Low Power Distance Research Articles

Opening the Black-Box between HRM and Firm Innovation: The Moderating Effect of Power Distance

This paper examines the mechanism through which human resource management (HRM) promote firms’ product and process innovation. Based on a dataset of 3,755 firms from 13 countries, we find that in most countries HRM practices that are supportive of employees and facilitate communications between management and employees enhance firms’ market-sensing capability, which in turn significantly contributes to product and process innovation. Furthermore, a cross-country examination reveals that in high power distance countries these HRM practices have a stronger positive effect than in low power distance countries. This study contributes to the HRM-innovation literature by demonstrating the necessity to incorporate markets as sources of knowledge. Furthermore, we join the discussion on the generalizability of management theories and contribute to the international management literature.

Product Diversification and Market Value of Large International Firms: A Macroenvironmental Perspective

Drawing on a strategic fit perspective in international marketing, this study explores how macroenvironmental factors—cultural dimensions and globalization forces—affect the relationship between product diversification and market value of large international firms. The author hypothesizes that (1) the four dimensions of culture (individualism–collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity–femininity) significantly affect product diversification and (2) economic and social globalization positively moderate the relationship between product diversification and market value of large international firms. The author empirically examines the hypothesized relationships using a sample of 485 firm-year observations from 17 countries for the period between 2006 and 2009. Using the hierarchical linear modeling technique, the author demonstrates that firms in countries with cultures characterized by high uncertainty avoidance and low power distance have a higher degree of product diversification, and product diversification in turn has a significant positive impact on firm market value. Furthermore, the author demonstrates that economic and social globalization, as indicated by actual flows, personal contacts, and information flows, positively moderates the relationship between product diversification and market value of large international firms.

Elogio a los títulos: una explicación sociológica de su importancia en el siglo XXI

La proliferación de aparatos electrónicos equipados con herramientas para enviar mensajes de texto ha aumentado el ritmo de degradación en términos de etiqueta social en los Estados Unidos de América. La popularidad del envío de textos ha sobrepasado la de los correos electrónicos y de esta manera ha establecido un nuevo estándar en términos de etiqueta escrita. Se lidia con el anonimato de la esfera pública con el uso de la falsa intimidad en el sector de servicio. Aunque los Estados Unidos son conocidos por su baja distancia de poder y por el comportamiento relajado de sus ciudadanos, cambios recientes en la omisión completa de títulos dificulta la interacción social y tiende a aumentar el número de conflictos y por lo tanto crea inestabilidad social.

Is Drop‐out from University Dependent on National Culture and Policy? The Case of Denmark

National cultures are known to influence educational institutions and practices in many ways. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that drop‐out from university is also influenced by differences in national cultures. In this article, we compare drop‐out from Danish universities with drop‐out from European universities. Based on Danish national culture (characterised by individualism, low power distance, femininity, and low uncertainty avoidance) and on the high level of economic support for students, we find that drop‐out from higher education in Denmark as compared to most other European countries is less influenced by socio‐economic factors and by the students’ degree of social integration. Hence, our review of the research on drop‐out identifies some differences that might rest on national cultural varieties. It also points to difficulties in comparing results from different research studies, not only in Denmark but also across Europe. This difficulty results from varieties in research designs and definitions of drop‐out.

The moderating effect of power distance on employee responses to psychological contract breach

Understanding how employees’ cultural values are related to their responses to promises broken by their organizations (i.e., psychological contract breach) is important given today’s global workplace. Although past research has found that psychological contract breach is positively associated with employee exit, voice and neglect and negatively associated with loyalty, we know little about the role that cultural values play in this process. We explore the role that power distance orientation—an employee’s acceptance of power differentials in society—plays in employee responses to breach. We argue that employees with high power distance orientations will be more likely to respond passively to breach (loyalty and neglect), whereas employees with low power distance orientations will be more likely to exhibit active responses to psychological contract breach (exit and voice). We tested our notions using a sample of 265 employees from different cultures across two points in time. Employees with high power distance orientations were less likely to respond to psychological contract breach with exit and voice than employees with low power distance orientations. However, power distance orientation did not significantly moderate the relationships between psychological contract breach and neglect or loyalty, respectively. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Impact of culture on perceptions of landscape names

This study examines the impact of culture on landscape-name perceptions of tourists from China, United States, and Europe utilizing both Hofstede's and Hall's cultural typologies. Data for this study were collected from visitors to two national parks in China. Culture is found to have a significant impact on both sub-dimensions of understanding (legibility and coherence) and involvement (mystery and diversity). Findings suggest that tourists from different cultures are likely to interpret landscape names differently. Those from cultures with a high power distance and low individualism would prefer landscape names that are mystical, dreamy, fictive, ingenious, original, and poetic, while those from cultures with a lower power distance and high individualism would prefer names that simply describe the landscape.

