High Power Distance Research Articles

Career Blockades to Women’s Advancement to Positions of Authority: The role of Power Distance, Emotional Labour and Social Dominance Orientation

Despite several efforts to address gender inequality in the workplace, women’s participation in managerial positions is still low, globally and gender-related power imbalances in the workplace continues to persist. This study explores the influence of emotional labour, power distance and social dominance orientation (SDO) on attitudes towards women in high ranking jobs. The study adopted a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. A total of 315 employees across a wide range of the industrial sector in Southern part of Nigeria participated in the study. Data was gathered using a structured questionnaire and analysed using a three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent samples t-test and hierarchical regression analysis. Findings revealed that emotional labour, power distance and social dominance orientation independently and jointly influenced attitudes towards women in high ranking jobs. (f [1, 315] =17.611; p<.05). Employees with perceived low power distance (x ̅=89.66, SD=18.68) and low social dominance orientation (x ̅=94.73, SD=20.45) significantly reported more favourable attitudes towards women in high status jobs than employees with perceived high power distance (x ̅=72.16, SD=17.04) and high social dominance orientation (x ̅=70.85, SD=12.91). Power distance, social dominance orientation and emotional labour are important in the examination of attitude towards women in positions of authority. It is therefore suggested that trainings and media campaigns to change perceptions be intensified.

Job Hopping among Millennial Journalists: Sharing Malaysian Experiences

The employment sector around the world including Malaysia has seen an increasing involvement of millennial generation workers, however, millennial is also being described as frequent job hoppers compared to the previous generation. Millennials are easily leave their organizations less than two years. There is still a lack of knowledge on the real causes of job hopping in collectivist and high power distance society. In this study, six (6) deliberately selected journalists were interviewed and data were analysed using thematic. The findings revealed four main themes: (i) career development; (ii) salary; (iii) work-life balance; and (iv) organization justice, crucial towards preventing millennial journalist from job hopping A proposed concept was presented to explain the job hopping scenario amongst millennial journalists.

Phenomenology of the scientific system of Kazakhstan: a study of social and economic effects through the Hofstede’s five-dimensional model of cultural space and beyond

The cultural model of science and the scientific system of Kazakhstan are theorized and updated for the first time in our research, and this study extends Hofstede’s five-dimensional model of cultural space specifically in the context of the scientific system. The methodology involves employing Hofstede’s dimensions – Power Distance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-Term versus Short-Term Orientation – as a heuristic tool to evaluate the attributes of scientific culture in Kazakhstan. In this way, we shed light on how scientists in Kazakhstan interact with the prevailing cultural norms and expectations, offering a detailed view of culturally embedded scientific practices. To clarify, the five dimensions are adapted in the following manner: Firstly, Scientific Power Distance pertains to the degree of hierarchical authority within scientific institutions. High power distance in this setting implies a significant disparity between junior and senior researchers, thereby affecting the dynamics of collaboration and innovation. Secondly, Scientific Individualism-Collectivism measures the extent to which the scientific culture either fosters individual achievement and originality or prioritizes group cooperation. Thirdly, Scientific Masculinity-Femininity assesses the predominance of either competitive (Masculine) or collaborative (Feminine) traits within the scientific community. Fourthly, Scientific Uncertainty Avoidance deals with the community’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, indicating whether there’s a preference for structured environments. Lastly, Scientific Long-Term Orientation gauges the focus of scientific endeavors, whether they aim for immediate outputs or invest in long-term research. The Kazakhstan scientific system is thus situated within this adapted framework of five dimensions, providing an intricate mapping of how cultural attributes impact scientific pursuits in the country. The importance of cultural phenomenology in the scientific domain comes from its focus on the observation and interpretation of the cultural factors that influence scientific thinking, progress, and implementation. It recognizes that science is not an isolated activity but is deeply entrenched in societal and cultural systems. In the specific context of Kazakhstan, a country experiencing rapid socio-economic changes, the scientific system is not only shaped by various facets of cultural identity but also makes substantial contributions to socio-economic development. Regarding the empirical findings of this study, the data illustrates the profound economic impact of the scientific system in Kazakhstan. From increased R&D investment to job creation and attracting significant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the scientific system appears to make a direct and meaningful contribution to the nation’s economic growth and development. In conclusion, these findings suggest that there is a positive trajectory for the scientific culture in Kazakhstan, contributing both to socio-economic conditions and to the global scientific community.

