The Individualism Dimension and Intercultural Competence

CULTURAL HARMONY: WORKING IN A MULTI-CULTURAL COMPANY 1
©2017 ITAP International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 11
The Individualism
Dimension and Intercultural
Competence
©2017 ITAP International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Practices
• Symbols: words, gestures and objects whose
meaning has to be learned. They include
language and jargon. The easiest to acquire
and fastest changing level of culture.
• Heroes: persons, alive or dead, real or
imaginary, who serve as models for behavior.
More difficult for an outsider to recognize.
• Rituals: shared activities that are technically
superfluous but socially essential. Can be
learned given enough effort; can be changed.
©2016 Geert Hofstede

• Core of our mental programming. Mostly
unconscious: in our guts, not in our heads.
• Values are strong emotions with a - and a +
such as: evil-good, abnormal-normal, ugly-
beautiful, dangerous-safe, immoral-moral,
indecent-decent, unnatural-natural, dirty-clean,
paradoxical-logical, irrational-rational.
• What is rational is a matter of values.
Values

How Culture Is Transferred
values
practices
age
0
10
20
culture level
gender,
nation
occupation,
social class
business,
organization

Invisible: ???
Visible: Language, food,
clothing, art, architecture,
music, body language...
Culture: Software of the Mind
Behaviors
AttitudesAttitudes
ValuesValues

Individualism vs. Group Orientation…
Prof. Geert Hofstede’s framework of cultural
values has 6 dimensions. One dimension
is Individualism.
Group Orientation
Individual Orientation
New Dimension!

Individualism…
…the degree to which action is taken for
the benefit of the individual or the group.
INDIVIDUAL ORIENTATION
GROUP
ORIENTATION
Look out
for #1.
If you want
something
done right,
do it
yourself.
Two heads
are better
than one.
Many hands
make work
light.

Advantages
• Individual Orientation Advantage:
Self-reliance
• Group Orientation Advantage:
Interdependence

Scenario: Creating a Plan
for Shipping Toys
• Berta and Donald and four others
belong to a logistics team.
• The team received the following task:
develop a plan for shipping toys from
Rutherford, NJ, to markets in Europe
and Asia.
• When the team received this task, Berta
divided the work among the team
members.

Scenario: Team Dynamics
• Donald turned to Berta and the other
team members, asking for their input
before making a decision about his part
of the project.
• When Donald had extra time, he sent
emails to the team asking whether he
could take on additional tasks. And
during busy times, he asked his
teammates for help.

Scenario: The Team Status Update
• Berta found Donald’s conduct to be
disruptive. In her team progress report,
she said Donald seemed unqualified to
make decisions on his own. He also
disturbed the workflow, creating
inefficiencies.
• In his team progress report, Donald
wrote that Berta was a loner who did
not care about the team’s success.

Scenario Debrief: Donald
• Donald’s behavior suggests a Group
Orientation: He wants to collaborate
with others, and is motivated to
coordinate the tasks and workload with
others.

Scenario Debrief: Berta
• Berta’s behavior suggests an Individual
Orientation.
• She interprets “team work” as dividing
the project into tasks, and assigning the
tasks to individual team members.

Scenario Debrief: Donald and Debra’s
Assessment of Each Other
• Donald and Berta’s assessment of each
other reflects their values.
Donald’s Group Orientation predisposes
him to view Debra as a selfish loner.
Berta’s Individual Orientation predisposes
her to view Donald as inefficient and
unwilling to take individual responsibility.

Scenario Debrief
1. Have you ever worked in a team with
similar interpersonal dynamics?
2. What were the consequences?
 To work successfully across cultural
differences, consider further
developing your intercultural
competence.

