Individualism And Collectivism

The concept of individualism and collectivism are not new terms, indeed it is possible to say that the definitions of these two terms have evolved. These words can be located, at least as far, to the nineteen-century. Literally, Durkheim (1933) has divided the social cohesion into two different forms: the organic solidarity, which has the focus to the correlated satisfaction of different interests, and the mechanical solidarity, which has the aim to satisfy the shared interests. Moreover, some decades later, Tönnies (1963) make for the first time a distinction between Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft. With the term Gesellschaft, Tönnies has referred to the society, which is developed thanks to the complementarity and self-interested exchange;

After that, it is possible to see how different authors have analysed these aspects from different point of views. Ouchi (1981) has observed individualism and collectivism, correlated to the Japanese and American management practices; different to Hofstede (1980) that has compared the business organizations between countries. Thanks to his study, Hofstede has established six cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, long term versus short term and indulgence versus restraint (Geert Hofstede, n.d.). He has classified the countries on the base of these dimensions, explaining that each country can have a different score, on the base of their core values, institutions and work-related attitudes (Bochner, & Hesketh,

Opposite to the individualism, the term collectivism has come to be used to refer to the cultures that give the priority to the group goals and harmony, in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. Indeed, collectivism can be also defined as the tendency of people, belonging to a certain culture, to identify themselves as part of one or more collectives. Another definition, which underlines the difference between individualism and collectivism, is based on the degree to which individualists and collectivists differentiate, between an in-group and an out-group member, in social relations (Chen & Li, 2005). Schwartz (1990) has used the term collectivistic societies to refer to a community, which is influenced by diffuse and reciprocal obligations and assumption, based on ascribed status. In these communities, a person is perceived as a component of the society, which follows common goals and common values.
The term collectivism, as for individualism, encompasses the horizontal collectivism and the vertical collectivism. The former can be defined as a cultural pattern where a man considers himself as part of a collective. Members tend to understand and accept the inequalities inside the group, perceiving the equality as the key features of the pattern. Also the term vertical collectivism can broadly be defined as the perception of man as part of a group, but in this context, they are aware of being