Power Distance Essay

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3.1 Power distance Power distance refers to the expectation that the less powerful members of the society expect power to be unequally distributed. Power distance is measured by an index. High power index means that the juniors expect seniors to wield more power and their directions and decisions may be questionable (Vinken, 2004 p. 66). People are reverential to those in power or position of authority. 3.2 Uncertainty avoidance Uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent a culture has programmed its members to remain comfortable or uncomfortable in unstructured or structured situation. This dimension refers to how a culture teaches people to handle uncertainty and stress. It is measures using the uncertainty index. 3.3 Collectivism v/s individualism …show more content…

Men are supposed to be focused on the goal and competitive. Women, on the other hand, are encouraged to focus on relationship. The degree of gender distinction in terms of roles differs across countries. Countries score highly on masculinity index and other low (James, P 67). Low masculinity index indicates there is a preference for cooperation in the workplace, good relationship with the boss, belief in-group decision making, promoting merit, preference for smaller cooperation, and lower job stress. In high masculine index countries, there are challenges and recognition for a job, belief in individual decisions, higher job stress, and preference for large corporations. Masculinity index therefore measures the extent to which a society prefers traditional characters associated men such as competition, recognition, etc. most developing countries score highly on the masculinity index (Hartmann, p. …show more content…

Australia is culturally western and therefore it would be expected to score low on power distance index. According to data by Hofstede, Australia has a 36 percent of power distance index. Pakistan on the other hand scores 55 percent (The Hofstede Center). In essence, Pakistan has a higher power distance index. Australian culture in this regard is more egalitarian as people working in a workplace expect to relate to each other as equals regardless of position. Cooperation increases when employees regard each other as equals (Appadurai, 1996 p.67). A junior Australian employee can easily access his or her superior easily, but that is not the case in Pakistan. In Pakistan, people acknowledge a person based on their position, making is hard for junior employees to relate with their seniors

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