Page 154 - Cultures and Organizations

I, We, and They 133

entire family lives and sleeps together is replaced by a house with a num-
ber of private rooms. Collective life is replaced by individual life. However,
the negative relationship between individualism and economic growth for
the wealthier countries suggests that this development can lead to its own
undoing. The 2008 economic crisis started in very wealthy countries.
Besides national wealth, the only other measure statistically related to
IDV was geographic latitude: the distance from the equator of a country’s
capital city. It explained an additional 7 percent of the IDV differences.
In Chapter 3 latitude was the fi rst predictor of power distance scores. As
we argued there, in countries with moderate and cold climates, people’s
survival depends more on their ability to fend for themselves. This circum-
stance favors educating children toward independence from more powerful
others (lower PDI). It also seems to favor a degree of individualism.
The size of the population of a country, which contributed signifi cantly
to predicting power distance, did not relate to collectivism. The growth of
the population (average percent per year over a ten-year period) did relate

to collectivism, but its first correlation was with country wealth—in poor
countries families tend to have more children. There are a number of rea-
sons for this, the most prominent of which are poor education of women
and the expectation that children will support their parents in old age.
Children in larger families obviously are more likely to acquire collectivist
rather than individualist values.
Historical factors, apart from economic ones, can also account for part
of the country differences on this dimension, although not as clearly as in the

case of the influence of the Roman Empire on power distance. The infl uence
of the teachings of Confucius in the East Asian countries, to which part of
Chapter 7 will be devoted, supports the maintenance of a collectivist value
system. On the other hand, in parts of Western Europe, in particular in Eng-

land, Scotland, and the Netherlands, individualist values could be recognized
centuries ago, when the average citizen in these countries was still quite poor
and the economies were overwhelmingly rural. India is another example of
a country with a rather individualistic culture despite poverty.

The Future of Individualism and Collectivism

The deep roots of national cultures make it likely that individualism-
collectivism differences, such as power distance differences, will survive
for a long time into the future. That said, if there is to be any convergence