I’m writing a paper on individualism and collectivism as they relate to the values and goals of US and Japanese populations. What I’ve been looking for but haven’t been able to find is an empirical or even informal test of collectivism versus individualism. I found one study done in the Journal of Management, Organizational Individualism and Collectivism: Theoretical Development and an Empirical Test of a Measure, which is more narrow in scope than I’m hoping for, but I emailed the authors to request a copy anyway.
My question is, does anyone know of a test that places the subject on a scale with collectivism at one extreme and individualism at the other?
I don’t know of any empirical scale, but I remember a description of the difference between the typical US individualism vs. the typical Japanese collectivism.
Typically, if a member of a group brings up a problem or point of interest that causes the group to deviate from its discussion or plans, and serves to individuate that member, then, independent of the utility of the member’s input:
If the group is individualist then that person will be regarded favorably.
If the group is collectivist, then that person will be regarded disfavorably.
Another symptom of this dichotomy is how problems are handled.
In an individualist organization, effort is made to identify which individual is responsible for a group’s failure – to lay blame on the individual that did not perform his duty, and either correct or eliminate the deficiency.
In a collectivist organization, the entire group is responsible, and the focus is on how the group can fix the problem that it has produced.
So in individualist organizations, individuals are rewarded for showing an ability to lead their group, and for being instrumental to their group.
In collectivist organizations, entire groups are rewarded for successfully completing their tasks. Thus loyalty to the group is of greater importance than individual distinction.