Collectivism

Collectivism

This is the book I used for the following information: Adler, N. J. (2002). From Boston to Beijing : managing with a world view Cincinnati, Ohio : South-Western/Thomson Learning.

Hofstede, G., and Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill: New York

Collectivists live, work, and play among relatives, from birth to death, 24/7.  We dress up together for baptisms, marriages, and funerals (Hofstede and Hofstede, on page 88), even for birthday parties.  Unlike individualists who communicate in order to bond, collectivists are relatively silent. High Context Communication means that a lot goes without saying.

Adler (2002) said that the relationship between individuals and their relatives is circular: an individual is helped by relatives, who are in turn helped by that individual. Individualist cultures focus on how the individual is improved, while collective cultures think about how individuals help the group. 

 Hofstede and Hofstede (his son) help us understand how we got to be individualist and/or collectivist. They ask us (on p. 9) to answer some questions to see how we learned the cultural values of collectivism (or individualism).

1. Alone or in a group: When you were tiny, how much did your mom carry you? Did you sleep with your parents or siblings? Who all held you? Was it noisy with people around you, or quiet? A child in an extended family is rarely alone. Given the frequency of social contact, social harmony is the key virtue.

(L to R: Ruby Connor and children Mary, Bill, Jody, Betty, and Genny)

My mom, the littlest child in the picture, shared a bed with one or two of her sisters, including Pat and Ruth, who came later. My mom interacted frequently with her sisters, so in an important sense I grew up in a collective culture.

We don’t always copy what we grew up with, so culture can vary across generations. 

(Rita Durant)

Although my mom shared a bed with siblings when she was tiny, I slept in a crib by myself. 

(Rita Durant holding newborn Micah Durant)

And our babies often slept in our bed, which was different from how I was reared. Sharing sleeping space is more a sign of collectivism than individualism.

Most of us probably have some degree of cultural impulses toward collectivism and individualism. Hofstede’s dimensions measure the average amount of each in a given nation, or country.

(My grandpa George H. O’Laughlin and his wife Mary Marcella McGraw O’Laughlin are holding me on my baptism.

My dad was raised around fewer people, so even though Catholics tend to be more collective, and they were Catholic, having only one sister meant that Dad learned more individualism values.

2. Role models: As you grew a little older, who did you follow around and try to copy? How did you learn what was good to do and what was dirty or evil or gross?

(Here my dad is taking us for a boat ride. I am learning to steer.)

As the oldest child, I looked to my parents and teachers for models. Now I am a parent and a teacher. Collectivists tend to follow in their parents’ footsteps when they choose their career paths.

3. Gender expectations: What did you learn about what being a boy or girl meant?  How were you supposed to act, speak, dress, etc. ?

(Here I am, the oldest, playing on the tire swing with, by age and height, Martin, Brian, and Susan.)

I wore a dress to church and school, and I didn’t play team sports (1950s USA), though I did play in the backyard with my siblings and neighbors. Our Catholic school separated boys from girls starting in 7th grade. I went to an all-girls’ high school.

4. Ambition. How much initiative are you supposed to take? How bad was it to break rules? When were you told to be proud? When were you told to feel guilty (individualist) or ashamed (collectivist)? A good child does not overtly disagree with others. A child who repeatedly voices opinions different from that of the group is considered to have a bad character.

(Here I am in middle school, reading.)

In school and at home, I mostly tried to stay out of trouble by keeping quiet. I read a lot. I won’t even start in about the guilt and shame I was taught to feel when I got in the way.

5. Friends/Allies: Were you born with people around you, or did you seek out friends? Because collectivists already have built-in bonds of loyalty, they don’t need to seek it in friendship, like Westerners do. 

(These are my best friends from high school and me at a friendship group reunion. L to R: Rita Durant, Sheila Yepsen, Mary Robinson, Susie Bower, Patty Campbell, Susan Klein, and Susan Schilling.)

Lacking cousins or sisters my age, I was happy to be part of a friendship group: a strongly bonded “in-group” of a high school clique. I am friends to this day with those women. Here we are at Camelback Mountain Spa in Phoenix, where two of “us” live now.

Now that we have considered 5 ways we were socialized into collectivism versus individualism, we can see how this learning collectivism from an early age shows up later in life in school and in the workplace. The page numbers tell where in Hofstede andHofstede these lists can be found.

p. 96-97

Collectivists at school …

1.      only speak up with approval from their whole group.

2.      don’t value being better than their relatives.

3.      stick with their own amidst classmates.

4.      expect preferential treatment from related teachers or administrators.

5.      study in order to contribute something to the whole.

6.      the diploma is a ticket for membership rather than an individual honor

p. 99

Collectivists at work

1.      relatives works together

2.      share earnings with relatives

3.      follow relative’s wishes

4.      hire and promote relatives

5.      don’t fire family

6.      prefer a group goal

7.      prefer anonymity

8.      organizational culture makes a difference

9.      discussing performance openly risks loss of face

10.  trusting relationship is needed before business can be done