Cultural Power Distance Research Articles

Public utility obstacles and labor productivity growth: The moderating effect of national culture

AbstractOperational challenges arising from public utility obstacles are widespread globally, leading to production disruptions, decreased sales, and escalated logistics costs, ultimately contributing to a decline in firm labor productivity growth. Despite the criticality of this issue, there is a scarcity of studies in the field of operations management that investigate factors capable of mitigating these adverse impacts. Taking power outages and transportation obstacles as pivotal examples, our study aims to examine whether national culture can moderate the impact of public utility obstacles on firm labor productivity growth. To achieve this objective, we conduct an empirical analysis using a multi‐country dataset from the World Bank Enterprises Survey, which covers detailed firm‐level information across 28 industries in 41 countries, with a total of 17,227 firm‐year observations. Our findings indicate that the detrimental effects of power outages and transportation obstacles on firm labor productivity growth are contingent on various dimensions of national culture. Specifically, cultural power distance and uncertainty avoidance would amplify the negative impact of power outages, whereas long‐term orientation would alleviate this impact. Meanwhile, individualism and masculinity can help mitigate the adverse effects of transportation obstacles. Our results provide valuable insights for managers.

Effects of transformational leadership on psychological empowerment and employee engagement: a comparative study of Bangladesh and Thailand

PurposeGrounded in the transformational leadership theory, conservation of resource theory and job demands-resources model, this paper aims to examine the effect of transformational leadership on psychological empowerment and employee engagement of faculty members in Bangladesh and Thailand. This study also integrates Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory to justify whether transformational leadership could affect psychological empowerment of faculty members in these two countries differently.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from a total of 457 faculty members from two universities in Bangladesh (n = 243) and two universities in Thailand (n = 241). This study used partial least squares structural equation modeling for analyzing the proposed model.FindingsThe evidence shows that faculty members who worked for department heads and who exhibited transformational leadership demonstrated high level of psychological empowerment and employee engagement. Psychological empowerment also mediates the effect of transformational leadership on employee engagement. Moreover, the degree to which transformational leadership positively affects psychological empowerment is stronger for faculty members in a higher power distance culture (Thailand) than for those faculty members in a lower power distance culture (Bangladesh).Practical implicationsBecause human capital plays a crucial role in determining the potential of universities to achieve superior performance, universities should provide leadership training to help department heads understand the key elements of transformational leadership and apply them in their management practices to promote empowerment and engagement of their faculty members.Originality/valueThe finding provides new evidence that broadens the knowledge from existing research about the cross-cultural effectiveness of transformational leadership, which has not been explored in the area of psychological empowerment.

The age of leadership: Meta‐analytic findings on the relationship between leader age and perceived leadership style and the moderating role of culture and industry type

AbstractManagers' leadership style has a substantial impact on employee and organizational outcomes. In the present study, we consider the role of leaders’ chronological age in predicting followers’ perceptions of their leadership style. Whereas ample research uncovers relationships between individuals’ age and how these individuals are perceived by others, little is known about how leaders’ chronological age impacts others’ perceptions of their style. Even less is known about how such relationships vary across cultures and industries. We conducted a meta‐analysis (164 unique studies; N = 397,456 observations) to explore these relationships, using the Full‐Range leadership model. We found that leader age was negatively related to perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership, and positively related to perceptions of passive leadership. Further, some of these effects varied on several cultural dimensions: The negative relationship between leader age and transformational leadership was weaker in collectivistic cultures, while the negative relationship with transactional leadership was stronger in high power distance cultures. Industry type also mattered: the relationship between leader age and both transformational and contingent reward leadership styles was amplified in the public sector. Lastly, perceptions of older leaders were more negative when ratings were provided by followers rather than the leaders themselves. Our findings offer both theoretical and practical implications for leading in an increasingly age‐diverse workforce, such as better informing the workforce of present age stereotypes and their imminent effect on organizations.

