Power Distance Index
One of these indices is the Power Distance Index – a measure of how close, or how distant a relationship superiors like to have with their subordinates, and that subordinates like to have with their superiors. My friend at Tsun-Am-I recently posted a link to a very useful website that shows you the PDI of various countries.
So a high PDI country is one where people prefer, or are used to having a large power distance between a teacher (say) and the students. These countries are Malaysia (104), China (80), Indonesia (78) and the Phillipines (94). And so the norm in such countries is for leaders to be highly respected, for people not to ask embarrasing questions, for students and subordinates to listen.
However low PDI countries are those which prefer, or are used to having a small power distance between the boss and the workers. These countries are Australia (36), New Zealand (22), Ireland (28) and the Austria (11). The norm here is for leaders to be accessible, to be at the same level as their subordinates, to be open to challenge and suggestions.
This is all about expectations, about what people are used to, what they have had modelled for them again and again during their formative years – and which they then take with them into their working life. And of course individuals will be different, but on the whole this gives you an insight into some of the conflict that can happen in a ministry training situation, or in a second-generation church.
Conflicts can happen when people who are born overseas (say Hong Kong with a PDI of 68, or Malaysia with a PDI of 104), starts to interact with those who are born or raised in Australia (with a PDI of 36). After a short while, those who are used to a higher PDI will find those who are used to a lower PDI to be disrespectful, disobedient, and to take an overy casual and relaxed approach to important things. However those who are used to a lower PDI will find those who are used to a higher PDI to be controlling, talking down to them, distant, making decisions for them without really consulting them.
One of the things that list of countries does is it immediately makes someone question the inherent rightness of their own culture. Are you really going to argue that a PDI of 68 is correct? what about 74, or 66? And are you really going to say that whole countries are wrong in their approach? Of course not. This is just our cultural preference. And what we, and in fact all cutlures need to do, is to submit our culture under the lordship of Christ. To allow our culture to be tested and transformed by the gospel – and love those from other cultures, whom God has also brought into his kingdom.
There are other differences between cultures that Hofstede has written about, which are really worth investigating for ministry (such as Individualism, with Australia at 90 and Hong Kong at 25). You can see them all from the link posted above!
[ PS: how close would you prefer your bosses / teachers to be with you? ]
One thing to note is that PDI is a relative index. So a country with a PDI of \’68\’ is meaningless in itself, but has meaning in comparison with other countries.What is interesting is how migrants end up. Although Malaysia has a high PDI, a lot of Malaysian migrants in Australia are Western educated. So Malaysians living in Australia won\’t necessarily exhibit characteristics typical of a country with a high PDI.Another interesting thing is that PDI states the way things are, and not necessarily the way people want them to be (although they may be). Going back to Malaysia, it is interesting that opposition to authority is suppressed, especially in government. But now, with a new voice building up in the government, we see people from society actually wanting to speak out.So when people migrate from a high PDI to a low PDI country, they may well adopt a low PDI attitude much faster because there is opportunity for them to voice their opinions and encourage dissidence that they have never been able to in their home country. That is not to say that this is always the case, or even the majority.For those of us who have lived in two cultures, Hofstede\’s work means you can qualify your experience and what you have always known with third party statistical analysis.For ministry settings, some cultural awareness training would be probably be useful for Chinese churches. I think the difficulty in a Chinese church from an ABC point of view is when another culture imposes requirements on another. For ABCs it is easy to allow others to do what they like, because that reflects a low PDI autonomous way of doing things. But how does an ABC culture interact with an OBC culture with respect but not feeling like things are being imposed upon them?
Oh, the previous comment was by me.
Well-written article until you threw in the ridiculous idea that everyone should be Christian.
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