Work cultures often involve people of different cultures and colours. Such inclusion of diverse categories divides workplaces into different notions or sense of individualities. Some exist as a team while the others exist as individuals. Differentiating both is quite easy. Collectivism and individualism are yet another aspect of how a workplace functions. In a workplace these factors shape a lot of things like how employees interact, make decisions, and approach tasks.
What is collectivism?
Collectivism is the phenomenon of giving priority to a group rather than focusing on an individual. In context to workplaces collectivism deals with emphasising the goals and needs of a group and not just an individual but it does include growth.
In collectivism people prioritise group harmony, collaborations and loyalty to the collective team or organisation.
What is individualism?
Individualism refers to the practice of focusing on your personal growth and individuality. People prioritise themselves over the collective growth of the organisation.
Success is measured on the basis of how much you have grown on a personal level rather than the growth of the company or workplace.
Everyone is responsible for the growth of the team, and in case anything goes wrong everyone is held collectively responsible.
Loyalty is highly valued and individuals stay in an organisation for a long time.
Employees are encouraged and motivated to work collaboratively.
Feedback and constructive criticism is very direct. There is space for healthy competition where employees are encouraged to compete and emphasis on their career growth. Everyone is free to work on their individual self.
Employees are motivated to take ownership of their work and the credit too is directed towards an individual.
In collectivism each and every individual's opinion matters. Decisions are mostly made by the group. The process may sometimes turn out to be slow but it involves everyone’s aspects and hence the chances of error are reduced. Leaders often consult with the team members to arrive at any sort of conclusion.
Whereas the case with individualism is a little different, individualism involves taking own decisions, and the decisions turn out to be taken pretty quick as they are mostly taken by a single person. The focus is on results and efficiency rather than growth of the group, allowing the company and the individual to grow.
Collectivists do not create hierarchy and the role of leader is played by almost everyone as everyone is involved in the decision making. Leaders mostly act as facilitators who promote teamwork and ensure that the group cohesion is maintained.
Individualist leaders mostly possess greater power and authority than the whole team or those hierarchically on lower positions. They mostly focus on individuals to excel. Most of the leaders are at an authorised positions hence decision making and other aspects of work are majorly maintained by them.
Collectivism involves collective motivation and reward earning. Employees feel motivated when the whole group succeeds at achieving the goal. Rewards and recognition are shared. Everyone in the team is motivated to maintain harmony in the team.
Individualism focuses on self appreciation and most of the rewards are awarded to an individual as the motivation is driven by personal goals, career choices and individual growth.
In a team that respects diversity and focuses on team goals, that is collectivism, the leaders often motivate everyone to respect diverse cultures from which the individuals may belong. The leader has to balance different cultural values. Hence it becomes important to pay attention to every member in the team.
Whereas in a self motivating and individually growing environment one may find giving priority to others difficult which is justified too because everyone else is focusing on the same.
Creating chances for every individual to join in different modes helps in setting up a diverse team. Flexibility in choosing the mode of work allows individuals who can contribute positively to the growth of the company and even for themselves. This flexibility is beneficial for both individualism and collectivism. Both individualism and collectivism depend on the structure of the company.
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