Page 155 - Cultures and Organizations

134 DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL CULTURES

between national cultures, it should be on this dimension. The strong rela-
tionship between national wealth and individualism is undeniable, with the
arrow of causality directed, as shown earlier, from wealth to individualism.
Countries having achieved fast economic development have experienced a
shift toward individualism. For example, care for elderly members by the
family is becoming less self-evident.
Nevertheless, even at equal levels of per capita income, countries also
preserve individualist and collectivist values from their history. East Asian
societies such as Japan and Korea do conserve distinctive collectivist ele-
ments in their family, school, and work spheres. Among Western countries
such as Britain, Sweden, and Germany, in spite of a noticeable convergence

toward individualism under the influence of common economic develop-
ment, relationships between the individual and the group continue to differ.
The cultures shift, but they shift together, so that their relative positions
remain intact, and there is no reason why differences between them should
disappear.
As far as the poor countries of the world are concerned, they cannot be
expected to become more individualist as long as they remain poor. Also, if
differences in wealth between rich and poor countries continue to increase
(as in many instances they do), gaps on the individualism-collectivism
dimension can only increase further.
Differences in values associated with the individualism-collectivism
dimension will continue to exist and to play a big role in international
affairs. Individualism versus collectivism as a dimension of national cul-
tures is responsible for many misunderstandings in intercultural encoun-
ters. In Chapter 11 it will be shown that many problems of such encounters
can be explained from differences on this dimension.