What Is Collective Consciousness?

Collective consciousness refers to the collective members' awareness and recognition of the collective goals, beliefs, values and norms. It shows that members consciously require themselves in accordance with collective norms, personal interests are subordinate to collective interests, and have a sense of responsibility, honor and pride. Groups with strong collective consciousness generally have the following characteristics: (1) appropriate leadership methods; (2) members consciously maintain collective honor. The main conditions are: (1) there must be common interests and goals; (2) reasonable rules and reward systems; (3) naturally formed mass leaders; (4) friendship and mutual assistance. ^[1]

The actual manifestation of collective consciousness is often collective unconsciousness. Its acceptance of certain types of behaviors and behaviors are the result of long-term subtle influences, which often manifest as natural compliance and unconditional acceptance.

The collective identity comes from the experience of human collective life in ancient times. The harsh natural environment in ancient times forced humans to live and act collectively. Leaving the collective means the individual's demise. This life experience is deeply imprinted in the human brain and slowly turns into a collective unconsciousness that penetrates into the human subconscious. Collective consciousness can be said to be the instinct of human beings.

In organizations, collective consciousness generally includes two levels:

One is the collective consciousness of individual members within the organization;

The second is the collective consciousness of the members of the organization.

In general, the individual consciousness corresponds to the collective consciousness. In the nineteenth century, British literary descriptions of individual human consciousness awakened by Defoe "Robinson Crusoe" tried to prove the potential of individual consciousness, but proved the potential of collective consciousness. This is illustrated in the first volume of Marx's Capital. ^[2]

Collective consciousness is a person's collective conceptual view of self-existence. It is an important part of the thinking mode and content of his thought structure. It has three important connotations:

Collective consciousness

Collective is a group, called a set in the field of mathematics. But the collective is not a piece of sand. It has obvious organization. On the one hand, the organization of the collective is manifested as its purpose is to ensure the satisfaction of personal material and spiritual needs and the comprehensive development of talents; on the other hand, it is characterized by the status, roles, rights and obligations of its members. There are clear stipulations that each member defines his place in the collective and his survival value according to the individual's contribution and responsibility when performing social and service functions. The organization of the collective is to connect people together through their own life activities, that is, by having management institutions. Therefore, members of the collective have a natural obedience to the collective, and must deal with certain organizational principles when dealing with the relationship between individuals and individuals, individuals and groups.

Collective consciousness

The common goal is the integrated characteristics of the collective internal linkage system. The reason why some independent individuals are consciously combined together is different from animal clusters because there is an internal connection between these individuals, that is, they have a common interest goal. If any individual in the collective does not work for the common good, it will endanger its existence and development. Therefore, the goal is the root of collective cohesion.

The target consciousness is manifested on the one hand as feeling the warmth of the collective; on the other hand, it is manifesting as feeling the collective dominance of the collective. The collective that cannot make members form such a consciousness is a fictional collective. This fictional collective does not represent the true general interests of society, nor does it represent the individual interests of members who belong to this collective.

Collective consciousness

Collective is the sum of interpersonal relationships mediated by the content of collective activity and its value, Schutz, an American psychologist. Everyone has the need for interpersonal communication and the establishment of a certain interpersonal relationship. There are three types of this need: one is the need for tolerance, that is, the desire to communicate with others, and the desire to establish and maintain a harmonious relationship; the second is the need to control, that is, in On the basis of rights, I hope others make some good adjustments. Third, emotional needs, that is, the desire to establish and maintain a good relationship with others emotionally. ^[3]