Micro-level cultural profiles on teamwork orientation and contribution

This study utilised the collectivism and power distance dimensions to examine the prevalence of micro-level cultural profiles in the predefined categorisation of national cultural settings and their effect on team orientation and contribution. Based on a multi-year sample of 11,058 individuals from 157 countries, our analysis confirmed four culture-based clusters: collectivist-high power distance, collectivist-low power distance, individualist-high power distance and the individualist-low power distance profiles. As expected, the collectivist-based profiles were prevalent among the non-western respondents, but the individualist-based profiles were not prevalent among the western respondents. Similarly, the collectivist-low power distance and individualistlow power distance profiles reported higher contributions to the team. These findings contradict the prevalent assumptions about the east-west cultural differences. The study shows that the micro-level analysis of individual values is necessary for understanding individual behaviours in workgroups.