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Individualism is usually thought of as the quality of being self reliant or independent, but itâs much more than that. It has grown into a moral stance, a political philosophy, an ideology, and even a social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual over a collective group of people.
So What Makes Individualism So American?
From a very young age Americans are exposed to stories of the self-made individual who goes from rags to riches. From The Fountainhead, to The Pursuit of Happyness, and even in shows like Breaking Bad where the protagonist/hero is a drug dealer. Our greatest heroes in books, movies, and tv shows are the ones that dealt with difficult adversity by themselves and came out on top. Our country was founded on the notion of âLiberty and Justice for Allâ where the keyword to focus on is liberty. Liberty is synonymous with independence and autonomy, which are two of the four characteristics of individualistic cultures, the other two being uniqueness and self-sufficiency.
Hofstede Insights, a company that specializes in Intercultural and Organizational Culture challenges, did a study on 50 countries where individualism was one of the 6 dimensions they looked at.
Guess what the results were? America came in first when it came to valuing individualism over collectivism. This result shouldnât be shocking to most Americans because we see countless examples of this in the place Americans spend most of their timeâââthe workplace.
American Individualism at Work
In the American workplace individualism is a characteristic that most organizations value very highly. Even before joining an organization you can see this when applying for positions. Job applications will put in things such as âself-motivatedâ,âdo-it-yourselferâ, and âInnovation without permissionâ in their job listings.
It doesnât stop at the hiring process though, once you are a part of an organization you get exposed to even more individualism. For example, most organizations focus on individuals when it comes to giving out recognitions or awards. An example of this is the ever-popular âEmployee of the Monthâ award where the âbestâ worker from your organization is rewarded based on all the things they have done that separate them from the other employees.
In the tech industry we see another example of this in the performance management style called âStack Rankingâ where companies rank or rate individuals against the associates of the same level. A vitality curve is then created with those at the bottom placed on âperformance improvement plansâ or even let go.
Why Does This Hurt Teams?
Originating in Japan, the concept of Lean has developed from being the gold standard in our manufacturing to one of the most popular management approaches in America.
The International Journal of Operations & Production Management published an article that showcased an interesting conclusion. When analyzing the interaction of national and organizational culture on lean manufacturing, it was found that countries with a more collective culture performed better. It also showed that lean manufacturing is more successful in organizations that have a collectivist organizational culture.
However, the more interesting conclusion that came from this research was that organizational culture will not trounce national culture. Even though we have widely adopted Lean management in our organizations, American Individualism wins again.
The American workplace along with Lean management center around teams of people who work together to deliver a product or a service for their company. A teamâs cohesiveness is crucial for its success and the success of the overall company.
However, American Individualism is directly hurting that cohesiveness by putting the individuals goals and aspirations ahead of the teams.
Team members are less likely to ask for help because that goes against the âdo-it-yourselferâ concept. They feel if they ask for help they will be looked at as weak or unintelligent. Team members are also less likely to help others because of how we commonly reward and recognize each other. What is the motivation for helping another team member when they could be using that time to improve themselves and maybe get that prized âEmployee of the Monthâ award.
Teams are especially hurt by this in the technology industry where there is an over emphasis on teams. Most technology companies use Agile software development which is an approach to software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer(s)/end users. Teams are never developing products in isolation but depend on multiple teams to be able to collectively release software. An Agile team is only as strong as its weakest link. Coupling the idea of organizations operating in this model along with performance management done via stack ranking hurts teams. Team members are constantly looking to see how they can differentiate themselves from each other. That doesnât mean they do not help each other, but the incentive is more toward making themselves better rather than their teammates.
Collectivism vs Individualism
In contrast to individualism, collectivism promotes social rules focused on promoting selflessness, putting community needs ahead of individual needs, working as a group, and supporting others.
While individualism has been one of the major pillars of American innovation and success we need to remember that collectivism has as well. Democracy, the foundation of America, and how it is practiced in the United States is much more collectivist rather than individualistic. Even though all American citizens can vote only the majority collective decides the outcome of bills, laws, and elections. From the military draft (selective-service registration) to income tax, America has also been built on collectivism.
So why stop there? Why not adopt it in the workplace?
That might mean implementing a team based performance management system, something I have been working on for awhile. In this system recognition and awards are given to teams rather than individuals. Monetary incentives or bonuses are directly tied to the teams performance rather than the individuals. Ratings for individuals are based off team consensus rather than managers trying to separate associates from each other.
This will greatly help improve how individualism is hurting teams but doesnât solve the root of the problem. Individualism and Collectivism are not mutually exclusive and need to stop being treated as such. Even though we pride ourselves in the individualism we have in America we need to be mindful that the balance between it and collectivism is what has gotten us this far.
Is American Individualism Hurting Our Teams at Work? was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Disclaimer
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