Page 93 - Cultures and Organizations

More Equal than Others 75

thousand department managers in forty-seven countries on how they han-
dled each of eight common work “events” (for example: “when some of the
equipment or machinery in your department seems to need replacement”).
For each event, eight possible sources of guidance were listed, for which
the managers had to indicate to what extent they relied on each of these
(for example: “formal rules and procedures”). For each of the forty-seven
countries, Smith computed a verticality index, combining reliance on one’s
superior and on formal rules, not on one’s own experience and not on one’s
subordinates. Verticality index scores were strongly correlated with PDI:
in large-power-distance countries, the managers in the sample reported
relying more on their superiors and on formal rules and less on their own
experience and on their subordinates. 27
There is no research evidence of a systematic difference in effectiveness
between organizations in large-power-distance versus small-power- distance
countries. They may be good at different tasks: small-power-distance cul-
tures at tasks demanding subordinate initiative, large-power-distance
cultures at tasks demanding discipline. The important thing is for manage-
ment to utilize the strengths of the local culture.
This section has again described the extremes, and most work situa-
tions will be in between and contain some elements of both large and small
power distance. Management theories have rarely recognized that these
different models exist and that their occurrence is culturally determined.
Chapter 9 will return to this issue and show how different theories of

management and organization reflect the different nationalities of their
authors.
Table 3.4 summarizes key differences in the workplace between small-
and large-power-distance societies.

Power Distance and the State
The previous sections have looked at the implications of power distance
differ ences among countries for the role pairs of parent-child, teacher-
student, doctor-patient, and boss-subordinate; one that is obviously equally
affected is authority-citizen. It must be immediately evident to anyone who
follows any world news at all that in some countries power differences
between authorities and citizens are not handled the same way they are in
other countries. What is not so evident, but is essential for understanding,