Retweet to donate? Cause-related marketing in the era of social medialization

Purpose The objectives of this study are threefold: to delineate the phenomenon of “You Share, We Donate” (YSWD) campaigns and what distinguishes them from sales-based cause-related marketing; to contrast the effectiveness of YSWD and sales-based cause-related marketing campaigns and provide an explanation for the differences in the effectiveness; to explore boundary conditions of the proposed differences. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted to empirically test the differential effect of campaign formats (i.e. YSWD vs sales-based cause-related marketing), the underlying mechanism and structural as well as contextual features moderating the differential effect. Findings The findings suggest that YSWD messages elicit consumers’ message-sharing intentions more than traditional cause-related marketing messages. The effect is explained by consumers’ sense of empowerment and can be enhanced through donation cap non-specification. The findings further indicate that YSWD campaigns are especially fruitful in low power distance cultures. Research limitations/implications This study contributes toward corporate donation campaign literature by focusing on the usage of social media. Practical implications From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns. Originality/value This paper extends cause-related marketing literature by not only introducing the phenomenon of YSWD campaigns to the literature but also exploring strategies to enhance the effectiveness of such campaigns and shedding light on an outcome beyond the sales impact of cause-related marketing campaigns, i.e. an increase of visibility in social media. From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

CEO cultural heritage and R&D expenditures

AbstractThis paper examines how the cultural heritage of chief executive officers (CEOs) in US firms affects research and development (R&D) investment. Utilizing economically significant and unexpected R&D‐increasing events, we examine how six dimensions of CEO cultural heritage—individualism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long‐term orientation, and indulgence—influence it. We find that CEOs with a high–power distance heritage are more likely to increase R&D. We confirm that this effect of CEO power distance is robust to other cultural effects, the model specification, and endogeneity issues. We conjecture that CEOs with a high–power distance heritage are more likely to increase R&D expenditures because they use their power to pursue personal objectives. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that R&D increases made by CEOs with a high–power distance culture generate significantly lower benefits in the future, reflecting the inefficiency of these R&D investment decisions.

Environmental Practices and Firm Performance in the Hospitality Industry: Does National Culture Matter?

Addressing a research gap regarding organizational outcomes and financial implications of environmental practices of hospitality firms in culturally diverse locations, this study employed a sample of publicly traded hospitality firms across 29 countries. This study’s primary focus was to explore the moderating influence of national culture on the relationship between different types of environmental practices and financial performance, drawing on institutional theory. The findings suggest that whether or not the investment in environmental practices significantly translates to financial performance is contingent on cultural orientation. Specifically, the study revealed a positive moderating impact of individualism and a negative moderating impact of power distance cultures, while masculinity and uncertainty avoidance have insignificant moderating impacts. The research findings and methodological approach offer novel and valuable insights into the current knowledge base on environmental practices. Furthermore, the findings have practical implications for industry practitioners, potential investors, and analysts in the hospitality sector.

Seen and Heard: Combining In-Depth Interviewing With Social Messaging to Study the Lived Experiences of Gifted Youth in High Power Distance Cultures

Qualitative research with gifted youth presents unique challenges because of their tendency to display qualities such as perfectionism, overexcitability, and asynchronous development. Studying gifted youth in cultural contexts marked by high power distance between young people and adults can further compound these challenges by limiting gifted youths’ feelings of psychological safety during data collection. As a result, gifted youth often withhold information or give perceived culturally appropriate answers to adult researchers’ queries. Drawing on a larger phenomenological study of the formation of self-concept among eight Malaysian gifted youth aged between 18 and 25 years old, this article describes how an innovative application of combining semi-structured interviews with WhatsApp social messaging diaries helped minimize the power imbalance between the researcher and youth participants. The paper describes the unique methodological strategy of combining in-depth phenomenological interviews with WhatsApp diary entries to collect data from a hard-to-reach population. Specific techniques employed included using a conversational interview style, self-disclosing personal information to build trust, and validating participants’ feelings and experiences are discussed. Open-ended WhatsApp diary prompts and an extended time provided a sense of anonymity which allowed participants to recall their past and discuss sensitive experiences. Combining these techniques facilitated in-depth exploration into the lived experiences and challenges of being gifted, and how giftedness shaped participants’ self-concept. This is the first known study to document the use of social messaging applications as an effective journaling method for creating a familiar and safe space for special needs groups in high power distance cultures to share their experiences and feelings.

All that Glitters may not be Perceived Gold. When and How Authentic leadership can be ineffective in power distance cultures

Considering the critical role of effective leaders towards ensuring organizational success, current study attempt to revisit the effectiveness of authentic leadership in a power distance culture. More specifically, current study considers the contingency role of power distance culture over the relationship between authentic leadership and its effectiveness through LMX and perceived impression management. For this purpose, data were collected from public sector organizations in Pakistan comprising 31 managers and 202 respective employees. Multilevel path analyses provided reasonable support for our hypotheses. It is demonstrated that authentic leadership is positively associated to leaders’ effectiveness and LMX. Moreover, power distance culture conditions the relationship between the authentic leadership and its effectiveness through perceived use of impression management tactics and LMX in a way that relationship gets weaker when power distance is high. Both practical and theoretical implications of this perspective are discussed.

