| 竹影无风 |
2004-03-29 20:53 |
9：INDIVIDULISM AND COLLECTIVISM
个人主义和团体主义
PROVERB谚语
American Proverb
God help those who help themselves.
Franklin
自助者天助。
富兰克林
Do you like to do.
做你想做的事情。
Chinese Proverb
No matter how stout, one beam cannot support a house.
单梁难撑房。
For those at home, turn to your parents for help; for those outside, turn to your friends for help.
在家靠父母，出门靠朋友。
INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE跨文化对话
Dialogue 1
In the following exchange, Mr. Patterson, and American manager working in Beijing, is meeting with his supervisor, Mr. Wyman, who is also American. In scene 1, Mr. Patterson reports to Mr. Wyman about some changes he has made with several of his sales teams. Later in scene 2, Mr. Lee, their Chinese counterpart, enters /into/ the dialogue.
在下面对话的第1幕中，Mr. Patterson是美方经理，在北京工作，他正和他的美国督导Mr. Wyman谈话，汇报他在销售部中所做的一些人事上的变动。在第2幕中，中方经理Mr. Lee加入进来。
Scene 1
Mr. Patterson: Good morning, Mr. Wyman. Thanks for meeting with me this morning. As you know, our division has been doing very well this quarter. In fact, our numbers are up across the board.
Mr. Wyman: Yes, I’ve seen your quarterly reports. Nice job!
Mr. Patterson: Thanks. Insgroupsto recognize their hard work, I’ve made some changers in our sales teams. I’ve created team leaders in each group. In our product group, I promoted Lee Yong-shan. In the marketing group, I promoted Sun Da-wei, and in the technology group, I promoted Wang Nan. All of them have been real leaders. I think this idea will really motivate them. In fact, I met with the groups individually and announced the promotions.
Mr. Wyman: Good job, Patterson. I can see you’re really on top of things.
第一幕
Mr. Patterson:早上好，Mr. Wyman，很高兴跟您见面。我们部门这一季度的业绩很优秀，各方面的数字都有增长。
Mr. Wyman:对，我看过你的季度报告。工作做得不错！
Mr. Patterson:多谢。为了表彰他们的努力工作，我在销售队伍中做了一些变动。在每组团队中，我设置了团队领导人。生产团队中，我提拔了李永山；市场销售团队中，我提拔了孙大为；技术团队中，我提拔了王南。他们都是很优秀的带头人。我觉得这种提拔会很好地调动他们的积极性。我和各个团队都见了面，宣布了提拔结果。
Mr. Wyman:做得好，Patterson。可以看出你办事样样领先。
Scene 2
Two months later
Mr. Patterson, Mr. Wyman, and Mr. Lee, a Chinese manager, are discussing the poor performance of Mr. Pattersons sales teams.
Mr. Wyman: Well, just look at these dismal results. The numbers for this quarter are way down from last quarter. What’s happened?
Mr. Patterson: I don’t know. Ever since I introduced the team leader concept, the groups- productivity has really plummeted. I thought it was a great idea. I guess I chose the wrong people to lead the teams. I’ll assign new leaders tomorrow.
Mr. Lee: Well... you may select new leaders if you desire, but the men you chose were all very capable. However, by elevating them you made then stand out and disrupted the harmony of each group. In China, we all work hard for the group... not for just one person.
Mr. Patterson: I guess I should have just left things as they were.
Following their individualistic orientations, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Wyman were perfectly comfortable with the idea of creating team leaders within the individual sales groups. However, as Mr. Lee mentions, by so doing, the harmony of the groups was upset, which, in turn, led to poor performance. In the United States, workers are often motivated by the opportunity for promotion and advancement as this serves the individualistic drive for individual achievement. In collectivistic cultures, however, workers may be motivated by being a part of a cohesive and productive team.
第二幕
两个月以后。
Mr. Patterson、Mr. Wyman和中方经理Mr. Lee正在讨论Mr. Patterson所领导的团队的糟糕表现。
Mr. Wyman:看看这些糟糕的结果，这季度的销售额比起上季度一落千丈。这该怎么解释？
Mr. Patterson:我也不明白，自从我引入团队领导人这一方法以来，生产能力似乎立即衰退了。我原以为这主意会奏效呢。估计我选错了人。明天我就任命新领导。
Mr. Lee:呃……如果你觉得有必要，你可以任命新领导。不过你原先选的人都很有能力。你提拔了他们之后，反而让他们不好过，枪打出头鸟，破坏了团体的和谐。在中国，我们都为团体效力，而不是单纯地为某个人。
Mr. Patterson:我觉得我还是将事情恢复到原状吧。
由于自身的个人主义观念，Mr. Patterson和Mr. Wyman对设立团队领导人的主意非常一致。然而，正如Mr. Lee所说的那样，那会破坏团队内部的和谐，从而导致业绩不佳。在美国，提升职位可以调动职工的积极性，这是获取个人成就的动力。而在团体主义文化中，职工都以属于一个团结高效的团队的一分子为荣。Dialogue 2
Ms. SHAPIRO: Chang, is the new computer procedure working yet?