Power distance: Moderating effect on positive youth development in Malaysian co-curricular programs

Few studies have explored the effects of sociocultural factors on program quality in the context of positive youth development (PYD) programs. This is of relevance to countries known for high power distance between youth and adults. The current study explored the moderating effect of perceived power distance orientation on the relationship between youth program quality and the six C's of PYD. A partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was tested among 436 first-year undergraduate co-curricular program participants from public universities in Malaysia (M = 21.192 years, SD = 1.191 years; 65.6% female). Youth voice, supportive adult relationships, and program engagement positively predicted PYD, while feelings of safety did not. Power distance had no moderating effect on PYD. The findings extend support for the importance of program quality on PYD in non-WEIRD youth program settings and point to the need for further inquiry on PYD program practices in diverse sociocultural settings.

A Contrastive Study on Image Repair Strategies in Chinese and American Corporate Apologies

Nowadays, frequently-happening wrongdoings have seriously damaged the corporate image and threatened the survival of corporations. For companies in crises, an appropriate apology has become a vital strategy to repair corporate image. Remarkable achievements have been made in the contrastive study of corporate apologies, but there is still much to be explored about Chinese and American corporate apologies. Therefore, this paper investigates the differences of the image repair strategies employed in Chinese and American corporate apologies, in order to help corporations handle crises in a cross-cultural context. With AntConc 2019, the paper first analyzes the major linguistic devices in 100 Chinese and American corporate apologies, and then finds out the differences of image repair strategies and the underlying factors through qualitative analysis, based on Benoit’s image repair strategies and Adaptation Theory. The results show that (1) Chinese companies show their solemnity and sincerity in the crisis through person deixis such as company and customer and strengtheners such as again, seriously and first time, while American companies use more demonstrative pronouns like this, these and it, and politeness words like please, hope and thank to mitigate crisis conflicts. Meanwhile, when providing compensation and follow-up services, American ones would use if-conditionals to control the cost of the apology. (2) Reducing offensiveness and Mortification are the two most commonly used strategies, respectively accounting for 37.7% and 36.3%. In mortification, asking for forgiveness is often used in American corporate apologies (11.3%), while accepting the blame is more common in Chinese corporate apologies (11.1%). When reducing offensiveness, Chinese corporations would choose bolstering (20.9%) and transcendence (10.5%), while American ones prefer compensation (17.6%) and valuing the customer (13.9%). (3) Chinese culture emphasizes collectivism and high-power distance, while American culture emphasizes individualism and low-power distance, which accounts for the difference of image repair strategies in Chinese and American corporate apologies. This paper can act as a complement to the contrastive research on American and Chinese corporate apologies and provide references for corporate communication in a cross-cultural context.

How transformational leadership influences employees’ job-related outcomes through public service motivation: Does power distance orientation matter?

The goal of this research is to examine the influence of transformational leadership (TL) on employees’ job-related outcomes, noting the mediating roles of public service motivation (PSM) as well as the moderating effect of power distance orientation (PDO). Surveys were collected from 605 civil servants currently working in local governments in Vietnam and the researcher used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique with SmartPLS 3.0 software to test hypotheses. The findings showed that there was a positive influence of transformational leadership on employees’ work outcomes; this relationship was mediated partially through public service motivation. Also, the finding revealed the moderating effects of power distance orientation on the effect of perceived transformational leadership on public service motivation, job satisfaction, and job performance. Civil servants with high power distance orientation tended to dampen the positive relationship between transformational leadership and public service motivation which led to decreased job satisfaction and job performance. Based on the findings, it is recommended that managers or leaders in Vietnamese local governments should apply transformational leadership in practice to improve the level of employee work outcomes. Finally, this study broadens new knowledge to the existing literature on transformational leadership and job-related outcomes by proposing an alternative model of how this relationship exists. Besides, the findings showed that although transformational leaders can lead to good behavioral outcomes, high power distance orientation could mitigate this benefit.

