Page 112 - Cultures and Organizations

94 DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL CULTURES

goals) produced a factor score for each dimension for each country. These
factor scores are a more accurate measure of that country’s position on
the dimension than could be obtained by adding or subtracting question
scores. The factor scores for the individualism dimension were multiplied
by 25, and a constant number of 50 points was added. This process puts the
scores in a range from close to 0 for the most collectivist country to close
to 100 for the most individualist one. This manner of calculation was used
for the countries represented in the IBM database. For the various follow-
up studies, approximation formulas were used in which the individualism
index value could be directly computed by simple mathematics from the
mean scores of four of the work goals. 1
The individualism index (IDV) scores are shown in Table 4.1. As in the
case of the power distance index in Chapter 3, the scores represent relative

positions of countries. Table 4.1 confirms that nearly all wealthy countries
score high on IDV while nearly all poor countries score low. There is a
strong relationship between a country’s national wealth and the degree of
individualism in its culture; we will come back to this subject later in the
chapter.
Sweden scored 71 on IDV, and the group of Arab-speaking countries
to which Saudi Arabia belongs scored an average of 38, which demonstrates
the cultural roots of Johannesson’s dilemma. Of course, the Arab countries
differ among themselves, and the Saudis within this region seem to be even
more collectivist than some other Arabs, such as the Lebanese and the
Egyptians. In the IBM sample, the latter were more strongly represented
than the Saudis. Sweden’s rank among seventy-six countries and regions is
13–14, and the Arab countries rank 41–42, so there are still a lot of coun-
tries scoring more collectivist than the Arab average. As stated earlier,
collectivism is the rule in our world, and individualism the exception.

Individualism and Collectivism in the World Values
Survey: Universalism Versus Exclusionism

Inglehart’s overall analysis of the huge database of the World Values Sur-
vey (WVS), described in Chapter 2, produced two statistical factors. One
of these, secular-rational versus traditional authority, was associated with
small versus large power distance, and we encountered it in the previous
chapter. The other, well-being versus survival, was correlated with IDV, with
femininity (see Chapter 5), and with small power distance, in that order. 2