Mr. Chang: There were some minor problems.
Ms. SHAPIRO: How soon will it be ready?
Mr. Chang: It’s hard to tell, Ms. Shapiro. We need to look /into/ more carefully.
Ms. SHAPIRO (impatiently): Whose idea was this new procedure anyway?
Mr. Chang (with apologetic smile): Well... we’ll definitely be more careful next time. We’ve learned from this lesson.
Ms. SHAPIRO (decisively): It came from Peter Lees division, didn’t it?
Mr. Chang (hesitantly): Well... many people worked on this project, Ms. Shapiro. It’s hard to say...
Ms. SHAPIRO (frustrated): All right, just give me a definite timeline when the procedure can be up and running. I’ve got to run to the next meeting. I don’t have time to waste.
Ms. SHAPIRO:张，新的电脑程序完成了没有？
Mr. Chang:还有一些小问题。
Ms. SHAPIRO:还要多久才能准备好？
Mr. Chang:这很难说，Ms. Shapiro，我们需要认真研究一下。
Ms. SHAPIRO(不耐烦地):编写这个新程序究竟是谁的主意?
Mr. Chang (抱歉地笑着):呃，下一次我们一定会注意，吸取这一次的教训。
Ms. SHAPIRO(果断地):这是Peter Lee的主张，对不对？
Mr. Chang(犹豫地):呃，许多人都有责任，Ms. Shapiro，这很难说。
Ms. SHAPIRO(受挫地):我不管，你给我一个能够完成的日期。我必须去开下一个会议了，我可没有时间跟你白费口舌。
Dialogue 3
The laoshi role is humorously depicted by Mark Salzman in his account of the two years he spent in the People’s Republic of china. Salzman was very young when he went to the city of Changsha as an English teacher at a medical college. He describes the following encounter.
My [Chinese] lesson with Teacher Wei had come to involve more than reading and writing assignments. She was a teacher in the Chinese tradition, taking responsibility not only for my academic progress but for my development as a person. She had advice for me concerning my family and friends, my diet, my clothing, my study and exercise habits, and my attitude toward life. At times I got impatient with her and explained that in America, children become adults around the time they leave for college and like to make decisions for themselves after that. She was appalled.“Don’t your parents and teachers care about you?”
“Of course they do, but-”
“Then how can they leave you stranded when you are only a child?”
“Well, we -”
“And how can you possibly think you understand everything? You are only twenty-two years old! You are so far away from home, and I am your teacher, if I don’t care about you, won’t you be lonely?”
She pointed out that the close relationship between teacher and student has existed in China since before the time of Confucius and should not be underestimated-besides, she was older than me and knew better. I couldn’t help respecting her conviction, and she seemed to get such pleasure out of trying to figure and then to straighten me out that I stopped resisting and let her educate me.
I learned how to dress to stay comfortable throughout the year (a useful skill in a place without air-conditioning or heat in most buildings), how to prevent and treat common illness, how to behave toward teachers, students, strangers, and bureaucrats, how to save books from mildew and worms, and never to do anything to excess.
“Mark, you laugh a great deal during your lectures. Why?”
“Because, Teacher Wei, I amshavingsfun.”
“I see. Laugh less. It seems odd that a man laughs so hard at his own jokes. People think you are a bit crazy, or perhaps choking.”
“Teacher Wei, do you think it is bad to laugh?”
“No, not at all. In fact, it is healthy to laugh. In Chinese we have a saying that if you laugh you will live long. But you shouldn’t laugh too much, or you will have digestive problems.”