International retailer performance: Disentangling the interplay between rule of law and culture

Understanding the complexity of institutional factors in host countries and adapting strategies accordingly is crucial for international retailers, given the high failure rate of global operations. This paper investigates the impact of formal institutions (i.e., legal environments) and informal institutions (i.e., cultural values) on the performance of international retailers. We analyzed the data on 144 international retailers and 565 subsidiaries owned by these retailers, using three measures of retailer performance: sales per square meter, return on equity, and Tobin's Q. Our findings show that retailer performance is influenced by the interactions of the host country's rule of law and three cultural dimensions. Specifically, strong rule of law enhances the performance of international retailers in host countries, especially with high power distance or high uncertainty avoidance. In highly collectivistic countries, retailers can also build strong relationships to govern transactions. Results provide key insights that explain international retailers’ performance in different countries and deliver guidelines for retailer strategies.

How objectifiers are granted power in the workplace

AbstractObjectification often has profound negative consequences for its victims, yet we argue that objectification may have positive ancillary implications for the perpetrators. Drawing from system justification theory, we posit that, especially in organizations characterized by higher power distance, objectifying supervisors would be afforded more power by their subordinates because they would deem such behaviour as more typical (i.e., descriptive justification) and more desirable (i.e., prescriptive justification). The results of two experiments (N = 443 and N = 211) showed that high (vs. low) power distance subordinates afforded less power to a non‐objectifying supervisor (but not more power to an objectifying supervisor), and that prescriptive justification (but not descriptive justification) mediated the interaction effect of objectification and power distance on power affordance. In a field survey with dyads of supervisors and subordinates (N = 122), we found that subordinates with relatively high power distance orientations afforded power to their objectifying supervisors through prescriptive justification. Our research contributes to objectification literature by demonstrating when and how supervisor objectification can be rationalized and perpetuated through granting objectifiers power.

How does authentic leadership promote taking charge: The mediating effect of team social capital and the moderating effect of absorptive capacity.

Authentic leaders are consistent with the expectations of Chinese traditional cultural values for leaders. The purpose of this study is to take team internal social capital (TISC) as the mediating variable and individual absorptive capacity as the moderating variable to explore the relationship between authentic leadership and taking charge. We collected 337 questionnaires from China and used linear regression to explore the influencing mechanisms and boundary conditions. The study results showed that the trickle-down of authentic leadership and the trickle-round of TISC can directly promote employees' taking charge. Further, individual absorptive capacity positively moderated the relationship between TISC and taking charge. Our study provides a new perspective of leadership support for employees to implement taking charge in the context of high-power distance in China. From the perspective of authentic leadership, it is verified that leadership support is a necessary condition to motivate employees to implement proactive behavior. Moreover, compared with the research on the influence of leadership on proactive behavior, team-related and organization-related factors have not received enough attention. According to the social learning theory, we constructed an integrated framework for the first time in which leadership, team, and individual jointly affect taking charge.

Board gender diversity and firm performance: new evidence from cultural diversity in the boardroom

PurposeThis study extends the current literature in the context of European countries by showing that women's participation on the board can enhance the financial performance of a company while moderated by many cultural factors.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines 19 European countries throughout the period 2010–2020. The time-invariant or individual fixed-effect models are used.FindingsThe authors found that high power distance and masculinity undermine the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance. The gender-diverse board reports a statistically significant negative impact on return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) while moderated by the power distance index.Originality/valueThis research will be of significant value to the board directors, practitioners and the concerned authority who desire to polish up the firm performance of European countries that are governed by cultural norms.