Formal versus informal supervisor socio‐emotional support behaviours and employee trust: The role of cultural power distance

AbstractThis research investigates how formal versus informal supervisor support behaviours shape employees' affect‐ and cognition‐based trust across cultures of varying power distance. Using data from in‐depth interviews, Study 1 found that trust‐enhancing supervisor behaviours were more formal, status conscious and imposing in India (a high power distance culture) than in the Netherlands (a low power distance culture); unlike in India, supervisors acted more like friends or equals with their subordinates in the Netherlands. Using vignettes, Study 2 found that, compared to informal support behaviours, formal support behaviours increased both affect‐ and cognition‐based trust among Indian participants, but among US participants, formal support behaviours only increased cognition‐based trust. Study 3 conceptually replicated those findings by manipulating power distance in an organization. Together, the findings from these three studies suggest that supervisors' formal socio‐emotional support behaviours are particularly effective in increasing affect‐based trust in societal and organizational cultures that are high power distance.

Perception of nudge interventions to mitigate medication errors risk in healthcare service delivery

BackgroundConventional cognitive interventions to reduce medication errors have been found to be less effective as behavioural change does not always follow intention change. Nudge interventions, which subtly steer one’s choices, have recently been introduced.MethodsConducted from February to May 2023, this study aimed to determine the relationships between perceived effectiveness and perceived ease of implementation of six nudge interventions to reduce medication errors, i.e., provider champion, provider’s commitment, peer comparison, provider education, patient education and departmental feedback, and the moderating effects of seniority of job positions and clinical experience on nudge acceptability. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling was used for data analysis.Results and discussionAll six nudge strategies had significant positive relationships between perceived effectiveness and acceptability. In three out of six interventions, perceived ease of implementation was shown to have positive relationships with perceived acceptability. Only seniority of job position had a significant moderating effect on perceived ease of implementation in peer comparison intervention. Interventions that personally involve senior doctors appeared to have higher predictive accuracy than those that do not, indicating that high power-distance culture influence intervention acceptability.ConclusionFor successful nudge implementations, both intrinsic properties of the interventions and the broader sociocultural context is necessary.

Prioritizing Safety Climate Improvements in the Indonesian Construction Industry Using Supervised Classification

Despite its significance, the Indonesian construction industry has poor safety performance. Improving the safety climate has been seen as a way to improve safety in the industry. Research on safety climate in this context has identified a range of safety climate factors that require improvements. However, construction organizations face difficulties in implementing improvement recommendations due to resource constraints. In order to help construction organizations in their efforts to improve the safety climate, this research demonstrates the use of supervised classification approaches to identify specific safety climate factors that construction organizations should focus on. Data were collected from 311 construction practitioners in Indonesia using a 22-item safety climate survey. Supervised classification methods, comprising ensemble methods, Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes, and Nearest Neighbor, were used. The analysis identified 14 safety climate items that can represent the original dataset with high accuracy (93%). These 14 items can be considered crucial items that should be prioritized in the Indonesian construction industry. These items revealed that, due to the high power distance culture in Indonesia, top-down approaches, such as giving clear instructions, providing training, and reminding people often about safety, are effective for engaging employees to focus on and participate in safety. The findings also suggest that understanding cultural context is important to determine effective strategies to improve safety. This research has also demonstrated the potential application of supervised classification approaches to help decision makers improve safety by focusing on crucial factors within a context.

Employees’ voice behavior in response to corporate social irresponsibility (CSI): The role of organizational identification, issue perceptions, and power distance culture

While extensive literature has examined the role of employees in corporate social responsibility (CSR), little is known about employees’ role in corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). The current study aims to examine the voice behaviors of employees generated around the issue of CSI. Two online surveys were administered to full-time employees by using two different scenarios involving CSI situations: environmental and diversity issues. The results of the study identified employees’ pre-established organizational identification as a critical cross-situational factor that influenced their CSI perceptions. In addition, employees’ situational perceptions of CSI – how they perceive CSI as a serious problem, their sense of connection to the situation, and their perceived constraints in solving the situation – played critical roles in motivating them to engage in voice behavior. Furthermore, the level of power distance culture within an organization significantly moderated the relationship between employees’ CSI perceptions and voice behavior. By incorporating organizational identification literature and public relations theory in the context of CSI communication and management, this study provides theoretical and practical implications.

