Page 104 - Cultures and Organizations

86 DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL CULTURES

to survival cultures, except in affluent societies that have the means to cope

with heat and cold, where we find self-expression cultures. In temperate

climates, the role of affluence is less pronounced. 36
National wealth in itself stands for a lot of other factors, each of which
could be both an effect and a cause of smaller power distances. Here we are
dealing with phenomena for which causality is almost always spiral, such
as the causality of the chicken and the egg. Factors associated with more
national wealth and less dependence on powerful others are as follows:

■ Less traditional agriculture
■ More modern technology
■ More urban living
■ More social mobility
■ A better educational system
■ A larger middle class

More former colonies than former colonizing nations show large power
distances, but having been either a colony or a colonizer at some time dur-
ing the past two centuries is also strongly related to current wealth. The
data do not allow establishing a one-way causal path among the three
factors of poverty, colonization, and large power differences. Assumptions
about causality in this respect usually depend on what one likes to prove.
Size of population, the second predictor of power distance, fosters
dependence on authority because people in a populous country will have to
accept a political power that is more distant and less accessible than people
from a small nation. On the other hand, a case can be made for a reversal
of causality here because less dependently minded peoples will fi ght harder
to avoid being integrated into a larger nation.

The Future of Power Distance Differences

So far, the picture of differences among countries with regard to power
distance has been static. The previous section claimed that some of the
differences have historical roots of four thousand years or more. So much
for the past, but what about the future? We live in an era of unpre cedented
intensification of international communication: shouldn’t this achievement

eradicate the differences and help us to grow toward a world standard?
And if so, will this be one of large, small, or medium power distances?