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How does the research evidence suggest that a manager could usefully operationalise Hofstede’s individualism dimension?

“Individuality is a necessary ingredient for creative thinking”

• Anne Manning

Individualism is an opposite dimension of collectivism under which the cultures are loosely tied between people and the individuals are found to look themselves and their immediate family only. According to Reyes (1990), the individualistic behavior at work s what guides and shapes the work orientation, work attitudes, behavior patterns and communication levels. Ali et al (2001) also discussed that a personnel manager as well as marketing manager can depict an individualistic behavior and yet perform well and earn personal bonuses by working extra and performing well. However, Marais and Marais (2007) believes that individualism alienate workers from the work traditions, culture and other workers which might make them feel denied and disowned. 

The question arises is how managers can use the workers with individual approach towards betterment of the organization? Well, according to Oppong (2013) individualists can be encouraged for their creativity and personal excellence. Individual employees can also be made a part of team yet their efforts, knowledge and contribution be based and assessed on their own performance and contribution to the project. By doing this, the managers can motivate the performers and create competition amongst team members who are working collectively yet scoring individually. Task distribution and delegation of authority can also make the individualists feel powerful and can make them feel part of the organization. 

According to Minkov et al. (2017), individualism at work place can create innovative solutions to complicated problems. A big example here is of Stephanie Mardell, (A startup firm in Newyork named Button), where the leader gave their workers freehand to work individually and be themselves at work. The results of promoting individualism led the company produe user-first mobile monetization where more than $14 million were seeded. According to Trauth (1999), the core values of any organization can encourage employees to grow individually and organizationally. When the employees at work feel individual and follow individualistic culture they speak boldly and honestly due to which their motivation is increased and they feel appreciated (Trauth, 1999). 

The managers at the organization can utilize the individualism encouraging them to pour in their own concepts and ideas. By doing this, the employees finally recognize their own unique skills that they can put in the work and feel energized. According to Chen et al. (2015), the managers can pursue the individualistic culture at the workplace by giving them employees a free ladder where they choose for themselves for what will help them grow within and can be evaluated based on their performance and contribution to the project. Hence, the managers can use the individualistic culture at the organization for fostering growth, enabling creativity, enhancing productivity, furthering performance and improving profitability of the organization as a whole. The individualistic approach at workplace may motivate the workers and help them in achieving peak performance as far as their individual efforts are overlooked. Plus the individualistic approach might enhance creativity and innovation as well in the organization (Chen, et al., 2015).