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Collectivism and individual culture essay
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Collectivism and individual culture essay
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Individualism and collectivism
In Netherland, people tend to be individualistic such that they emphasize more on individual hard work and promote entrepreneurial risk taking. They look after themselves and their immediate families only. Usually the employment is a contract agreement in order to obtain mutual advantages.
It is believed that this characteristic encourages employees’ innovation and invention as they have the freedom to focus on the goal by being liable for their action. However, any offence may lead to the loss of self-esteem to individuals.
In China, people tend to be collectivistic under the long history Confucianism influential. They have strong association to their groups including their work teams and family. They put the interest of the group in front of themselves in order to maintain the group harmony. They are also willing to uphold responsibility for the betterment and share the success to the members in their group.
When doing business, the management need to be aware of the high employee turnover due to individualistic characteristic of employees. The company may have to take precaution that capable
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Most of the time, their behaviours will act according to the existing rules and regulation. When they are in the dilemma between innovation and security, they will totally go for security and would not consider innovation which may breach the rules and codes. Direct communication is also being used so as to minimise unnecessary misunderstanding.
China on the other hand is less risk adverse. This may also explain why numerous Chinese scandals prevail in the recent years. They are ambiguous as well as the Chinese language, the meanings can be difficult with different meanings. Indirect communication is common. People tend to speak in a tactful way and they tend to avoid saying word like “No” in order to reduce loss of face which may harm relationship. In general, Chinese are adaptable and
In the last section, I get to know that individualism is the symbol of freedom and liberty, but it will also cause lots of problem like the abuse of guns and drugs. Collectivism is criticized as taking away the freedom and forbidden a lots human rights, but still, according to Zha et al. (2010), “historically, the collectivism of China, on the other hand, may influence its citizens to become highly skilled, qualified citizens who place societal needs above personal ones” (p. 363). Americans are better at creative area, but Chinese people have advantages on mathematics. Everything can be controversial, so does individualism and collectivism.
Individualism outlines the link between the ‘individual and the collectivity which prevails in a given society’ (Hofstede, 1980: 213). The main distinction amongst individualism and collectivism is the way that people of various cultures classify themselves (Di Cesare and Sadri, 2002). They recognize themselves as either an individual or a member of a group. Individualism is the extent in which societies look after themselves and their immediate family while in collectivist societies, individuals belong to groups that tend to them in exchange for wholehearted allegiance (Torrington, 1994; Hofstede, 2015). Individualist actions are motivated by their own attitudes and customs, while collectivists are focused by collective norms (Kulkarni et al, 2010). Also, individualists are more focused toward undertaking a personal task, while collectivists are driven more in the direction of achieving balanced relationships (Kulkarni et al, 2010). In certain societies, being an individualist is seen as an advantage while in other societies it can be viewed as isolating. The amount of individualism or collectivism in a particular society will influence the essence of the relationship among the individual and the organization they belong (Hofstede, 1980). From the viewpoint of the organization, individuality can be looked at as the worker’s independence in distinction to the organization. The level of
This article provides me a detailed research on a group of American and Chinese adults with plenty of data and analysis. They provided a lot of real and objective opinion on the comparison between individualism and collectivism. The fact of the whole respondents are students gives me an advantage on finding better ways to understand and use this research in my
Individualism and collectivism are conflicting beliefs with the nature of humans, society, and the relationships between them, however, these ideologies are not diametrically opposing since both are essential towards balancing beliefs from becoming extremes. The first source represents the idea of collectivism and suggests that the society must focus on moving their viewpoint from ‘me’ into ‘we’ in the interest of survival and progression. This perspective presents the idea that the individual’s advantage belongs not only to the person, but to the group or society of which he or she is a part of, and that the individual’s values and goals are for the group’s “greater good.” Likewise, Karl Marx’s principle of communism emphasizes in the elimination
The first basic issue confronting all societies is to define the nature of the relation between the individual and the group. This dimension is frequently labeled as individualism versus collectivism (Hofstede, 1980, 1991). In cultures at the Conservatism pole of the dimension, Schwartz (1994) noted that the person is viewed as embedded in a collectivity, finding meaning in life largely through social relationships, through identifying with the group and participating in its shared way of life. Schwartz (1999) noted that this value type emphasizes maintenance of the status quo, propriety, and restraint of actions or inclinations that might disrupt the solitary group or the traditional order. Exemplary specific values are social order, respect
Hypothesis: “We hypothesize that the performance of individual members in such situations is likely to be highest when the members hold both individualist and collectivist orientations toward their work” (Hollenbeck, Humphrey, Meyer, Wagner, 2012, pg. 947).
