Individualism/Collectivism

“Individualism/Collectivism” is one of the five cultural dimensions identified by Geert Hofstede in his book Cultures and Organisations: Software of the Mind, where he presents the results of research on cultural variability or national cultural differences using survey data collected from IBM in 50 countries. In a similar categorization, Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner classified cultures based on a combination of patterns of behavior and values; one of these categories is communitarianism/individualism value orientation, which is very similar to Hofstede's individualism/collectivism. This dimension relates to the degree of integration of individuals within groups by focusing on the role of the individual versus the role of the group. The main assumption underlying this dimension is that there is cultural variability on the degree of emphasis given to individuality/uniqueness or conformity/interdependence in societies. As such, societies where the interests of the individual prevail over group interests are individualist, and those where the interests of the group prevail over individual interests are collectivist.

Hofstede argues that individualism “pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family” while collectivism “pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive ingroups, which throughout people's lifetime continue to protect them for unquestioning loyalty.” Therefore, at the core of this dimension is the assumption that culture impacts the mindsets of individuals in society. Hofstede defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another.” As such, culture impacts both individuals and groups by defining (un)acceptable and (un)desirable behaviors and attitudes; it establishes categories of importance and levels of acceptability toward individualism and collectivism. Consequently, dynamics that prioritize the individual or group are identified based on how culture defines these categories and levels.

In line with the previous, the dimension opposes “I” (individualism) to “we” (collectivism), where highly individualist cultures would have characteristics such as emphasis on individual achievement, [Page 854]self-orientation, and focus and decisions based on individual needs. Highly collectivist cultures, on the other hand, have a group orientation and prioritize aspects such as group dependency, loyalty, belonging, and generally the well-being of the social system. In Hofstede's work, this dimension was measured using an Individualism index (IDV).

Hofstede's Evidence

Using an Individualism Index (IDV) based on measurement of work goal items such as personal time, freedom, challenge, training, physical conditions, and use of skills, participants in 50 countries were asked to think about factors that would be important to them in their ideal job (regardless whether these factors were present at their actual job). The rationale for using these items was the perceived dichotomous spectrum they show by illustrating employees' independence from the organization versus employees' dependence on the organization.

The score results represent the importance attached to these factors. Along the lines of the distinction previously made regarding individualist and collectivist characteristics, responses that prioritized personal time, freedom, and challenge were considered to reflect individualism, whereas responses that prioritized training, physical conditions, and use of skills were considered to reflect collectivism. The index used a range between zero and 100, where zero represented the highest form score of collectivism and indicated high importance of training and low importance of freedom. Conversely, lower importance of training and high importance of freedom increased the score, hence higher individualism. Factor scores for each country were calculated using a statistical procedure where each score was multiplied by 25 and a constant number of 50 points was added.

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