Culture Research
5 Facts About Collectivistic Cultures You Never Knew
And How This Might Affect Multicultural Teams
The view of collectivistic societies is that relationships are tight-knit, intimate and warm. This can be the case, but the trends suggest the complete opposite. When working in multicultural teams, this can have interesting consequences.
#1. Collectivistic Cultures Provide Less Support
As collectivistic cultures are more focused on group harmony than individual needs, the needs of the individual are less likely to be met. One large reason for this is that those from collectivistic cultures are less likely to ask for such support.
People from collectivistic cultures are less likely to open up about their needs than those from individualistic cultures. Those from collectivistic cultures are under more pressure not to be a burden to others (Hopper, 2015).
However, those from collectivistic cultures will be more likely to seek out implicit social support (Cherry, 2022; Hopper, 2015). This is where someone spends time with generally supportive people but they do not address personal problems.
#2. Harmony Not Intimacy
There’s another result of the collectivistic desire to promote harmony. It works as a deterrent for relational intimacy.
A part of this is because of the interdependent self-view of those from collectivistic society (Hopper, 2015). Their self-view is not defined by personal interests, achievements or experiences. Rather, it is defined by their relationships to one another. When your self-view is defined by relationships rather than individual traits, intimacy becomes less important than harmony. Furthermore, relationships tend to be more explicit, and therefore, there’s little need for self-disclosure.
As harmony is valued, there’s also little motivation to express personal preferences. The group preference or the choice that helps the group the most will be the one expressed.
The way you show a desire for a relationship will therefore be different. In a collectivistic culture, you show that you want to know people through conformity, behaviour that promotes harmony and not expressing personal opinions. In an individualistic culture, you show a desire to have a relationship by opening up, expressing your uniqueness and having opportunities to voice and listen to other people’s opinions.
#3. Collectivists Are Less Trustful
In collectivistic societies, there is a phenomenon known as “in-group vigilance.” This is where members of a group are wary of the behaviours of group members, and even friends, because of the potential of sabotage (Lui et al., 2019).
This is because collectivistic societies avoid conflict at all times, so tend to be hyper-vigilant about potential sources of conflict. Those from collectivistic societies are more aware of how they are related to others within the group and how behaviours impact others. Therefore, relationships seem positive but also contain the risk of competition and negative impacts.
Collectivistic societies are more likely to cooperate, but this cooperation is more likely to also give rise to competition to ensure it is beneficial (Lui et al., 2019). Due to this competition, those from collectivistic societies are more likely to withhold useful information from colleagues (Ma et al., 2014).
#4. Collectivists Have Fewer Relationship
Collectivistic cultures have “low relational mobility”, meaning they have fewer opportunities to make new relationships (Cherry, 2022).
Collectivistic societies are built around “in-groups” and “out-groups”. As effort is put into maintaining these groups, people will only seek relationships within the “in-group”. It is unlikely that you will seek relationships from those outside these people.
As these concepts are less important in individualistic societies, you will be more likely to meet strangers and have opportunities to make more friends.
#5. Collectivists Put Less Effort Into Relationships
Cherry 2022 notes, “people in individualistic cultures devote more effort and energy toward actively maintaining close relationships, often through increased self-disclosure and greater intimacy.”
In individualistic cultures, relationships are a choice and potentially temporary. Therefore, they need to be maintained. Individualists are sometimes very careful to pursue meaningful relationships and to ensure the relationships’ survival.
The attitude about relationships in a collectivistic society, however, can be different. Relationships are stable, permanent or just a fact of the situation. You are a colleague because you work together. You are a neighbour because you live near one another. As long as you go on working together or living close to each other, there’s nothing you can do to change the fact that you have a relationship of some sort. Therefore, relationships do not need effort or maintenance. They just are.
The Impact
When a team has a range of cultures from both collectivistic and individualistic cultures, it can cause an interesting difference in expectations. These expectations can include the type of support you should receive, the types of relationships you have, whether it is okay to express your opinions, and whether you should get to know individuals or just learn how to work as a team.
This can lead to frustrations on both sides.
Individualists in a collectivistic setting might complain that
- the group is unsupportive and unhelpful.
- relationships within the group are superficial.
- no one makes the effort to get to know them.
- they do not feel their opinion is valued.
- excluded from the group.
Someone from a collectivistic culture may perceive that those from individualistic cultures in their team are
- disruptive and disrespectful.
- pushy, selfish and opinionated.
- untrustworthy.
- emotionally and relationally needy.
- intrusive and liable to breach personal boundaries.
- outsiders who do not want to be a part of the group.
Therefore, there needs to be an understanding of different cultures and how they operate. If both sides do not understand each other, there can be hurt feelings and difficulties. This is exacerbated when people think that collectivistic cultures behave the opposite to they actually do. It can result in a bit of a rude awakening.
Sources
- Cherry, Kendra. 2022. ‘What is a Collectivist Culture?’ https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-collectivistic-cultures-2794962
- Hopper, Elizabeth. 2015. ‘Individualist or Collectivist? How Culture Influences Behavior’. https://healthypsych.com/individualist-or-collectivist-how-culture-influences-behavior/
- Lui, Shi S., Michael W. Morris, Thomas Talhelm, and Qian Yang. 2019. ‘Ingroup vigilance in collectivistic cultures’. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1817588116
- Ma, Zhenzhong, Yufang Huang, Jie Wu, Weiwei Dong, Liyun Qi. 2014. ‘What matters for knowledge sharing in collectivistic cultures? Empirical evidence from China?’ https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JKM-06-2014-0252/full/html
- Talhelm, Thomas. 2019. ‘Why Your Understanding of Collectivism Is Probably Wrong’. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-your-understanding-of-collectivism-is-probably-wrong/
Justin Marsh is a missionary who has served in Asia for over six years. He is the country leader of a team of missionaries and has just completed an MA that looks at missional practice. Whilst his team works within a range of contexts across the country, Justin’s focus is the Muslim minority groups. He is the owner of the publication THE CO-MISSION.
