Measuring the degree of inequality in society: the power distance index. Power distance defined

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From the questions in this cluster I selected the three which were most strongly related. From the mean scores of the standard sample of IBM employees in a country on these three questions, a power distance index (PDI) for the country was calculated. The formula developed for this purpose uses simple mathematics (adding or subtracting the three scores after multiplying each with a fixed number, and finally adding another fixed number). The purposes of the formula were: (1) to ensure that each of the three questions would carry equal weight in arriving at the final index and (2) to arrive at index values ranging from about 0 for a small power distance country to about 100 for a large power distance country. In fact one country scored above l00, because it was added to the list after the formula had been fixed and it would have been cumbersome (громоздким) to keep changing the formula.

The three survey questions used for composing the power distance index were:

1.    Answers by nonmanagerial employees on the question: 'How frequently (часто), in your experience, does the following problem occur: employees being afraid to express disagreement with their managers?' (mean score on a 1-5 scale from 'very frequently' to 'very seldom').

2.    Subordinates' perception of their boss's actual decision-making style (percentage choosing either the description of an autocratic or of a paternalistic style, out of four possible styles plus a 'none of these' alternative).

3.    Subordinates' preference (предпочтение) for their boss's decision-making style (percentage preferring an autocratic or a paternalistic style, or, on the contrary, a style based on majority vote, but not a consultative style). The PDI scores thus composed can be read from Table 2.1.

Score rank

Country or region

PDI score

Score rank

Country or region

PDI score

1

Malaysia

104

27/28

South Korea

60

2/3

Guatemala

95

29/30

Iran

58

2/3

Panama

95

29/30

Taiwan

58

4

Philippines

94

31

Spain

57

5/6

Mexico

81

32

Pakistan

55

5/6

Venezuela

81

33

Japan

54

7

Arab countries

80

34

Italy

50

8/9

Equador

78

35/36

Argentina

49

8/9

Indonesia

78

35/36

South Africa

49

10/11

India

77

37

Jamaica

45

10/11

West Africa

77

38

USA

40

12

Yugoslavia

76

39

Canada

39

13

Singapore

74

40

Netherlands

38

14

Brazil

69

41

Australia

36

15/16

France

68

42/44

Costa Rica

35

15/16

Hong Kong

68

42/44

Germany FR

35

17

Colombia

67

42/44

Great Britain

35

18/19

Salvador

66

45

Switzerland

34

18/19

Turkey

66

46

Finland

33

20

Belgium

65

47/48

Norway

31

21/23

East Africa

64

47/48

Sweden

31

21/23

Peru

64

49

Ireland (Republic of)

28

21/23

Thailand

64

50

New Zealand

22

24/25

Chile

63

51

Denmark

18

24/25

Portugal

63

52

Israel

13

26

Uruguay

61

53

Austria

11

27/28

Greece

60

Because of the way they were calculated the scores represent relative, not absolute positions of countries: they are measures of differences only.

Although all of them are based on answers by IBM employees, the scores paradoxically contain no information about the corporate culture of IBM: they only show to what extent people from an IBM subsidiary (второстепенно) in country X answered the same questions differently from similar people in country Y. They tell something about the mental software that comes with having one nationality as compared to another. Because we found the same type of differences in populations outside IBM the differences must be due (должным) to the effect of growing up inside one national culture as opposed to another.

    Table 2.1 shows high power distance values for Latin countries (both Latin European, like France and Spain, and Latin American), and for Asian and African countries; lower values for the USA, Great Britain and its former Dominions, and for the remaining non-Latin part of Europe (to the extent it was covered by the data; Eastern European countries are missing in the data set except the former Yugoslavia which scored high on the PDI). Sweden scores 31 and France 68.  The first column in Table 2.1 lists the rank numbers of the countries from high to low (1 for the largest, 53 for the smallest power distance): in this

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