Managing Research, Development, and Innovation: Managing the Unmanageable, Third Edition

7.3. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

People from the West tend to be individualistic, while people from Asia, especially East Asia, tend to be collectivists. The differences between these two kinds of cultural patterns are reflected in several tendencies. Four will be mentioned here, and more can be found in Triandis (1995).

1. Collectivists define themselves as members of a collective (family, co-workers, neighbors, fellow countrymen, co-religionists, etc.). If you ask them who they are, for instance, they are likely to say "I am Japanese" or "I am an uncle." The individualists are more likely to say "I am responsible" or "I am kind" (i.e., use a trait).

2. Collectivist social behavior is predicted better from norms than from attitudes. Conversely, the social ...