When gullibility becomes us: exploring the cultural roots of Indonesians’ susceptibility to investment fraud

PurposeThis paper aims to explore various cultural and behavioral issues associated with the problem of investment fraud in Indonesia.Design/methodology/approachBy examining multiple cases of investment fraud in Indonesia as well as reviewing publicly available government reports, this study highlights several important cultural and behavioral issues associated with the susceptibility of Indonesian financial services consumers to investment fraud to understand better the dynamics of the victimization process. By using multiple cultural and behavioral theories, this study demonstrates how such issues shape the interactions between investment fraudsters and investment fraud victims.FindingsThis study demonstrates that multiple cultural and behavioral factors have created and shaped an environment where fraudsters can exploit people’s behavioral loopholes for their fraudulent schemes. In particular, the high power distance and high collectivism have been identified by this study as contributing to the high level of materialism in the country, which in turn makes people more susceptible to the temptation of get-rich-quick schemes. Investment fraudsters, being students of human behavior, use their behavioral knowledge to devise various means to deceive their victims. They use multiple psychological principles to stimulate target victims “gullibility to make them more vulnerable to fraudulent persuasion. In many cases, even financially literate people are not immune to fraudsters” deceitful messages. This study highlights gullibility production as a foundation for investment fraudsters to devise their means by which victims are manipulated to accept certain beliefs that depart from facts and evidence.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes to the innovation in anti-fraud practice by building a better understanding of multiple cultural and behavioral issues associated with investment fraud victimization.Originality/valueThis paper brings a new perspective into the field of anti-fraud to stimulate innovation, in particular in investment fraud prevention.

Moderation impact of national culture on international firm’s environmental, social, governance and financial performance

We examine whether country-level national culture dimensions might moderate an international firm’s environmental, social, governance performance to strengthen or weaken its financial performance based on the Institutional Difference Hypothesis. We find that low power distance, high individualism, high masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgent national culture would moderate a firm’s environmental, social, governance performance to strengthen its financial performance further. On the contrary, high power distance, collectivism (low individualism), feminine, low uncertainty avoidance, short-term orientation, and restraint dimensions would be expected to weaken a firm’s financial performance by discouraging firms from undertaking superior environmental, social, governance performance. GLOBE’s findings such as low power distance, collectivistic institutional and in-group national culture, high uncertainty avoidance, future orientation, all report a significant positive moderation impact on a firm’s environmental, social, governance performance to strengthen its financial performance further. However, high gender-egalitarian national culture and high assertiveness would negatively moderate firm’s financial performance and environmental, social, governance performance. Overall, we think that our findings would further propagate the institutional difference hypothesis as we observe that each of our studied national culture dimensions would moderate firm’s environmental, social, governance performance and financial performance associations significantly.

Assessing the Connections among Top Management Support, IT Assimilation, and the Business Value of IT: A Meta-Analysis

Scholars and practitioners have long tried to understand the antecedents and consequences of information technology (IT) assimilation. Studies suggest that top management support is an important driver of IT assimilation; however, this broad takeaway provides little substantive guidance to researchers and practitioners. We also have a limited understanding of whether and when IT assimilation creates business value. We take stock of this literature with a meta-analysis. We found that top management support is positively related to IT assimilation, and assimilation is in turn positively related to the business value of IT. We also found that explicit support does not have any special effect on IT assimilation (compared to implicit support) and may not be related to business value at all. However, our results indicate that IT assimilation has a stronger effect on business value at the process level (versus firm level) and for enterprise IT innovations (versus function IT innovations). Finally, we found that support-assimilation and assimilation-value relationships are stronger in high (versus low) power distance cultures. Our collective findings can facilitate future research and help practitioners navigate IT assimilation initiatives.

