular society (Hepp, Hjarvard & Lundby, 2015). It is
a dynamic construct, which gets changes over the passage of time and through one generation
after generation of the life experiences. For instance, the notion of “values active enough to
influence” has been used for emphasising how the traditions might influence the modern
world views, but also the beliefs and values that change and evolve from one generation to
other. Vannini and Williams (2016) in this context have claimed that, culture is “the
integrated sum total of learned behavioural traits that are manifest and shared by members of
society”. This is why, as per this definition, the concept of culture is not transmitted
genealogically and is also not innate. In fact, it is learned.
It is to note that the different aspects of culture are interconnected and they are shared
by the different group members that define the boundaries. Often it is seen that there exists
diverse cultures side by side within nations. For example, it is not at all common to have
European culture alongside of the indigenous culture like Shona in Zimbabwe. However,
according to Phelan et al. (2014), cultural construct is the idea that “characteristics people
attribute to such social categories like gender, death, illness, status is culturally defined”.

INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM2
Individualism and collectivism.
According to Bu and Park (2016), “culture is a fuzzy construct”. If one can
understand how culture is related to the socio-psychological phenomena, he or she must
analyse it by means of determining the different dimensions of the cultural variation. One
among these most promising dimensions is the individualism versus collectivism. On one
hand, the term “individualism” can defined as the “situation in which people are concerned
with themselves and close family members only” (Sinha, 2014). On the other hand,
collectivism refers to the “situation in which people feel they belong to larger in-groups or
collectives which care for them in exchange for loyalty—and vice versa” (Taras et al., 2014).
The different cross-cultural researches have focused on the differences in between the
different societies, which stress individualism and the ones that stress collectivism. Wien and
Olsen (2014) have underlined that these differences in between the societies that are relevant
for the differences in between individuals, as they affect even the most personal relations like
intimacy, break-up, love and intimacy.
However, it is to mention that individualism is the cultural value dimension that stress
individual goals as well as the rights of the individual person. Collectivism on the other hand
focused on the group goals and it emphasise more on what is best for the collective group. It
is to note that an individualist is highly motivated by the personal benefits and rewards that
he or she gets. Such persons set their personal goals and objectives on the basis of self. (Saad,
Cleveland & Ho, 2015) On the other hand, the individualistic workers are much comfortable
working with autonomy and not being a part of a team. As per Hendry (2017), the collectivist
individuals are motivated by the goals of group. The long term relationships are highly
important for these individuals. With the same, it is also to mention that collectivistic

INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM3
individuals are easily sacrificing individuals who sacrifice their praise and benefits for
recognising and honouring the success of the team. In fact, being honoured and singles out as
an individual from the rest team might be embarrassing to collectivistic person. Generalised
geographic clusters of the individualism might be found in the Anglo nations like Nordic
Europe, Anglo countries, Germanic Europe etc. On the other hand, the geographic clusters
for the collectivistic individuals are basically located in the Arab nations, Confucian Asia,
Latin America and the Sub-Saharan Africa (Kolstad & Gjesvik, 2014). A common overview
of the difference in between the societies that are either collective or individual is presented
below:
Individualism Collectivism
a) The identity is based on the
individual
b) They are independent
c) Tasks prevail over the relationship
d) Speaking of one’s mind indicates
honesty
e) Find pleasure from individual
achievement
f) They separate their private and work
life
g) Nordic Europe, Anglo countries,
Germanic Europe, Britain, USA,
Netherlands
a) The identity is based on the social
network of a person.
b) They are socially independent
c) Relationships depend over the tasks
d) Harmony needs to be maintained
and they avoid confrontation
e) Find pleasure from the group
achievement
f) They intermix their private and work
life.
g) Arab nations, Confucian Asia, South
and Central America and the Sub-
Saharan Africa
Table 1: Difference between individualistic and collectivist individuals