Page 79 - Cultures and Organizations

More Equal than Others 61

sion making: a boss who, as the questionnaire expressed, “usually consults
with subordinates before reaching a decision.”
In countries on the opposite side of the power distance scale, where
employees are seen as frequently afraid of disagreeing with their bosses
and where bosses are seen as autocratic or paternalistic, employees in simi-
lar jobs are less likely to prefer a consultative boss. Instead, many among
them express a preference for a boss who decides autocratically or pater-
nalistically; however, some switch to the other extreme—that is, preferring
a boss who governs by majority vote, which means that he or she does
not actually make the decision at all. In the real-world practices of most

organizations, majority vote is difficult to handle, and few people actually
perceived their bosses as using this style (bosses who pretend to do so are
often accused of manipulation).
In summary, PDI scores inform us about dependence relationships in
a country. In small-power-distance countries, there is limited dependence
of subordinates on bosses, and there is a preference for consultation (that
is, interdependence among boss and subordinate). The emotional distance
between them is relatively small: subordinates will rather easily approach
and contradict their bosses. In large-power-distance countries, there is
considerable dependence of subordinates on bosses. Subordinates respond
by either preferring such dependence (in the form of an autocratic or pater-
nalistic boss) or rejecting it entirely, which in psychology is known as
counterdependence—that is, dependence but with a negative sign. Large-
power-distance countries thus show a pattern of polarization between
dependence and counterdependence. In these cases the emotional distance
between subordinates and their bosses is large: subordinates are unlikely
to approach and contradict their bosses directly.
Power distance can therefore be defi ned as the extent to which the less

powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and
accept that power is distributed unequally. Institutions are the basic elements
of society, such as the family, the school, and the community; organizations
are the places where people work.
Power distance is thus described based on the value system of the less
powerful members. The way power is dis tributed is usually ex plain ed from
the behavior of the more powerful members, the leaders rather than those
led. The popular management literature on leadership often forgets that
leadership can exist only as a complement to “subordinateship.” Author-