Intercultural Competence
To strengthen your own intercultural
competence, find opportunities to practice the
following steps:
1.Be aware of your own cultural values
2.Seek to find out how people from other
cultures perceive you
3.Understand the differences between your
values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and
those of people from other cultures
4.Understand how these differences might
affect you

Individualism Dimension:
Test Your Knowledge
DIRECTIONS:
•Answer the following multiple choice questions.
•For each question/statement, choose the letter which best
describes the correct answer.
•The answer key is found at the end of this 5-questions test.
1.Which orientation prioritizes relationships first, and tasks
second?
a. Group Orientation
b. Individual Orientation

Test Your Knowledge
2. A person with an Individual Orientation is
likely to believe that:
a. Value standards differ for in-groups and
out-groups
b. In-group customers should get better
treatment
c. Speaking one’s mind is a characteristic of
an honest person
d. None of the above

Test Your Knowledge
3. A person with a Group Orientation is likely to
believe that:
a. Direct confrontations should be avoided
b. Self-interest comes before that of the
group
c. Personal and professional lives are
separate
d. Efficiency prevails over loyalty

Test Your Knowledge
4. Which statement is True?
a. One advantage of Individual Orientation is that in
exchange for their loyalty, employees receive protection
b. Individual Orientation is associated with pooling
together individual resources to reward and recognize
the group
c. Group Orientation is associated with isolation and lack
of loyalty
d. Employees with a Group Orientation may want to
consult with each other before making or acting on a
decision

Test Your Knowledge
5. True or False? If your values align with
Individual Orientation and you work with people
who have a Group Orientation, be patient; learn to
trust the team to deliver when they have collectively
worked out how
a. True
b. False

Answer Key
1. A
2. C
3. A
4. D
5. A

Developing Intercultural Competence
• You can learn more about Individualism
by reading Prof. Geert Hofstede’s
writings, and also contacting ITAP and
taking the Culture in the Workplace
QuestionnaireTM
.

• ITAP is one of only 2 companies worldwide
endorsed by Dr. Hofstede and approved to
represent his research
"This [approval] is due to their
professionalism and deep understanding
of my work.”
• An Ivy League university partners with ITAP
to certify its coaches in the CWQ.

ITAP CWQ database includes over 8,000 respondents.
Results correlate highly with Hofstede’s data. The CWQ
application is currently available in:
– English
– Latin American Spanish
– European Spanish
– French
– German
– Korean
– Chinese
– Questions and instructions only (not the report) are in
Danish and Japanese

Your results
compared to
country
averages
Explanation of
your results
Individual
orientation
Group
orientation

QUADRANT CHARTS:
•The Individualism
results of a group of
people along with
country scores
•The chart also shows
the group results for
another cultural
dimension (in this case
Power Distance)

Hofstede Country Culture
Analysis Australia
Analysis
Germany
Hofstede Country Culture Analysis
Mexico
Analysis China
Analysis India
Hofstede Country CultureAnalysisUnited Arab Emirates

• One time licensing fee for organizations with 1-10
employees is $2,500 and includes certification of
1 person (virtual certification is fine).
• Embedded in this fee are 25 free uses of this tool
($1,750 value).
• The usage fee is $70 / user.
• Use is required to retain license (at least once
every 12 months). If there is no usage within 12
months, license renewal is $3,000 / year.
• No admin fees: Certification ensures independent
access to the on-line tool.

ITAP is prepared toITAP is prepared to
provide demonstrationsprovide demonstrations
of its Intellectualof its Intellectual
Property to qualifiedProperty to qualified
licensorslicensors
Who licenses the CWQ?
•Human Resource professional in large organizations
•Consulting firms seeking the capability to assess
cultural values at the individual, group and
organizational levels

Improving Competitive Advantage
• Our services focus on:
1.Global talent retention and development
2.Effectiveness of the senior team and
mission critical global teams
3.Global leader and global workforce
development
4.Cross-border transformation and change
• Ensure that culture is an asset, not a
barrier in your global business.

Catherine Mercer Bing
CEO, ITAP International, Inc.
Managing Director, ITAP Americas, Inc.
353 Nassau Street, First Floor
Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
(W) +1.215.860.5640
(M) +1.609.937.1557
www.Itapintl.com
cbing@itapintl.com
SKYPE: CatherineBing

The Individualism Dimension and Intercultural Competence

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