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Gender Differences and Similarities on the Cultural Dimension of Individualism and Collectivism: a Study on Public Sector Bank Employees


Affiliations
1 Department of Anthropology, University of Madras, Chennai -600 005, India
 

Individualism and collectivism has been considered an important bipolar cultural dimension and has been used heavily in the fields of management, behavioral and social sciences. It has been quantified across national cultures and has been explored at an individual level. According to Fons Trompenaars, people within a culture do not have identical values, norms, artifacts and assumptions. In this case, he expresses wide spread within each culture and has a pattern around an average. Though they are bipolar concepts, Geert Hofstede attempted to quantify the dimension based on an extensive research. This paper strives to follow Hofstede's survey questions, explore the pattern on the cultural dimension of individualism and collectivism, and investigate if this pattern differs based on gender in a public sector bank environment. It strives to understand the dimension through statistical tests conducted on the data collected from 427 public sector bank employees in Chennai, India.

Keywords

Individualism, Collectivism, Bank Sector, Bank Employees
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  • Gender Differences and Similarities on the Cultural Dimension of Individualism and Collectivism: a Study on Public Sector Bank Employees

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Authors

P. Shriram Venkatraman
Department of Anthropology, University of Madras, Chennai -600 005, India
Govinda Reddy
Department of Anthropology, University of Madras, Chennai -600 005, India

Abstract


Individualism and collectivism has been considered an important bipolar cultural dimension and has been used heavily in the fields of management, behavioral and social sciences. It has been quantified across national cultures and has been explored at an individual level. According to Fons Trompenaars, people within a culture do not have identical values, norms, artifacts and assumptions. In this case, he expresses wide spread within each culture and has a pattern around an average. Though they are bipolar concepts, Geert Hofstede attempted to quantify the dimension based on an extensive research. This paper strives to follow Hofstede's survey questions, explore the pattern on the cultural dimension of individualism and collectivism, and investigate if this pattern differs based on gender in a public sector bank environment. It strives to understand the dimension through statistical tests conducted on the data collected from 427 public sector bank employees in Chennai, India.

Keywords


Individualism, Collectivism, Bank Sector, Bank Employees

References