just finished absorbing the book “outliers” by malcolm gladwell and one of the chapters that really engaged me was the writeup on the ethnic theory of plane crashes.
the more i read on, the more i realized how i have seen it before. not that i have ever been in the cockpit of a plane, nor in a crash (God forbid!). and guess what, i have seen it played out a number of times now although nothing as catastrophic like a plane crash.
the world is so much smaller now. we find ourselves working with different nationalities, in different locales. in most cases, we are forced to work and adjust to different cultures while dealing with our own cultural leanings. on top of language barriers at times. more often than not, the failure in communication can be attributed to this.
One of Hofstede’s Dimensions, Power Distance is concerned with attitudes towards hierarchy. To be more specific, it has to do with how culture values and respects authority. Hofstede used questions like these to measure power distance:
* are employees afraid to express disagreement with their managers?
* to what extent do the less powerful members of the organization accept and expect that power is distributed unequally?
In high power distance countries, the superiors make the decision. Subordinates hint at solutions but still expect their bosses to make the decisions. Experience is given much weight as well. Examples would be South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Mexico among others.
In low power distance countries, decision-making is a shared responsibility. This is most especially seen in flat organizations or in countries like Australia, Denmark, Israel, USA among others.
Does a country’s language mirror their Power Distance index (PDI)? I would think so. Having so many layers of respect best seen in how people speak should be a very good indicator. I still have to confirm this though but take a look at the Korean language.
No matter how you do things, the Power Distance aspect should probably be factored in especially for those dealing with different nationalities. In the same way identifying what development process works best for your team.
A yes may not necessarily be a yes, neither is a No simply a No. It may mean both. 🙂
my take 