My Culture Made Me Do It – Part 1: Individualistic Versus Collectivist Cultures

Consider the following scenario:

You are part of an interviewing team that is selecting a person for a middle management job in operations. You have a series of questions that each of you ask every candidate including:

—Tell me about yourself.
—What is your proudest accomplishment?
—How did you add value to your team in your previous position?

One of the three candidates that looked really good on paper disappointed all of the interviewing team because she was vague in answering all of the questions that required her to talk about herself. She seemed shy, not forthcoming and consistently said “we” when she answered questions that that were meant to elicit information about her. Four members of the interviewing team agreed that she would not be a “good fit”. The fifth member of the team asked if maybe there were some cultural issues that were being missed.

The United States and many parts of the Western world are much more “I” oriented as contrasted to the Eastern part of the world which tends to be much more “we” or collectivist. About 70% of the world is more collectivist than individualistic and the US has been dubbed as the most individualistic country on the planet.

What do these differences mean in the situation offered above? In a job interview where the interviewing team is individualistic and the interviewee has a more collectivist orientation, there is likely to be a disconnect, that could result in the company passing up good talent. The Western expectation is that the person would readily talk about him or herself, extolling their own accomplishments to convince the decision makers that he or she alone had made a meaningful contributions in previous jobs. In contrast, the collectivist candidate may have been taught from an early age that it is unseemly to boast about yourself, that nothing meaningful is accomplished alone, and that the group is more important than the individual. There is a tendency to downplay personal goals in favor of advancing the goals of a valued group.

The US proverbs of “Toot your own horn” or the “Squeaky wheel gets the grease” are examples of individualism and the Chinese Proverb of “No need to know the person, only the family” or the African Adage: “It takes a village to raise a child” are collectivist examples.

What is the Inclusion Solution?

• Recognize how these differences may play out in interviewing situations.
• Adapt questions so that both individualistic and collectivist cultures feel comfortable answering. For example, asking about team accomplishments first may make it more comfortable for someone from a collectivist culture to later discuss their individual role on the team.
• Develop a scoring model that gives points for collectivist as well as individualistic traits. In other words, acknowledge that the individualistic approach is not the only path to success.