PEOPLE.IDEAS.PERFORMANCE

77 benefit may accrue to a single individual, organization, or country, the collective knows that the collective is stronger as a whole when all of the individual people, organizations are as healthy and well. Informal cooperation must be built on a mutual sense of trust and respect for the others in the collective. Trust builds over time as each member of the collective demonstrates integrity in being who he/she/it says that he/she/it is and through credibility in doing/performing according to what was needed in each past situation. Written agreements are rarely needed, other than mutual notes of what is needed and by when. Formal cooperation, according to Smith, Carroll, and Ashford (1995) is based on formal rules and binding written obligations. Workplace procedures manuals can require cooperation without the consideration of the common good or the need for internal personal values of providing the greatest good for the community. Formal cooperation is characterized by formal hierarchical flow of communication. Performance appraisal, evaluation, and rewards are at the individual level, even if employees operate within a group/team environment. When cooperation is formal the focus is on the outcomes rather than the relationships. Meetings are focused on the task at hand with a minimum of personal relationship building conversation. Discussion of group/team accomplishments includes recognition of individuals in the group/team rather than a collective. Employees may be asked to leave a group/team and join another group/team without consideration of the personal impact of leaving the former collective. When cooperation is formal employees are motivated to perform by the individual rewards that they may receive and how important those rewards are to the individual, similar to the Vroom’s Expectancy Theory elements of Expectancy (the bel ief that increased effort leads to increased reward), Instrumentality (the belief that the reward will occur), and Valance (the belief that the reward is valuable to the individual) (Vroom, 1964). Formal cooperation at the organizational level can, and does, occur at both the intra and inter-organizational environment. Intra-organizational cooperation occurs when multiple departments must work together to meet the organization’s objectives such as can be observed in constructing a building, designing a new automobile, etc. Inter-organizational cooperation can be observed when governments create laws mandating a change in an industry such as reducing pollution or increasing safety. Competing firms may need to work together to help each other meet the mandated changes by the deadline and to contain the costs of the change as much as possible. At the societal level formal cooperation can occur as a result of negotiated trade treaties or immigration quotas. At this level the decisions are usually not concurred upon by the individuals of each society by representatives of each society. Since trust is not as high in formal cooperation as found in informal cooperation there is a need for all parties to have evidence of compliance shared with all of the involved soci eties. The euphemism of ‘trust but verify’ is an inaccurate statement since it is because of the lack of trust that verification of conformance to the agreed upon treaty or quota has occurred. Communication, as it is at the individual and organizational level is formal, without much regard for relationships between the involved parties. ,1',9,'8$/,60 &2//(&7,9,60 , & This section addresses Hofstede’s cultural dimension of Individualism/Collectivism and how it facilitates either informal or formal cooperation. Hofstede (2001) defined Individualism/Collectivism as the continuum from group focus to individual focus. Hofstede used a 0-100 scale to describe nations and regions on each of his six dimensions. Low scores