Individualism versus Collectivism

This paper elaborates on the role and importance of cultural constructs, with a focus on individualism and collectivism. It discusses the differences between these cultural values and their impact on workplace dynamics.

Running head: INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM
Individualism versus Collectivism
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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”.

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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

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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

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According to Sundararajan (2015), the dimension that has showcased majority of the
differences among the cultures is this dimension of individualism versus collectivism. It is to
note that there are several types of collectivism and individualism and they different from one
culture to another. With the same, they are highly culture specific. Some of the defining
attitudes of the collectivism and individualism as claimed by Wang (2014) are mentioned as
follows:
a) The nature of self
b) The goals’ structure
c) The focus on the attitudes and the self-necessities versus the duties and norms.
d) The focus on the maintenance of communal relationship versus the exchange
relationships.
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. As per Arpaci & Baloglu (2016), a
vertical culture in terms of attitude towards individualism and collectivism tend to stress the
inequality and hierarchy or high power distance and the authority making. On the other hand,
the horizontal culture in terms of attitude for the collectivism tends to stress equality. It is to
note that in the vertical individualistic (VI) cultures, “inequality if not acceptable”, the top
managers might bring home some ridiculously high salaries while the lower level employees
take home just some pennies Sarkar and Charlwood (2014). On the other hand, in the
horizontal collectivists (HC) cultures, each and every one is of the same self and that too, on
an equal basis. There is absence of a single leader as all the decisions are likely to be made
collectively.
Individualism versus collectivism in workplace

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There are some organisations that encourage the employees to be themselves and they
give them the freedom of thinking independently. The other organisations on the other hand,
focus on team working and interpersonal relationships. The ones who are living in the United
States are taught for being self-reliant and making decisions on their own. Such approach is
called individualism. On the contrary, the Asian culture basically emphasis on cooperation
and they view individuals as teams instead of different individuals and this is regarded as
collectivism (Smaldino, 2014). It is the responsibility of business owners to decide the
approach that he or she want to implement for the culture of their workplace.
Organisational Individualism- According to Conrad (2014), “employees are the
lifeblood of a company”. Majority of the business owners seek for building high-performing
teams and an organisational cultures that is aligned with the organisational goals and visions.
This is why, it is important to ensure that the employees are engaged in workplace and they
communicate well and feel highly appreciated for the efforts that they make. There are
several individuals who prefer working alone and making decisions on their own while
excelling in their responsibilities. They tend towards having a strong opinions and having
their accomplishments acknowledged by the superiors (Hayes, 2014). These individuals are
often considered as individualistic in nature. It is claimed by several researchers that the
organisation that adopt individualistic values actually recognise the employees for their
special skills instead of rewarding the efforts of group. As per the survey by Saad, Cleveland
and Ho (2015), there are more number of employees who want to be considered as
individuals who want to be respected for their different talents and personalities. However, in
modern days, this notion or idea is prevalent in all the aspects of society. Being single parent,
travelling along and living alone is no longer a taboo. Individualistic culture do promotes
innovation and creativity in an organisation while boosting employee motivation and
engagement to ensure that they are doing their best. Majority of the employees feel proud of

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their own accomplishments and they often are seen as striving for achieving the peak
performance, knowing that all their efforts would be acknowledged and appreciated by the
management.
Organisational Collectivism- According to Lopez, Pedrotti and Snyder (2018), the
organisations that promotes collectivist culture often pay emphasis on the greater good of the
entire team and they focus less on the individual skills and attainments of the employees.
They focus on making cooperative culture and expect from the workers to act as a part of a
cohesive group. For example, a sales manager who have signed a contract with an important
client is most possibly to report to his or her supervisors that the team of sales have done a
great job by means of closing the deal, even though it is he who did everything by himself.
The whole team would be rewarded for his effort and the whole team would be getting the
due recognition. That is what a collectivist culture actually looks like. In such a setting,
employees often gain equal opportunities. It might help in preventing conflicts while bringing
in more consistency and stability to the team. With the same, the employees here share equal
rights and responsibilities and at the same time, they also brainstorm the ideas together and
make some collective decisions.
Limitations of individualism and collectivism
According to Arpaci & Baloglu (2016), although individualism has the ability of
promoting innovation. It has the possibility of hindering cooperation. In the long term
approach, it often means that the organisational productivity suffers and this often result in
emergence of increase in conflicts in the workplace. Shortage of productivity could decrease
the overall revenues and as per Lopez, Pedrotti and Snyder (2018), conflicts might cost
money for resolving. Furthermore, Saad, Cleveland and Ho (2015) in this context have
claimed that individualism is also seen to be creating a tensed working environment if the

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people become too rigid in their own personal deals. Furthermore, Ghosh (2019) have
claimed that collectivism also holds its own drawbacks. It creates shortage of motivation.
There are some people that would be less motivate for working as the rest of the people
working shoulder the burden of taking care of their needs. Also, often the work of an
individual is completely overlooked, which further demotivates the employee to put the same
effort further.
Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis it is to conclude that both individualism and
collectivism are two distinct approaches for organising a society. Individualism on one hand
holds that the individual people are the major building blocks for society and that, individual
is the most important thing. On the other hand, collectivism claims that group is more critical
than anything else. It claims that society is and should be made of groups or teams and that
people are individuals are way less critical as compared to groups as a whole. However, both
the approaches have their own limitations and therefore, one must analyse the working
culture before using any of these approach in organisational context.

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