The Influence of Ethical Leadership on Employee Silence

Differences in leadership styles influence employees' behavioural choices, and employees' attitudes towards the organization influence the development of the organization. This paper explores the mechanism between ethical leadership and employee silence , and introduces two variables, organizational identification and power distance orientation, organizational identification as mediating variables between ethical leadership and employee silence, and power distance orientation as moderating variables between ethical leadership and employee silence .The results show that ethical leadership positively influences employees' organizational identification and negatively influences employee silence .Compared with high power distance orientation, employees with low power distance orientation can effectively reduce employee silence. Thus, the mechanism clarified the connection between ethical leadership and employee silence. In this way, this paper provides some insight into the subsequent management practice of the company.

Research on the Change of Cultural Values in Clothing Company Brand Slogans

The brand slogan change is an important measure to adjust the brand image and maintain the brand’s vitality in the fierce market competition. Clothing is both a product of culture and a carrier of culture, and changes in clothing company brand slogans are closely related to changes in consumer culture. This study selects clothing company brand slogans that have changed in the Chinese market in the last 20 years (2000-2019) and adopts a combination of statistical analysis and content analysis to discuss the trends and characteristics of brand slogans in the process of change from the perspective of cultural values. It was found that: (1) the individualism, collectivism, and high power distance presented by Chinese clothing companies’ brand slogans increased significantly between the two successive decades during the change process; the low uncertainty avoidance presented by them decreased significantly between the two successive decades; while low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and feminism did not change significantly. (2) Among the cultural value claims, the claim “Succorance” in collectivism is found to have increased significantly, while the claim “Plain” in low power distance has decreased significantly. The remaining 28 demands did not change significantly. This paper enriches the discussion of brand slogan change from the perspective of cultural values. When designing a new brand slogan, clothing companies need to anticipate the current consumer culture in the context of the times to develop a brand slogan that is in line with consumer values.

Local Heroes Leadership: A Key for Nurturing Climate Village Program Initiatives in High Power Distance Culture (Case Study in Talangbubuk South Sumatera)

Local Heroes Leadership: A Key for Nurturing Climate Village Program Initiatives in High Power Distance Culture (Case Study in Talangbubuk South Sumatera)

Examining Organizational Communication in Terms of Relationships Between Organizational Dissent, Perceived Organizational Power Distance and Psychological Capital

Objectives: Employees' job satisfaction and organizational commitment is very important for the steady growth and development of an organization. Today, with the increase in the competitive environment, the attempts of organizations to understand how to ensure this stability have also increased. Also, it is seen that the high psychological capital of the employees and their dissent behavior increase the performance, while the high organizational power distance both reduces the performance and constitutes an obstacle in exhibiting the organizational dissent behavior. It is known that one of the most important factors contributing to the growth and development of organizations is that employees’ expression of the problems that arise in the functioning of the organization and their dissatisfaction. There are many individual, relational and organizational factors that affect organizational dissent, which expresses the ability of employees to express their views openly. One of the individual factors is the psychological capital level of the employees, and one of the organizational factors is the perceived organizational power distance. The concept of psychological capital expresses the individual's awareness of who he is and his cognitive capacity. Positive psychological capital has defined as a new movement that goes beyond economic capital, which refers to what we have, human capital, which refers to what we know, and social capital, which refers to who we know, to express who we are. According to this approach, discovering the strengths of individuals and enabling them to reveal these strengths in the most effective way contributes to individual well-being, while positively reflecting on performance and increasing productivity. Positive psychological capital provides competitive advantage by enriching the knowledge and human capital at the individual and organizational level. Organizational power distance is related to how the power balance in the subordinate-superior relationship is perceived. The concept of power distance was first aimed to explain the structure of societies. In the concept of organizational power distance, the inequality of power distribution between superiors and subordinates in organizations is mentioned. The participation of the members of the organization in organizational decisions, the level of initiative and responsibility also express the power distance. Studies have shown that high psychological capital increases organizational dissent behavior, while high power distance reduces dissent behavior. Accordingly, this research aimed to give insight for organizational communication by examining the relationships between perceived organizational power distance, psychological capital and organizational dissent. 
 
 Design/methodology/approach: The sample of the study consists of 300 participants who voluntarily participated in the study with the snowball sampling method. Demographic form, organizational power distance scale, organizational dissent scale and psychological capital scale were used to gather data.
 