The beliefs of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Galileo on the Bible are similar in some aspects, but mostly different from one another. Martin Luther and John Calvin are somewhat similar in their belief that faith alone is the key to salvation. Galileo, however was a scientist, and his views on the Bible differ from those of Calvin and Luther. Since Galileo was not a theologian, most of his writing is not about God and the Bible, but it is about science. Though their writings are very different, Calvin, Luther, and Galileo all speak about the subject of human individualism. Their views of human individualism differ from one another, and arise from different circumstances. Each of these three men’s writings contain their beliefs on human individualism and how it relates to the individual’s relationship with God.
The idea of Individualism can be traced all the way back to England before America’s existence. As we know, individualism has been interpreted in many forms throughout history. The 19th century is no different, taking hold of its own idea of individualism, called transcendentalism. Transcendentalism suggests freedom should not be confined to those focused on money and superficial gains. Instead, people should depend on no one but themselves. This movement focused on “greater individualism against conformity” (Corbett et al.). Heavily influenced by the Romantic period, transcendentalism adopted the belief that reason was more important than logic as Benjamin Franklin has believed. Reason must also include unique emotion and spirit (Corbett et
In the recent weeks, I have noticed a trend in our cultural beliefs regarding groups outside of our own. As a nation, while the United States has a strongly individualistic nature from a personal perspective, there is also a strong collectivist belief regarding everyone outside of themselves and their groups. Rather than believing that each member of an external group is responsible for their decisions alone (myth of individualism), separating them from a collective (one bad apple), the consensus is generally geared opposite. For example, the belief that all immigrants want to steal American jobs, when one is not an immigrant, or that feminists are actually misandrists, when one is not a feminist. What I believe we have
Employee turnover costs are very costly to a company. Turnover not only affects the bottom line but also affects the company’s morale. We are analyzing the problems within our company that are causing our employees to become unsatisfied with their job. Then we are going to find solutions. And then do the cost estimates of the turnover costs and the turnover savings after our solutions are implemented.
There are various ways to increase the productivity of workers in the workplace. Through motivation, rewards and punishment, etc. However, none of those approach will success without the cooperation from the employees. In order to improve the company, manager must be able to allocate their employees to respected field. Professionalism can be achieved with the certain amount of time and dedication. Management cannot ignore the importance of low employees’ turnover. This report will show several benefit from having loyal employees in the company.
“Altruism — the sacrifice of self to others. This tied man irrevocably to other men and left him nothing but a choice of pain: his own pain borne for the sake of others or pain inflicted upon others for the sake of self.” This dramatic definition of altruism, from The Soul of an Individualist by Ayn Rand, provides a backdrop for similar ideologies. Along the same philosophical vein, one can examine the principles of collectivism, a way of life that puts priority on a group instead of a single member. Individualism, on the other hand, is the complete rejection of these two ideas and a way of thinking that stresses living on one’s own terms instead of being dictated to by a group. As shown
Societies with a high individualism index rating show a competitive relationship amongst employees where promotions are based on an individual’s skills and where the poor performance of an individual is a cause for disciplinary action and ultimately dismissal. The commitment level in individualistic countries is higher and emphasis is on the individual training to increase competency. On the contrary, societies characterized by a low individualism index rating are based on
On chapter 4 on the textbook, the author explains, “culture provides a member of a society with a common bond, a sense that we see certain facets of society in similar ways. We are living together at all depends on the fact that members of a society share a certain amount of cultural knowledge (Ch4, 132). Individualism and collectivism contribute greatly to the dimension of culture. For example, how many members of the culture define themselves apart from their group memberships. In individualist cultures, people are expected to develop and display their individual personalities and to choose their own affiliations. In collectivist cultures, people are defined and act mostly as a member of a long-term group, such as the family, a religious group, an age cohort, a town, or a profession, among others. This dimension was found to move towards the individualist end of the spectrum with increasing
In today's society, with the advent of modern digital communication and an increased focus upon global society and diversity, humans have a golden opportunity to evaluate themselves and how they identify both individually and in their broader culture. Although the question of “who am I” is perhaps one of the classical questions of the human cognizance of identity, our identity as both groups and individuals is directly related to the culture we are a part of, especially in regards to whether that culture is determined to be individualistic or collectivist. These differing mindsets have an inherent connection to the way that we view ourselves and the impact of interactions between different cultures.