The links between knowledge management structures and national culture: A comparative study of apple users in Italy and Brazil

AbstractKnowledge management structures (KMs) can be defined as structures whose purpose is to encourage people to build relationships, networks and trust. Global companies like Apple, Inc. have promoted these structures to transform its organisation into a knowledge‐based organisation. This paper identifies the role of national culture on four KMs namely open‐mindedness (OM), counter‐knowledge (CK), environmental innovation (EF) and customer capital (CC). In doing so, this study uses data collected from 354 end users of Apple (161 from Italy and 193 from Brazil). This paper provides evidence that while Apple end users from Brazil are more positively associated with higher levels of OM and CC, Italy users are more positively associated with higher levels of CK and EF. This paper discusses the role of the six dimensions of national culture–power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long‐term orientation and indulgence of a nation that plays a significant role in how they impact the KMs. Hence, this study serves as an important contribution to global companies that are trying to develop their KMs to sustain competitive advantages.

Exploring the impact of national culture on the development of open government data: A cross-cultural analysis

The development of open government data has attracted interest from academics and practitioners. However, only a few studies have examined a culture-based account of open government data development. This study empirically investigates the impact of national culture on open government data. Through the data investigation and analysis of 55 countries, this research finds that the development of open government data is positively linked with national culture with respect to individualism, indulgence and long-term orientation and is negatively related to power distance. Furthermore, this study shows that economic development moderates the relationship between national culture and open government data development, especially with respect to individualism and long-term orientation. Practically, the findings of this research can help policymakers better understand the multifaceted impacts of national culture on the development of open government data, including the promotion of cultural values (i.e. high individualism, high indulgence, and high long-term orientation) and the change in the passive and conservative attitude of citizens toward the openness of government data in countries where power distance culture is high.

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.

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)

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.

Cultural patterns of evasive answer bias in surveys

Complete and accurate survey data are key input for research, policy, and decision making in many disciplines. However, survey respondents do not always fully cooperate, such that they skip some items or overuse the “don’t know” answer option. Evasive answer bias reflects different information than overall survey response rates, leading to item missing data and causing substantial inaccuracies in survey results. Using data from the World Values Survey, this article identifies the magnitude of the problem, then relies on individual data and country-level cultural values to derive patterns of and reasons for this evasive answer bias. While skipping answers happens less often in collectivistic and low power distance cultures, the choice of the “don’t know” option is not significantly influenced by any cultural dimension. Across countries, the effect of cultural values is stronger for female than for male respondents. Accordingly, cross-cultural researchers are advised to use advanced imputation rather than deletion methods for handling missing data.

A meta-analysis of leadership and workplace safety: Examining relative importance, contextual contingencies, and methodological moderators.

Given the high human and economic costs of workplace safety, researchers and practitioners have paid increasing attention to how leadership behaviors relate to workplace safety. Previous research has demonstrated that leadership behaviors are important for workplace safety. In this meta-analysis, we extend our understanding of the leadership-workplace safety relationship by (a) examining the associations between a broader range of five leadership categories-change-oriented, relational-oriented, task-oriented, passive, and destructive-and seven workplace safety variables; (b) investigating the relative importance of these leadership categories in explaining variance in these workplace safety variables; and (c) testing contextual and methodological contingencies of the leadership-workplace safety relationship. Using effect sizes from 194 samples (N = 104,364), we find that although leadership behaviors are associated with workplace safety, the leadership categories vary considerably in their relative importance. Task-oriented leadership followed by relational-oriented leadership emerge as the most important contributors to workplace safety. Change-oriented leadership (which includes transformational leadership) does not emerge as the largest contributor for any of the seven tested safety variables, despite it being the most frequently examined leadership model in the workplace safety literature. Effectiveness of leadership behaviors in relation to workplace safety varies by national culture power distance, industry risk, workforce age, as well as by contextualized forms of leadership (i.e., safety-specific vs. generalized). Finally, there is meta-analytic evidence for publication bias and common-method variance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Employment protection and corporate risk-taking

This paper examines how employment protection laws affect corporate risk-taking. Using a sample of 19,335 firms from 27 OECD countries over the period 2002–2018, we find that strong employment protection legislation reduces corporate risk-taking. Moreover, the effect of employment protection legislation on corporate risk-taking is stronger in countries of high uncertainty avoidance culture and weaker in countries of high power distance culture.