I have a question that has been rattling around in my head for a while. Based on my, admittedly limited, understanding of the concept the US and most Western nations are individualist societies but the militaries that serve them (the ones I have worked with anyway) tend to be more collectivist in nature. That is natural. Military members have to be able to depend on each other absolutely. The group must act as a group and individualism must necessarily be suppressed. The mindset of an average military member with regards to group dynamics tends to be very different than the mindset of the average civilian, at least in my, again limited, experience. I saw this especially when I have worked on inter-agency projects. I noticed that the other agencies had more a corporate culture, and hence more of an individualist culture. As a result, the military members and the inter-agency partners we were working with sometimes had difficulty understanding each other to some extent. Each existed in a culture that was totally foreign to the other.

Now, assuming that I have not totally misunderstood the concepts, I was wondering if there had ever been any studies on the subject, specifically studies that would be available online and are not too dense or technical for a layperson to understand.

Thanks.