 Results: Findings showed that there is a significant and positive relationship between organizational dissent and psychological capital. Also it has founded that there is a negative significant relationship between organizational power distance and psychological capital, organizational dissent. 
 
 Practical implications: This research draws attention to the importance of individual factors such as psychological capital in organizational communication. It provides an empirical basis for the initiatives of workplaces to increase the psychological capital levels of their employees. In addition, by drawing attention to the spread of organizational dissent culture, it paves the way for organizations to conduct cultural analysis.
 
 Originality/value: In the Turkish sample, organizational dissent, perceived organizational power distance and psychology capital concepts are evaluated together and it has a unique value in terms of being a research that reveals empirical data with quantitative study.

Power Distance, Collectivism and Corruption: An Analysis Using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Index and Corruption Perception Index

Purpose – Among the many factors affecting corruption, cultural factors cannot be overlooked. This study examines if there is any relationship between culture and corruption. For this purpose, Hofstede’s cultural dimension index and the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 116 countries were used. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study used secondary data published by two institutions: Hofstede Insights and Transparency International. First, the latest Power Distance Index (PDI) and Individualism Index (IDV) of 116 countries were obtained from Hofstede Insights. Second, the latest 2021 CPI of 116 countries was gained from Transparency International. Two hypotheses were developed. To examine the relationship between the variables, a correlation analysis was adopted. Findings – According to the analysis results, hypothesis 1 received statistical support indicating more corruption tends to occur in countries with high power distance culture. Hypothesis 2 is also accepted that more corruption occurs in countries with a strong collectivism culture. Research Implications – The result of this study implies that centralization of power into the higher echelons may hinder effective communication within organization, and often leads to strategic decision-making errors and even corruption. In addition, excessive in-group collectivism is an obstacle to monitoring and blocking internally generated corruption and sometimes demands individual sacrifice.

Indigenous – foreign culture fit and public employee performance: the case of Ghana

PurposeThe study examines the relationship between the interaction of indigenous–foreign cultures and public employee performance (PEP) in the Ghanaian public sector due to the perceived unproductive cultures in the public sector.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a quantitative approach, where cross-sectional survey design is used to collect the data from Ghanaian public employees. The analysis is done using correlation and hierarchical regression techniques.FindingsThe results reveal that both indigenous and foreign cultures are pervasive in the Ghanaian public sector, with high power distance and individualism being dominant cultures. Furthermore, while the indigenous cultures have negative significant relationship with PEP, the foreign cultures have positive significant relationship with PEP. The foreign cultures effectively control the relationship between the indigenous cultures and PEP but insignificantly moderate such relationship.Practical implicationsThe findings imply that deliberate attempts should be made to encourage the foreign cultures with attractive reward packages to induce workers. This will indirectly control the practice of the inimical cultures and ultimately reduce their negative effect on PEP.Originality/valueThe study contributes significantly to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence of the indigenous–foreign culture fit and PEP from a developing country, Ghana.

High-performance work system and transformational leadership for employee constructive voice: unique and relative importance in a high-power distance context

Constructive employee voice is important but challenging to promote in high power distance contexts. The unique and relative importance of HRM systems and leadership in promoting it is more generally little understood. This study investigates the unique and relative importance of a high-performance work system (HPWS) and transformational leadership (TL) for constructive employee voice behavior, as well as how individual-level power distance orientation (PDO) moderates those relationships. The analyses are based on a sample of 403 subordinates of middle managers in 232 domestic Russian organizations. The results show that both TL and HPWS relate positively to employee voice, but most importantly that HPWS is more strongly so related, that it significantly substitutes the relationship between TL and voice, and that the relationship between HPWS and voice is further strengthened by employee PDO. We also conducted post-hoc qualitative interviews with 25 employees in domestic Russian organizations to triangulate our quantitative results. The study contributes to research on employee voice, in particular to research on the relative importance of its antecedents, and to the emerging body of research that simultaneously considers HRM and leadership.