M: Organizational Behavior 2nd Edition by Steven McShane, Mary Von Glinow

Exercise 9

A visiting professor in international business recently spoke to students in an organizational behavior class about cultural differences between American and Japanese employees. The visitor noted that Americans and Japanese have similar values-Americans have high individualism and low collectivism and Japanese have medium-high individualism and low collectivism. The visitor concluded by saying that by identifying someone's nationality, such as American, you can easily determine the person's level of collectivism and individualism. Identify and discuss two problems with the visiting professor's statements.