Are individualistic attitudes killing collectivism?

Abstract

This article addresses a core aspect of the question: ‘is the collectivism of labour in fundamental decline?’ It pays particular attention to attitudes towards collectivism using national and cross-national data on trends in dimensions of collectivism over periods of up to two decades. The data indicate that collective values and identities are today broadly as strong (or weak) as they were two or three decades ago. If individualization is the problem, then we should not look at individualization of attitudes but attempts by employers and governments to individualize the employment relationship. Union organizing strategies need to reinforce union values and build solidarities across groups which are more complex and heterogeneous than in the past.