POWER DISTANCE
According to Professor Emeritus Geert Hofstede of the Maastricht University in Holland, there are five intercultural dimensions that help to predict how a person from a country will behave in a given situation. These dimensions are Power Distance Index, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-Term Orientation.
The power distance index refers to the acceptance and expectance of individuals that power is distributed unequally. I understand this like how much the culture value hierarchical relationships and respect for authority. (Authority is not in coercive authority). And will depend also on the difference of the acquisition capacity between the people from a country. For me, goes also, in the distance that a normal employee would have with his boss or superiors. And in which hands are the decision making. Sometimes the boss is the only one who can take decisions.
So the example that comes to my head is a foreign employee from a multinational being transfer from one country to another. Let’s take to countries, Colombia in one hand which has a high power distance index around 70 and Switzerland which has the power distance index around 40.
Taking to account that in Colombia the boss should take the decisions according to what Hofstede explains, this employee transferred to Switzerland would be into troubles as soon as his new boss ask him for decisions, he is use to do his work but the one in charge of the decisions is his boss. So there might be a misunderstanding because his new boss will be expecting more security from the employee from Colombia in the decision making process.
