Culture and Attribution Essay

Every country in the world practice their own cultural traditions and norms. Nevertheless, these various cultures are generally characterized as either individualistic or collective. Individualistic culture is defined as â€Å"a society in which the ties between individuals are loose and everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family only† (â€Å"Individualism versus collectivism†, n. d. ). On the other hand, a collective society pertains to â€Å"a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive ingroups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty† (â€Å"Individualism versus collectivism†, n. d. ). These kinds of culture would be further elaborated in the duration of this paper. A group of business people coming from two different cultures work together but unfortunately, the project they conducted fails. This failure could be attributed to the fact that they have different beliefs and priorities. As such, they would also have different reactions as to why they did not succeed in this business venture. The ones who came from the individualistic culture would blame themselves and point out that it was their weaknesses and misgivings that cause this downfall. It could also be possible that they would blame their business associates and do all the possible means to protect the assets that they have invested on this project. On the other hand, those business people coming from the collective culture would blame the whole group for their failure. Since it is a group project, their shortcomings as a whole team could be the reason why they failed. Another possible reaction could be that they would propose that they work together to address the problem and to regain what they have lost from this unsuccessful project. Another similar incident personally happen to me in one of the group projects that is required in a course that I took. The professor assigned us to make a resolution regarding the issue of plagiarism. The group have to work together and each person must contribute their ideas on how the problem of plagiarism could be address. However, we were not able to complete a sound resolution due to the lack of group cooperation. This is due to the fact that some of our members did not attend the scheduled meeting, which is why only some of us made the resolution. Our professor gave us a failing mark that resulted for most of the members to blame each other. This attribution clearly shows that most of us came from an individualistic culture because we tend to think of ourselves and our own interest without giving due consideration to the shortcomings of the whole group. In another perspective, if this incident happen from someone coming from a collective culture the failure that took place would be seen as the responsibility of all members. Those who did the resolution also have their misgivings as they fail to remind the other members of the meeting. Furthermore, the lack of cooperation and teamwork of all the members is one of the major factors as to why we get a failing mark. The aforementioned incidents prove that culture has a huge impact in an individual. The behavior as well as the decisions of a person is greatly influence by cultural factors. Reference Individualism versus collectivism. (n. d. ). Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www. via-web. de/284. html.