Power Distance
Introduction:
In 1980, Social psychologist Greet Hofstede has developed “Cultural Dimension Theory” using the huge data collected from 117,000 IBM employees during 1967 to 1973. He has first focused on 40 largest countries and then extended his research to 50 countries and 3 regions.
This initial analysis identified systematic differences in national cultures on four primary dimensions: power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), uncertainty avoidance (UAI) and masculinity (MAS), which are described below. As Hofstede explains on his academic website, these dimensions regard “four anthropological problem areas that different national societies handle differently: ways of coping with inequality, ways of coping with uncertainty, the relationship of the individual with her or his primary group, and the emotional implications of having been born as a girl or as a boy ”. In 1980 he published Culture 's Consequences, a book which combines the statistical analysis from the survey research with his personal experiences.
Power Distance Index is one of the dimensions which measures the extent to which people in an organization or institution expect or accept the power is distributed unequally. This has immense role to play in decision making and explaining the behaviour of employees in organization. Since as people in organization accepts more inequality of power they become more submissive and authoritative way of decision making prevail, whereas more collaborative decision making will prevail if people accepts less inequality.
Published in 1980, this research has published in the era when global trade was on the rise and companies were expanding their geo footprints. It has helped organizations in designing various strategies for to handle cross cultural communication within and outside the companies, design marketing strategies, employee empowerment, negotiations and cross cultural leadership.
Power Distance has helped tremendously in understanding behaviour of
In 1980, Social psychologist Greet Hofstede has developed “Cultural Dimension Theory” using the huge data collected from 117,000 IBM employees during 1967 to 1973. He has first focused on 40 largest countries and then extended his research to 50 countries and 3 regions.
This initial analysis identified systematic differences in national cultures on four primary dimensions: power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), uncertainty avoidance (UAI) and masculinity (MAS), which are described below. As Hofstede explains on his academic website, these dimensions regard “four anthropological problem areas that different national societies handle differently: ways of coping with inequality, ways of coping with uncertainty, the relationship of the individual with her or his primary group, and the emotional implications of having been born as a girl or as a boy ”. In 1980 he published Culture 's Consequences, a book which combines the statistical analysis from the survey research with his personal experiences.
Power Distance Index is one of the dimensions which measures the extent to which people in an organization or institution expect or accept the power is distributed unequally. This has immense role to play in decision making and explaining the behaviour of employees in organization. Since as people in organization accepts more inequality of power they become more submissive and authoritative way of decision making prevail, whereas more collaborative decision making will prevail if people accepts less inequality.
Published in 1980, this research has published in the era when global trade was on the rise and companies were expanding their geo footprints. It has helped organizations in designing various strategies for to handle cross cultural communication within and outside the companies, design marketing strategies, employee empowerment, negotiations and cross cultural leadership.
Power Distance has helped tremendously in understanding behaviour of