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Lead Section

Power Distance Paragraph

           Without regards to the same level of respect of high-power distance cultures, additional justification is often query among those in low power distance societies. Research has also indicated that before any other relationships in a business can be established, a cross-cultural relationship must be created first. These are the interactions and feelings conveyed between people of different cultures.

Geert Hofstede Paragraph

''' He was the first to conduct a major cross-cultural study on power distance. His studies have covered “over 100,000 surveys from more than 60 countries. ''' He was the first to conduct a major cross-country study on power distance which spanned fifty different countries and thousands of employees from a major corporation. In this study, Hofstede distributed questionnaires to various IBM employees in different countries, asking if they were afraid to disagree with their superiors. He observed different power distance levels and management styles observed during his studies. Hofstede used his findings to propose four cultural dimensions: individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. These dimensions were described in his work, “Culture’s Consequences”. He created the Power Distance Index to measure whether a country has high, moderate, or low power distance.

Under the section “Cultural Dimensions Theory” at the end of the paragraph. This is a new paragraph.

Hofstede's theory identified six dimensions of culture, which are power distance, individualism vs collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity vs femininity, short-term vs long-term orientation, and indulgence vs self-restraint.

Currently, research has suggested that power distance can vary from culture to culture. This can be prevalent especially in international corporations. A recent study found that employees are more inclined to speak up under leaders deemed to be humble by their employees. Humility is a trait often associated with low-power distance cultures. The study found that an employee’s self-conceptualization of power determined not only their workplace voice, but the humility of their superior, as well. An environment such as this would also be akin to the collectivism dimension that Hofstede proposed.

New Paragraph in the “Effects on Employee Behavior” Section

In the realm of business, Power Distance can be defined as the acceptance (by employees) of the relationship between the highest and lowest ranked members in an organization Studies have suggested that employees in low-power distance workplaces directly impact the distribution of office power. This could be due in part to the employees possessing more power (and therefore, more freedom to make changes) than in a high-power distance setting. In addition, the opposite has been suggested for employees in high power distance environments, with superiors not varying much in their position. Culture can have an effect on this, as lower-level employees in high power distance cultures might not be able to have a large impact on their workplace.

In high power distance regions, people in the higher positions hold great amounts of power with little challenge.