S-dimension Theory—Individualism And Collectivism In Cross-cultural Communication

In 1980, Hofstede concluded four cultural dimensions on cross-cultural field. In Hofstede’s binary dimension of individualism and collectivism, the two were at the opposite ends. It is considered as a bipolar dimension, with individualism and collectivism as two opposite poles of one culture dimension. Since then numerous researchers have focused on studying individualism and collectivism. The researchers like Oyserman, Schwartz and Baskerville found that such categorization prone to error. Besides, when Triandis(1990) measured these tendencies empirically, individualism and collectivism emerged as uncorrelated tendencies. People may be both individualistic and collectivistic.Assume that collectivism is for Yang factor, and the individualism is for the Yin factor, the correlation between them can become replacement of conflict and coordination of the two, and eventually goes to merge. In Tai chi diagram, the S curve is the dividing line of Yin (individualism) and Yang (collectivism). It reveals that the Yin and Yang are complementary, mutual dependent, and interactive. They form the fundamental types of the world values. Between the two there is also a“best value”, which is in cross-cultural communication, the individualism and the collectivism absorb their positive factors, and at the meantime overcome their negative factors. This is the S-dimension theory—the penetration, the fusion and the unity of the individualism and the collectivism.America has, according to the conclusion of Hofstede, been ranked among the individualistic countries. The self-report questionnaire, which is designed and testified by Triandis et al., has been distributed to 60 people in cross-cultural communication—Americans living in China no less than three years, who have been considered as the representatives of American culture, to test individualism and collectivism tendencies. The research reveals that: (1) all of the 60 subjects as the people in cross-cultural communication are belonging to the typical individualistic country, while the majority of them have a strong tendency toward individualism; (2) significant portion of subjects that are both individualistic and collectivistic do exist in the female subjects, the male subjects, the younger and the older subjects;(3) the behavior of the majority of subjects in cross-cultural communication has become an individualistic—collectivistic continuum, which lies not only in the working places, but also in the daily life.As an exploratory study, this thesis has several inevitable limitations especially in the aspect of questionnaire. However, the results, in a sense, still prove the rationality of S-dimension. The thesis consists of seven chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces the background and the significance of the study. The literature review is introduced in the second chapter, which includes the Hofstede’s individualism/collectivism dimension, the individualism/collectivism theory of Triandis as well as some criticism of Hofstede’s individualism/collectivism dimension. Chapter three is the research methodology. The results of questionnaire—the appearance of S-dimension theory, S-dimension theory in working groups or daily life, are listed from chapter four to chapter six. The last chapter concludes at the background of cross-cultural communication the mode of the dimension of individualism and collectivism should be up to date, which can be comprehended as the S-dimension, thus to explain the anomalous behavior, such as an“individualist”behaves in a collectivistic way under a certain situation.