Question

How do you explain the popularity of work teams in countries such as united states and canada, whose national culture place a high value on individualism?

Answer 1

In countries like Canada and the United States, culture encourages individualism. This allows people to develop their skills in several specialties, many of them being very specific.

However, when certain work or task requires multiple skills, individual knowledge is combined, giving birth to work teams.

Work teams are comprised of individuals from various specialties in order for organizations to compete more effectively and efficiently, utilizing better their employees’ talents.

So, considering that in a capitalist system all companies must compete, it is not surprising that there has been a peak of team work at the sacrifice of individual work. However, work teams do not discredit individuals and instead rely on both individual and group abilities to achieve common goals.