Cultural Dimensions

Each person no matter from what part of the world has his or her unique personality, history and interests. Yet all members of a group ( society) share a common culture that tells us how we should behave (moral laws) in the society in other to be accepted, influence the way we live and our daily activities . How we dress, we talk, our work habits, the music we hear, the food we eat are things that make up our culture.

So how compatible are cultures around the world??

During the conference by Nick Mayer about cultural diversity, he talked about the Geert Hofstede model of cultural dimensions. This model includes five independent dimensions of national differences:
• Power Distance
• Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Masculinity vs. Femininity
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Confucian Dynamism

I`m going to focus on the first dimension which is power distance and show a clear example of it when dealing with different cultures.

Power distances index (PDI) refer to “the extend to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept and suppose that power is distributed unequally.” (Mayer, 2010). In other words how much a culture does or does not value hierarchical relationships and respect for authority. It can also describe the relationship that the persons within an organization have with each other and the acceptance of the powers that they have (for example that employees accept that their superiors has more power that they have). This dimension is divides in two: countries with high or low PD.

Countries with high PD share these characteristics: (Mayer, 2010)
• Those in authority openly demonstrate their rank.
• Subordinates are not given important work and expect clear guidance from above.
• Subordinates are expected to take the blame for things going wrong.
• Hierarchical organizational, vertical distributions of power.

On the other hand countries with low PD are:
• Flat organizations
• Responsibilities between members are delegated.
• Subordinates are entrusted with important assignments.
• Blame is shared between the members.

Now that we have a better concept of this dimension here are some examples:

• In South Korea they have a high power distance which means that they show a lot of respect for the people that have power. For example you always have to do what an elder person tells you to do, even if you don’t want to, just for respect (if they invite you to a drink, you must accept even if you don’t like it). When a child speaks to his parents or grandparents he must do it in a different way that when he talks to his friends. They use different words depending on the age of the person.

• Another example is that Chinese people never disagree with the decisions taken by the authority (their government), even if they live under poor conditions.

• .In American culture children are treated as “little adults.” They express their opinions, are allowed to contradict their parents and say what they want or don’t want.