Page 85 - Cultures and Organizations

More Equal than Others 67

tistical proof will be omitted; interested readers are referred to Culture’s
Consequences.

Power Distance Difference Among Countries:

Roots in the Family
Most people in the world are born into a family. All people started acquir-
ing their mental software immediately after birth, from the elders in whose
presence they grew up, modeling themselves after the examples set by
these elders.
In the large-power-distance situation, children are expected to be obe-
dient toward their parents. Sometimes there is even an order of authority
among the children themselves, with younger children being expected to
yield to older children. Independent behavior on the part of a child is not
encouraged. Respect for parents and other elders is considered a basic vir-
tue; children see others showing such respect and soon acquire it them-
selves. There is often considerable warmth and care in the way parents and
older children treat younger ones, especially those who are very young.
They are looked after and are not expected to experiment for themselves.
Respect for parents and older relatives lasts through adulthood: parental
authority continues to play a role in a person’s life as long as the parents
are alive. Parents and grandparents are treated with formal deference even
after their children have actually taken control of their own lives. There
is a pattern of dependence on seniors that pervades all human contacts,
and the mental software that people carry contains a strong need for such
dependence. When parents reach old age or if they become otherwise
infi rm, children are expected to support them fi nancially and practically;
grandparents often live with their children’s families.

In the small-power-distance situation, children are more or less treated
as equals as soon as they are able to act, and this may already be visible in
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the way a baby is handled in its bath. The goal of parental education is
to let children take control of their own affairs as soon as they can. Active
experimentation by the child is encouraged; being allowed to contradict
their parents, children learn to say “no” very early. Behavior toward others
is not dependent on the other’s age or status; formal respect and deference
are seldom shown. Family relations in such societies often strike people