I had this debate with a person, lets call him Mr. X . According to him Individualism is mostly associated with wealthy nations hence is an aspect of culture that must be embraced if a nation wants to prosper. I disagree. More on that in a bit.
Individualistic culture is found in good ole USA and Europe.
Collectivisim is found in countries such as China, Japan, India, …Pakistan
If we just go on the surface, X’s theroy is shot. You see China and Japan are not exactly poor countries. However, my strong argument is as follows. In today’s business environment we look for the next John Chambers or in other word Transformational leader, most of the characteristics of a transformational leaders
are very closely related to the aspect of Collectivisim. Hence all thsi wealth in Individualistic culture is created by using the business practices of collectivisim culture. (TQM..borrowed from Japan, JIT…I believe also borrowed from Japan).
What do you guys think?