Page 139 - Cultures and Organizations

118 DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL CULTURES

Students in a collectivist culture will also hesitate to speak up in larger
groups without a teacher present, especially if these groups are partly com-
posed of relative strangers: out-group members. This hesitation decreases
in smaller groups. In a large, collectivist or culturally heterogeneous class,
creating small subgroups is a way to increase student participation. For
example, students can be asked to turn around in their seats and discuss

a question for five minutes in groups of three or four. Each group is asked
to appoint a spokesperson. In this way, individual answers become group
answers, and those who speak up do so in the name of their group. Often
in subsequent exercises the students will spontaneously rotate the spokes-
person role.
In the collectivist society, in-group–out-group distinctions springing
from the family sphere will continue at school, so that students from dif-
ferent ethnic or clan backgrounds often form subgroups in class. In an
individualist society, the assignment of joint tasks leads more easily to the
formation of new groups than in the collectivist society. In the latter, stu-
dents from the same ethnic or family background as the teacher or other

school officials will expect preferential treatment on this basis. In an indi-
vidualist society, this practice would be considered nepotism and intensely
immoral, but in a collectivist environment, it is immoral not to treat one’s
in-group members better than others.
In the collectivist classroom, the virtues of harmony and maintain-
ing face reign supreme. Confrontations and conflicts should be avoided

or at least should be formulated so as not to hurt anyone; students should
not lose face if this can be avoided. Shaming (that is, invoking the group’s
honor) is an effective way of correcting offenders: they will be set straight
by their in-group members. At all times, the teacher is dealing with the
student as part of an in-group, never as an isolated individual.

In the individualist classroom, of course, students expect to be treated
as individuals and impartially, regardless of their background. Group for-
mation among students is much more ad hoc, operating according to the
task or to particular friendships and skills. Confrontations and open dis-
cussion of conflicts are often considered salutary, and face-consciousness

is weak or nonexistent.
The purpose of education is perceived differently between the indi-
vidualist and the collectivist societies. In the former it aims at preparing
the individual for a place in a society of other individuals. This means
learning to cope with new, unknown, unforeseen situations. There is a
basically positive attitude toward what is new. The purpose of learning is