Predictors of Attitudes to Gifted Programs/Provisions

This study investigated whether a number of cultural orientation, sociodemographic, academic achievement, and personal/personal experience variables predict attitudes toward the provision of special programs/provisions for gifted students. Surveys completed by 241 Australian preservice teachers were analyzed using confirmatory factor analyses and multiple regression analyses. The findings suggest that (a) low power distance orientation, contact with gifted persons, and older age predict support for special gifted programs/provisions and (b) the lack of prior experience of an advanced/extended curriculum in a regular classroom and younger age predict the perception that special gifted programs/provisions are elitist.

Shakespeare on Leadership, Communication and Management

Shakespeare has been widely recognized as a dramaturgist who through his intriguing pageantry of kings presents an effective text of leadership, communication and management that has inspired hosts of modern day business practitioners. Yet it is interesting to note that the management perspective which Shakespeare seems to espouse has emanated from the cultural ethos of his native country, Great Britain. Britain has been portrayed by prominent interculturists such as Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars, Edward T. Hall as a low power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance, low-context culture with high masculinity and individualism index, demonstrating achievement and inner-directed value orientations. Even Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) study in its cultural taxonomy identifies a ramification of Anglo-cluster leadership model with a distinct skill set which includes Great Britain. The character lineaments of Shakespeare’s king leaders present congruence with the leadership profiles defined for diverse cultural demarcations by these seminal works on cross-cultural management with remarkable fidelity thereby endorsing the view that culture and leadership are inextricably woven together in a symbiotic engagement. The article applies theories of intercultural management to the leadership, communication and management inferences that can be drawn from the literature of this bard of Avon to reach the conclusion that this master craftsman evinces a strong cultural affiliation to his native country in offering his sagacious exhortations which are designed for an English audience and hence, cannot be transplanted in the Oriental part of the world without indigenizing them in the process of transposition to fit into foreign cultural constructs. Thus, in order to be globally relevant an intercultural reading of Shakespeare has to be practised with systemic mutations in his scripts in order to offer an effective transnational discourse to management practitioners keeping in view the plurality of disparate socio-cultural business contexts.

A cross-cultural comparison of the network capability development of entrepreneurial firms

The business-to-business network literature has made interesting and insightful contributions in relation to networks as a core trajectory for external resource acquisition for the small, entrepreneurial firm. Using the micro-brewing industry in Ireland and Belgium as an empirical base, the purpose of this paper is to extend this research through examining the relationship between national culture and the development of network capability in an entrepreneurial context. Findings from in-depth interviews with fourteen firms, and analysed in light of Hofstede's five dimensions illustrate that culture matters. Low power distance facilitated network capability development through wider network engagement. High masculinity and individualism negatively impacted network capability development as evidenced by a lack of experience in interaction, a desire for control and independence and minimal information sharing. Strong uncertainty avoidance scores allowed for joint problem-solving and industry cooperation whereas a short-term orientation led to more transaction-based exchange within the value chain. The core contribution of this paper stems from it being the first rigorous investigation regarding how national culture impacts network capability development in a business-to-business network context.

Culture and corruption

Purpose– This study aims at investigating the effects of cultural values on corruption by integrating Hofstede's, Schwartz's, and Inglehart's frameworks.Design/methodology/approach– First, corruption is conceptualized and Schwartz's, Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural dimensions are presented. In the second part, the relationships among concepts are discussed and the hypotheses, variables, and theoretical models are presented. Then, the empirical tests are conducted, the theoretical/managerial implications are discussed, and an integrative model is proposed.Findings– The empirical analysis confirms that after controlling for the effects of socio-economic development, cultural values have considerable influence on the level of perceived corruption. More specifically, it is found that Hofstede's High Power Distance, High Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity and Collectivism, Schwartz's Conservatism and Harmony, and Inglehart's Survival and Traditional-religious dimensions are associated with the corrupt behavior. By contrast, the opposite values namely Hofstede's Low Power Distance, Low Uncertainty Avoidance, Femininity, and Individualism, Schwartz's Autonomy and Mastery, and Inglehart's Self-Expression and Rational-secular dimensions tend to impede corruption.Research limitations/implications– This study has a limited scope as it relies on narrow conceptualizations of culture and corruption. Furthermore, like many cross-cultural studies, the current analysis relies solely on the national-level data and overlooks the effects of intra-national variations. It is important to note that while culture has important implications for the corrupt behavior, its effects should not be considered as deterministic.Practical implications– By referring to the integrative model of this study, managers and scholars can conveniently describe a country's culture, understand the implications, and make sense of the level of associated corruption.Originality/value– This study contributes to the literature by integrating three widely employed cultural frameworks, by incorporating a large number of countries into the research design, by providing a profound understanding of the influence of culture on corruption, and particularly by offering a comprehensive model for scholars and practitioners.

