Individualistic Culture

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The explanation for this phenomenon is that the individualistic culture emphasizes the true self, the differences between individuals and the individual responsibility or independence (Hui and Triadis 1986). In contrast, in the collectivistic culture, social harmony, conformity and interpersonal sensitivity (Hui and Triadis 1986) are appreciated, hence the high level of adaptation is well perceived as eagerness to fit in with the culture, whereas, it would be dis-counted or rejected in individualistic culture. The negative effect of social identity awareness is especially higher when the act of adaptation is seen as a deceptive manner or to ingratiate with the other cultural different groups. Thus, one must be aware that adaptation could poten-tially…show more content…
Not all conflicts are unfavorable, majority of them are undeniably negative, however, as (Tjosvold, 1986) suggests conflict is a mean of conveying differences or priority due to opposing needs or demands. The effect of conflict on team performance is complex, however, studies such as (Jehn, 1995) or (De Dreu, 2003) have shown that it could sometimes actually be helpful. In order to avoid groupthink (a term first investigated by (Janis, 1972) which describes the adverse effect of conformity in group decision, none of the group mem-bers want to be a "nay"-sayer), teams should have a moderate level of conflict. It is often achieved by assigning a member in the group to be an evil advocate, to question the decision that has been decided. However, this does not apply to "social conflict" in which the target of the conflict is personal, or regarding about the motivations or capabilities of the team mem-bers; these tends to decrease team performance drastically. Multicultural teams commonly undergo more task-related conflict than culturally homogeneous teams, nonetheless, they ex-perience equal or less social conflict than the later (Stahl, 2010). The evil advocate in this case could potentially also act as a mediator helping to steer the conflict from a wrong direction. It is undeniably due to these divergent processes that the international teams often come up with innovative ideas and a broader set of external connections. However, the critical con-dition for these social processes to translate into a meaningful and fruitful outcomes depend-ing on the quality of their convergent
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