Individualism Vs Collectivism
According to Hofstede’s study of national cultures, Bangladesh has an index score of 20 on individualism aspect. (The global mean is 48) This empirically shows that Bangladesh is a collectivist country. This means that community goals and interests supersede personal goals. Here are a few examples to back up this claim.
Career selection: Family plays a huge part in selecting the career path of their children. Most parents force their children to choose a career that they think are ideal (usually medicine or engineering), ignoring the child’s interests and capabilities. At the end of the day, most children give in to their parents demands to make them happy or because they have no way out.
Marriage: In Bangladesh, people strongly believe in the saying that “Marriages happen between two families, not just two individuals”. In individualistic society, a marriage usually occurs because two people like each other, irrespective of the fact whether their parents approve of it or not. Our religion, combined with our culture entails couples to get the mandatory “yes” from their respective families before proceeding. In many cases, couples are forced to separate even after being in a relationship for many years, only because family and society has a bigger say in their lives than their own say.
Sharing the blame: We always hear our parents say, “Your misconduct will make people point fingers at us!” People from the western culture might find this statement rather bizarre because as an adult, you are responsible for your own actions. Sometimes, even an entire organization is deemed bad when a single employee does something scandalous. Society sees the individual’s behaivour as a reflection of the institution he/she belongs to. They fail to understand that one person does not define the entire institution.
Resolving issues: Faced with a crisis, we usually seek help from our family and close friends. We do not hesitate to let them in on our personal matters. Also our
Career selection: Family plays a huge part in selecting the career path of their children. Most parents force their children to choose a career that they think are ideal (usually medicine or engineering), ignoring the child’s interests and capabilities. At the end of the day, most children give in to their parents demands to make them happy or because they have no way out.
Marriage: In Bangladesh, people strongly believe in the saying that “Marriages happen between two families, not just two individuals”. In individualistic society, a marriage usually occurs because two people like each other, irrespective of the fact whether their parents approve of it or not. Our religion, combined with our culture entails couples to get the mandatory “yes” from their respective families before proceeding. In many cases, couples are forced to separate even after being in a relationship for many years, only because family and society has a bigger say in their lives than their own say.
Sharing the blame: We always hear our parents say, “Your misconduct will make people point fingers at us!” People from the western culture might find this statement rather bizarre because as an adult, you are responsible for your own actions. Sometimes, even an entire organization is deemed bad when a single employee does something scandalous. Society sees the individual’s behaivour as a reflection of the institution he/she belongs to. They fail to understand that one person does not define the entire institution.
Resolving issues: Faced with a crisis, we usually seek help from our family and close friends. We do not hesitate to let them in on our personal matters. Also our