THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUALIST AND COLLECTIVIST VALUES ON RELATIONSHIPS IN WORKPLACE

Abstract

The social-economic and cultural developments in every society bring the significant changes in the individual
models of communication in society and organizations. So, is important that the management sciences and
managing in practice must take into consideration cultural effects which can influence their employees’ values,
attitude, and the models of communication. The aim of this paper is to present the influence of one of the
national culture dimensions – collectivism/individualism on the relations which include employees cooperation
and communication. The first part of this article presents the analysis of dimension before and after the
communist’s dictatorship in Albania. The second part of the paper is dedicated to presenting the results of the
empirical study examining the individual values (collectivist–individualist) in workplace, for public and private
organizations. In particular, article show the direction in which differences in this dimension influence
relationships, patterns of behaviour and the degree of conflict in practices of organization. Also the article
highlight on the problematic of socialization and use of individualistic values in the workplace and support the
idea that individualism as a dimension of a civilized and democratic world must be encouraged but without
leaving aside the stability of the relationships, tolerance and harmony with others, that is so important in survive
of business today.