马克·斯兹曼年轻时曾在中国长沙的一个医学院做了两年的英语老师，中国老师扮演的角色在他的描述下显得生灵活现。
魏老师给我上中文课，上课涉及到的远远超过了阅读、写作的范畴。她是一个传统的中国老师，不仅负责我们的学业进步，而且还关注我个人品性的发展。对于我的家庭、朋友、饮食、衣着、学习锻炼习惯以及我的人生态度等一系列问题，她都给我提出了建议。有时我不耐烦，就向她解释，在美国，儿女进入大学便被当作成人看待，并且乐意自己处理自己的事。她惶然失色：
“你父母和老师难道就不管你吗？”
“他们当然管，但--”
“那他们怎么可以对你漠不关心，你还是个孩子！”
“呃，我们--”
“你难道能保证你真的懂事了，你才22岁，离家又那么远，我是你老师，我不关心你，谁来关心你？”
接着，她指出，在中国，师生之间的紧密关系从孔子时代就一直存在，这种关系是不容忽视的，何况她是我的老师，比我年龄大，知道的事比我多。后来，连我都情不自禁地对她的信念肃然起敬，也就不再去抵制她，任由她教育我。她本人也似乎从中得到了不少乐趣。
于是我学会了一年四季怎样穿衣才能保持舒适(长沙的许多建筑中没有空调和暖气)，怎样预防、治疗常见流行病，见到老师、学生、陌生人、官员该怎样处事，怎样保存书籍以防虫蛀或发霉，并且注意办事恰到好处，不过度。
“马克，你上课时老笑是怎么回事？”有一次魏老师问我。
“因为，魏老师，我感到有趣。”
“这个我知道，但是要少笑一点，一个人对自己的笑话笑成那样，让人很不舒服。别人会以为你有点疯或者是噎着了。”
“魏老师，您觉得笑不好吗？”
“一点也不是，实际上笑有益于健康，我们中国有句谚语就是乐者长寿，但是你也不用笑得那么勤，否则会引起消化不良的。
”Dialogue 4
Chang: Excuse me, but the elevator is out of order.
Sharon: Really? Whom should we talk to?
Chang: Talk to?
Sharon: To report it.
Chang: I have no idea.
Sharon: Oh, I’m sorry; I thought you lived in this building, too.
Chang: But I do.
In this exchange the cultural difference on display is the activist, take-charge attitude of the American. Sha-ron, versus the more fatalistic, wait-and-see attitude of the Chinese, Chang. Sharon has been raised to believe that individual action can make a difference, that personal intervention of some sort on her part could actually lead to getting this elevator fixed. Chang has been raised to believe that while individual action can sometimes bring results, there are many casesswheresit cannot-situations, that is, that are beyond the individual’s ability to control or influence.
Chang:你只能走楼梯，这里的电梯坏了。
Sharon:是吗？我们应该跟谁说说这件事？
Chang:什么事？
Sharon:汇报电梯坏了这件事。
Chang:我不知道。
Sharon:噢，对不起，我还以为你也住在这幢楼里呢？
Chang：可是我确实住在这里。
从上面的谈话中我们又可以看到文化的差异，美国人Sharon的态度比较积极、负责任，而中国人Chang的态度比较消极逃避。这是因为美国文化相信个人主义价值观，认为个人的行动能够解决问题，能够修好电梯；中国文化倾向于团体主义，认为个人的行动虽然有时也能解决问题，但是更认为许多情况个人是难以控制的。
CONCLUSION结论
Basically, as we saw earlier, individualism refers to the broad value tendencies of people in culture to emphasize the individual identity oversgroupsidentity, and individual rights oversgroupsobligations. In contrast, collectivism refers to the broad value tendencies of people in a culture to emphasize thesgroupsidentity over the individual identity, and insgroupsoriented concerns over individual wants and desires.
Individualism is expressed in interpersonal conflict through the strong assertion of personal opinions, the display of personal emotions, and the importance of personal accountability for any conflict problem or mistake. Collectivism, on the other hand, is manifested in interpersonal conflict through the representation of collective opinions or ideas, the restrain of personal emotional expressions, and the protection of in-group members, if possible, from being held accountable for the conflict problem.
Individulism and Collectivism are central to all the cultural values. China belongs to the collectivist culture while the United States belongs to the individualist culture.
从上面的对话我们不难看到，在个人身份和团体身份两者中，在个人权利和团体义务两者中，个人主义文化中的人们更加重视前者；与之相反，团体主义文化中的人们更加重视后者。
在人与人之间的冲突中，个人主义价值观和团体主义价值观表现得比较充分。个人主义重视个人观点的表达，个人情感的宣泄，以及在冲突或错误中的个人责任。与之相反，在人与人之间的冲突中，团体主义重视团体意见，克制个人情感，在一些冲突问题上，甚至保护团体成员免受其责。
个人主义和团体主义是所有文化价值观的核心。中国属于团体主义价值观，美国属于个人主义价值观。
FURTHER ANALYSIS深入分析
Victor H. Li offers a useful way of conceptualizing this basic difference between Chinese and U.S. cultures. He writes:
“In the United States, leaving the person alone”is held to be one of the cornerstones of our social system and philosophic beliefs. The right of a person not to follow strictly the generally accepted norms of conduct is not a matter that is the legally enforceable business or another citizen. As this person deviates more and adopts a lifestyle increasingly annoying to the rest of the community, we still leave him alone. As the deviation increases, at some point he goes too far and a“crime”is committed. At that point, we do not leave this person alone, and the full majesty of the criminal law descends on him. Pictorially, it is like a falling off the edge of a cliff. As the deviant wanders closer and closer to the edge, he is left alone. He suffers no penalty but also receives no help. When he steps over the edge, the fall is sudden and drastic.
