Page 142 - Cultures and Organizations

I, We, and They 121

each country, both from the group goal subset and from the individual goal
subset, were asked to mark each item completed with their names, while
the other half turned them in anonymously.
The Chinese collectivist participants performed best when operating
with a group goal and anonymously. They performed worst when oper-
ating individually and with their names marked on the items produced.
The American individualist participants performed best when operating
individually and with their names marked but abysmally low when operat-
ing as a group and anonymously. All participants were also given a values
test to determine their personal individualism or collectivism: a minority
of the Chinese scored individualist, and these performed according to the
U.S. pattern; a minority of the Americans scored collectivist, and these
performed like the Chinese. 46
In practice there is a wide range of types of employer-employee rela-
tionships within collectivist and individualist societies. There are employ-
ers in collectivist countries who do not respect the societal norm to treat
their employees as in-group members, but then the employees in turn do
not repay the employers in terms of loyalty. Labor unions in such cases
may replace the work organization as an emotional in-group, and there

can be violent union-management conflicts, as in parts of India. There
are employers in individualist societies who have established strong group
cohesion with their employees, with the same protection-versus-loyalty
balance that is the norm in the collectivist society. Organization cultures
can deviate to some extent from majority norms and derive a competitive
advantage from their originality. Chapter 10 will go into these issues more
deeply.
Management in an individualist society is management of individuals.
Subordinates can usually be moved around individually; if incentives or

bonuses are given, these should be linked to an individual’s performance.
Management in a collectivist society is management of groups. The extent
to which people actually feel emotionally integrated into a work group may
differ from one situation to another. Ethnic and other in-group differences
within the work group play a role in the integration process, and managers
within a collectivist culture will be extremely attentive to such factors. It
often makes good sense to put persons from the same ethnic background
into one crew, although individualistically programmed managers usually
consider this practice dangerous and want to do the opposite. If the work
group functions as an emotional in-group, incentives and bonuses should
be given to the group, not to individuals.