Abusive Supervision Scale Development in Indonesia

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale of abusive supervision in Indonesia. The study was conducted with a different context and scale development method from Tepper’s (2000) abusive supervision scale. The abusive supervision scale from Tepper (2000) was developed in the U.S., which has a cultural orientation of low power distance. The current study was conducted in Indonesia, which has a high power distance. This study used interview procedures to obtain information about supervisor’s abusive behavior, and it was also assessed by experts. The results of this study indicated that abusive supervision was a 3-dimensional construct. There were anger-active abuse (6 items), humiliation-active abuse (4 items), and passive abuse (15 items). These scales have internal reliabilities of 0.947, 0.922, and 0.845, in sequence.

The Focus of Quality Management Practices: A National Culture Perspective

The effectiveness of quality management practices under different national culture environments is investigatedin this study. We bundle quality management practices by two orientations based on learning theoryand theninvestigate if any type of quality management practices shows stronger relationship with performance withindifferent national culture environments. The hypotheses were tested using a survey dataset witha sample size of238 which were collected from eight countries. Data analysis results show that exploitative quality practices arehighly related to performance outcome in national cultures featured by high power distance and high uncertaintyavoidance. In contrast, exploratory quality practices are significantly associated with operations performance innations with low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance. The study suggests that quality managementpractices be adopted selectively based on the national culture profile. It advances our understanding of qualitymanagement practices from the context dependent perspective and provides guidelines for practitionersonimplementing quality practices successfully in different cultural environments.

Cultural determinants of infection control behaviour: understanding drivers and implementing effective change

Despite dealing with biomedical practices, infection prevention and control (IPC) is essentially a behavioural science. Human behaviour is influenced by various factors, including culture. Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions proposes that national cultures vary along consistent dimensions which can be grouped and scored as specific constructs. Studies have reported that three Hofstede constructs--power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity--show significant association with several key performance indicators relevant to IPC and antibiotic stewardship. In addition, national meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) levels within Europe correlate well with general quality-of-care indices, including preventive strategies and patient rights. This suggests that IPC may be simply a microcosm of overall quality and safety standards within hospitals and countries. Effective improvement would therefore need to address underlying and embedded core cultural values relevant to patient safety and quality of care. Successful IPC strategies are likely to be those that are compatible with the cultural background where they are implemented. To this end, content analysis of many current IPC improvement tools identifies elements of strong compatibility with cultures that are low in uncertainty avoidance and power distance, and high in individualism and masculinity. However, this cultural combination is largely restricted to Anglo-Saxon countries, where most of the recent improvements in healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) incidence have taken place. There is a paucity of research on IPC behaviour change in different cultural backgrounds, especially countries that score high for power distance and/or uncertainty avoidance. This information is vital to inform IPC campaigns in these countries, which often show high HCAI prevalence.

Does low Power Distance Culture Contribute to Lower Long Term Unemployment?

In this paper we use European Social Survey (2012) microdata from 23 countries to assess the relationship between culture a person is facing at work and the probability of experiencing long- term unemployment by this person. The cultural factors that are tested are: the degree of freedom at work and influence on managerial decisions, which are treated as an indication of the level of power distance. The hypothesis is that low power distance culture encourages employees to gain more hard and soft skills as more responsibility is delegated to them. In our research we follow the concept that cultural factors are among root causes of economic outcomes. The low power distance approach to a subordinate resembles methods applied by personalized Active Labour Market Policies. Both approaches intend to make people aware of their responsibility for their economic outcomes and their power to improve these outcomes. The logit model proved a statistical significance of a relationship between cultural variables and probability of being long-term unemployed even after controlling for age, education, type of work, country and other control variables.

Parental mediation of internet use and cultural values across Europe: Investigating the predictive power of the Hofstedian paradigm

AbstractThe EU Kids Online project aims to enhance knowledge of the experiences and practices of European children and their parents regarding online risks and safety. A crucial research effort by the EU Kids Online network has been a survey in 25 European countries which targeted approximately 1,000 children per country. This article applies a cross-cultural values filter to the data that were gathered on parental mediation and the Internet in this survey. Our intention is to test whether Geert Hofstede’s cross-national research results about national cultural values also apply to the EU Kids Online data on parental mediation. This implies studying collectivism versus individualism, low versus high power distance, masculinity versus femininity and low versus high uncertainty avoidance. We test whether differences between nations on these four dimensions correlate with differences between countries in parental mediation of the Internet and we test which European countries form clusters.