The Chinese take an approach entirely different from ours, however, concerning how these minor expressions of unhappiness or antisocial tendencies should be handled. They do not leave the person alone at this stage. Quite the contrary, anyone who notices these expressionss... is supposed to“help”. If the deviant does not respond to the help and continues to wander further from the“correct path,”the amount of help given is increased, both in quantity and in intensity. In the usual case, this help takes the form of peer pressure, ranging from a public discussion of the deviant’s“problem”to offerings of suggestions and criticisms that grow increasingly pointed. Pictorially, rather than falling off the edge of the cliff, the Chinese system more resembles a gradual slide to the bottom, in which peer pressure increases as the deviation grows greater. Some recalcitrants, of course, will hit bottom, and they will be handled by the formal criminal process... Still, is takes quite a bit of doing to hit bottom.
维克多·H·李是这样理解个人主义与集体主义的差别的，他写道：
在美国，“别管别人的事”是我们的社会体系和人生哲学信仰的基石之一，一个人不完全按照社会普遍接受的标准办事也是他的权利，对此别人在法律上没有去帮助他的义务。即使这个人越走越远，甚至其生活方式给社区带来越来越多的麻烦，我们仍然任其自然。只有当这个人走了极端，犯了罪的时候，我们才不对他置之不理，刑法的惩罚自然会降到他的头上。以图画的形式来显示，这就像一个跌落悬崖的过程。一个背弃者越来越靠近悬崖边缘的时候，没有人会去干涉他，他不会受到任何惩戒，也不会得到任何帮助。当他迈出边缘的时候，他的坠落是突然而惨烈的。
背离社会的行为都会有些细微的迹象，在处理这些迹象方面，中国人的方式与我们迥然不同。他们从不对这种人置之不理，与我们截然相反，凡是觉察到这种迹象的人都可能去帮助他。如果这个人我行我素，继续往邪路上走，那么给予他的帮助会在数量和强度上相应地递增。通常情况下，这种帮助以一种集体压力的方式出现，人们会公开讨论这位背离者的问题并越来越具针对性地提出建议和批评。以图画形式来展示，就是背叛者并不是从悬崖上径直跌落，而是以一种中国化的方式逐渐滑向深渊，在这个过程中，背离的行为越过分，群体的压力就会越大。当然，一些一意孤行者最终会摔落到最低点，受到刑法的处治……不过，在他彻底坠落之前，人们还可以做许多事情去帮助他。
SELF-TEST自测题
Measuring individualism /Collectivism
(个人主义和团体主义价值观测试)
Below are 32 statements designed to assess your attitudes and beliefs about yourself. There are no right or wrong answers, and some of the statements are similar to others. In the blank to the left of each item, indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with each statement. If you are unsure or think that an item does not apply to you, enter a 5 in the blank. Use the following key:
Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Strongly Agree
1. ____ I often do“my own thing.”
2. ____ One should live one’s life independently of others.
3. ____ I like my privacy.
4. ____ I prefer to be direct and forthright in discussions with other people.
5. ____ I am a unique individual.
6. ____ What happens to me is my own doing.
7. ____ When I succeed, it is usually because of my abilities.
8. ____ I enjoy being unique and different from others in many ways.
9. ____ It annoys me when other people perform better than I do.
10. ____ Competition is the law of nature.
11. ____ When another person does better than I do, I get tense andaroused.
12. ____ Without competition it is not possible to have a good society.
13. ____ Winning is everything.
14. ____ It is important that I do my job better than others.
15. ____ I enjoy working in situations involving competition with others.
16. ____ Some people emphasize winning; I’m one of them.
17. ____ The wellbeing of my coworkers is important to me.
18. ____ If a coworker gets a prize, I feel proud.
19. ____ If a relative were in financial difficulty, I would help within my means.
20. ____ It is important to maintain harmony within my group.
21. ____ I like sharing little things with my neighbors.
22. ____ I feel good when I cooperate with others.
23. ____ My happiness depends very much on the happiness of those around me.
24. ____ To me, pleasure is spending time with others.
25. ____ I would sacrifice an activity I enjoy very much if my family did not approve of it.
26. I would do what pleased my family, even if I detested that activity.
27. Before taking a major trip, I consult with most members of my family and many friends.
28. ____ I usually sacrifice my selfinterest for the benefit of my group.
29. ____ Children should be taught to place duty before pleasure.
30. ____ I hate to disagree with others in my group.
31. ____ We should keep our aging parents with us at home.
32. ____ Children should feel honored if their parents receive a distinguished award. |
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