Individualist versus collectivist antecedents and consequents of work and personal values of Canadian Anglophone and Francophone managers

The goal of this two-part study was to investigate the associative logic, or connotative meaning, of certain values to Canadian Anglophone and Francophone male middle managers in the public and private sectors. Past value-ranking studies of Canadian managers and university students have tended to explain value-ranking differences between these ethnolinguistic groups in terms of individualism and collectivism. Specifically, Francophones have been described as more collectivist (e.g. more concerned with affiliation and family concerns) and Anglophones as more individualist (e.g. more achievement-oriented in the business world). In the present study, this individualist-collectivist explanation served as a testable hypothesis, rather than as an ex post facto explanation. This was done using a modified version of Triandis' (1972) antecedent-consequent method. Subjects gave associations to 21 work and personal values, reporting antecedents (what leads to) and consequents (what results from) for each value. In Study 1, 86 Anglophone and 82 Francophone managers provided antecedents and consequents to the values in a free-response questionnaire. In Study 2, a different but comparable group of 80 Anglophone and 94 Francophone managers completed a multiple-choice questionnaire based on high-frequency responses given in Study 1. These four groups were simultaneously matched on age, years work experience, SES, fathers' SES and quality of "other-ethnic" contact. Chi-square results indicated that for 36 out of 42 value comparisons (21 antecedents and 21 consequents) or 86% of the value stimuli, no replicated significant differences (across Study 1 and 2) were found in the number of individualist-collectivist responses given by Anglophone and Francophone managers. Moreover, a Pearson's correlation calculated on the overall frequency of individualist and collectivist responses across the value set showed that the two managerial groups had a similar individualist-collectivist understanding (r =.92, p $<$.01). It was thus concluded that, in general, Anglophone and Francophone managers in this study shared a similar individualist-collectivist understanding of most of the 21 values. This overall similarity was discussed primarily in terms of the social change that has occurred in Quebec over the past 15 years, such as the greater presence of Francophones in business schools and in the ranks of management. With growing similarity in managerial experience, Anglophone and Francophone managers may have become more similar in their individualist-collectivist understanding, compared with 10 to 15 years ago, when value-ranking studies observed group differences.