Implicit leadership in an intercultural context: theory extension and empirical investigation

Prior literature highlights that subordinates' identification with their leader is important for leader success. This study explores new mechanisms of implicit leadership and their effects on identification by subordinates. Using data from two sources – subordinates from five regional clusters and expatriate leaders – this study reveals that a leader's underfulfilment of subordinates' expectations of leadership harms their leader identification. Moreover, simple fulfilment of subordinates' expectations toward leadership does not affect their identification; to do so requires overfulfilment. Furthermore, the effects of underfulfilment strengthen with greater collectivism and low power distance, whereas overfulfilment effects are mitigated by these cultural dimensions.

The Impact of Pay-for-Performance Schemes on the Performance of Australian and Malaysian Government Employees

Supported by well-known motivation theories, and the logical notion that people should be rewarded for achievement, pay-for-performance (PFP) schemes are now widely applied across the public service in Asia Pacific as a means to raise employee performance. This comparative survey of over 300 Australian and Malaysian federal government employees examines whether their positive perceptions of PFP schemes have been associated with an improvement in their performance on formal and prescribed organizational activities or in-role behaviour (IRB). The respondents’ favourable perceptions of their agency’s PFP scheme were not found to be accompanied by a significant rise in their IRB levels. In contrast, other factors – psychological empowerment, organizational citizenship behaviour, and culture (high collectivism and low power distance) – positively influenced the respondents’ IRB levels. These factors, however, did not significantly strengthen the PFP–IRB relationship. Country differences in the findings were also noted.

Power distance and its implications for upward communication and empowerment: crisis management and recovery in hospitality services

This study explores the influence of power distance in a relatively high power distance culture (Turkish) and a relatively low power distance culture (British) from the viewpoint of the expressions used by subordinates when communicating with their superiors in situations of service crises and recovery. The findings suggest that in Turkey subordinates use much more mitigated and indirect expressions when faced with service crises which may lead delays in the identification and solving of customer problems. This, in turn, is believed to cause a failure in the formation of customer loyalty and an increase in the customer switching behaviour.

Voice or Consistency? What You Perceive as Procedurally Fair Depends on Your Level of Power Distance

Power distance (PD) is a cultural value known for its moderating effect on subordinates’ reaction to procedural justice. The reaction to procedural justice in general as well as the reaction to the voice criterion exclusively emerged to be stronger among low PD (LPD) than high PD (HPD) individuals. Until now, no research exists, however, on the effect of PD on Leventhal’s procedural justice criteria, when measured separately. By means of two studies, the effect of PD on voice was therefore compared with the effect of PD on Leventhal’s consistency criterion. Consistency was chosen due to HPD individuals’ preference for structure and stability. Study 1 ( n = 258), a cross-cultural scenario-based study examining the effect in terms of received and violated fairness, revealed a moderating effect of PD on the reaction to voice, but not on the reaction to consistency. Voice was found to be exclusively important for LPD individuals, whereas consistency emerged to be important regardless of PD. Study 2, a mono-cultural within-subjects study ( n = 161), replicated these results. Accordingly, not voice but consistency seems to be the procedural justice criterion of particular relevance for managers to consider in times of globalization and increasing cultural diversity.

Danish humor in cross-cultural professional settings: linguistic and social aspects

AbstractThe specificities of national humor are often mentioned in humor research, but seldom explained in depth. This article concerns two studies, which reveal that Danish humor (as used in professional settings) is judged by Danes and non-Danes alike as ironic, self-ironic, sarcastic, and direct, with no limits or taboos. These characteristics of Danish humor are analyzed here using two different theoretical frameworks: linguistics – where an explanation is found in certain type-specific features of the Danish language, namely the dialogical particles typical of the Nordic languages in general – and the historico-sociological approach proposed by Norbert Elias. According to Elias, the mentality of a people has been molded through an ongoing historical process of civilization. The civilizing process specific to Danish society has engendered a “campfire mentality”, leading up to the egalitarian, consensual welfare state. Work relationships in Denmark are based on a horizontal, flat structure with low power distance, a structure for which management researchers actually recommend the use of humor, irony and self-irony. Finally, the specificities of Danish humor are linked to a low degree of gelotophobia, the fear of being laughed at, among Danes.