Collectivism vs Individualism

I have been intrigued by the question of longevity for some time now. And my interest in this question stems from the fact that when a firm dies, at least one of the three stakeholders tend to get adversely affected: investors, promoters or employees. Customers also have to bear some pain, but they move on faster than the other three.

Also, I wonder why some religions last for many thousands of years, while cults do not last beyond the founder or one-two generations beyond them. And my hypothesis is that it is because religions focus on very simple human values that promote collectivism, while most cults promote individualism. So I did a project, here at the GSB, in my winter term to study the same by comparing companies from the same industries. I chose pairs of companies about whom literature and employee review says that the culture is somewhat individualistic or collectivistic. I tried to count the number of times the companies used collective nouns like we/us vs singular nouns like I/me in their mission and vision statements. I got nothing evenly remotely significant in my results. I asked visitors to some of my subject classes also, but most hedged saying that both types of values were important for the success of an organization. I am not sure that is the right answer.

In the spring break, I got a chance to visit the Sequoia National Park, and I looked at nature to provide some answers. Sequoia trees are some of the largest organisms in the world but also live amongst the longest (some of the trees are nearly 3,000 years). The interesting part is that their bark is almost uniformly thick till the top and does not taper off like most other conifers. These trees achieve massive heights (250+ feet) but are quite thick till the top. Extrapolated, this seems like a collectivistic approach to growth.

I am more of a team player than a star performer, and therefore I might be biased to think that collectivism is the desirous trait, but have nothing to prove it or otherwise. Therefore I would suggest that each one of us be cognizant of this issue and make our own judgement.