Individualism-collectivism and business context as predictors of behaviors in cross-national work settings: Incidence and outcomes

Abstract

Brief descriptions of cross-national problem events by 1349 organizational employees from many nations were content analyzed. Contrasts between individualistic and collectivistic behaviors were much more strongly predicted by variations in business context (e.g., language spoken and hierarchical relations between the parties involved) than by a measure of nation-level in-group collectivism practices. Respondents from individualist nations emphasized performance goals and task focus, whereas those from collectivist nations emphasized personal aspects of work relations more strongly. Task-focused behavioral esponses to problems were uniformly associated with positive outcome, whereas the outcome of emotional responses interacted significantly with individualism–collectivism practices. The results are interpreted in terms of collectivists’ greater attention to context.