The dictionary definition of power is the possession of control, authority, or influence over others. We know the phrase: might is right. Might or strength is actually the power. So, the phrase essentially means that the powerful people dictate the terms. If I have a gun, I have power and I can make you do things that you wouldn’t do otherwise. Now, if you have two guns then you have more power than me and you can rather control my behavior.
What is Power Distance?
So, power entails power comparability. Power comparability or relative degree of power leads to the concept of power distance. Professor Mauk Mulder of Utrecht University, the Netherlands first introduced the concept of power distance in 1958.
Mulder defined power distance as the degree of inequality in power between a less powerful individual and a more powerful individual in the same social system.
Another Dutch professor and social psychologist Geert Hofstede adopted the term ‘power distance’ from the work of Mulder and defined it as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Here, institutions are the basic elements of society, such as the family, the school, and the community and organizations are the places where people work. So, it actually means the culture of the country or ‘national culture’ in Hofstede’s words.
Can Power Distance be Measured?
Hofstede actually measured power distance by PDI or Power Distance Index for a large number of countries and published it in 1980. According to Hofstede’s measure, PDI for Austria is the lowest at 11 only whereas PDI for Malaysia is the highest at 100. In the lower range, there are European countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and Germany. Germany’s score is highest at 35 among these countries. The UK has also a score of 35. PDI for Arab countries is very high at 80. PDI for China is also 80 and for Russia, it is 93. PDI for the USA is 40 which is higher than UK and Germany.
What’s the Implication of Low Power Distance?
In low power distance countries, everyone expects to be listened to regardless of rank or background, and they will reject leaders whom they perceive as autocratic or patronizing. Consequently, these cultures are democratic-minded and possess a high regard for people’s rights and freedom.
What Happens to High Power Distance Cultures?
In a high power distance country, the lower-level person will unfailingly defer to the higher-level person and feel relatively okay with that as it is the natural order. The higher-level person accepts this truth as well — or metes out consequences for failure to comply.
In these cultures, people do not have the orientation of demanding their legitimate claims from the people in power. They would rather resort to pleasing the people in power through ingratiation and material gratification to obtain what they are legally entitled to. Thus, corruption creeps in even where transactions are fully legitimate. Rights give in to the loftiness of power.
The high power distance cultures have the mindset of accepting that the highly placed people possess a kind of right to bend the rules. Society tolerates the deviant behavior of powerful people. Obviously, these cultures will be less democratic-minded and less adherent to human rights.