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How individualism–collectivism orientations predict happiness in a collectivistic context

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Abstract

We discuss how individualistic/collectivistic orientations of employees predict affective well-being at work, and how this relationship is moderated by the perceptions of spirit of camaraderie in organizations. The sample comprises 161 employees of 109 organizations operating in Portugal, a collectivistic culture. The findings suggest that: (a) collectivistic individuals show higher affective well-being than individualists; (b) this relationship is moderated by the employees’ perceptions of the spirit of camaraderie in their organizations; (c) higher affective well being levels tend to be experienced by collectivists who find working in an organizational context to be rich in spirit of camaraderie, and lower levels of affective well being are expressed by individualists who perceive poor spirit of camaraderie in their working environments. The paper emphasizes that employee happiness can have different bases in different cultures and that individualism/collectivism orientations do not operate in the same way in different cultural and organizational contexts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, Aveiro, 3810-193, Portugal

    Arménio Rego

  2. Faculdade de Economia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Rua Marquês de Fronteira, 20, 1099-038, Lisboa, Portugal

    Miguel P. Cunha

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  1. Arménio Rego
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  2. Miguel P. Cunha
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Correspondence to Arménio Rego.

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We are very grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Rego, A., Cunha, M.P. How individualism–collectivism orientations predict happiness in a collectivistic context. J Happiness Stud 10, 19–35 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9059-0

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