10 minutes with Geert Hofstede... on Power Distance 10112014

Geert Hofstede introduces the cultural dimension of power distance, what is it, what are important correlations and how valid is it for the future.

[bybrookenelson]

this is such a straightfoward and simple explanation of the concept of power distance. thank you!

[kautsarmw]

High power index:
more income in equality
A smaller middle class, larger lower class
Power should be legitimate has the trias politica
Aggressive political conflict
Need a revolution to change, but the system rarely change
Business executives tend to be older
Innovation comes about if the hierarchy supports it

[ronkraybill]

Professor Hofstede, you say that power distance exists "to the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. So the power distance lies with the people at the bottom and not the people at the bottom."

I think this is a most valuable concept but that it needs care in order to avoid confusion.

I recently had an exchange with someone who was saying that the dynamic of power distance is created by less powerful people. Pressed for an example, she offered villages in India.

I replied that, having lived for a time in India, I know that upper caste people in India are frequently brutal and violent in India if they feel lower caste people do not respect their superiority. Throughout the world, powerful people have sophisticated means to punish, even terrorize, less powerful people who do not accept the system.

Listening carefully now to your presentation, I note that you say a society has high power distance to the extent that less powerful people expect and accept unequal power distribution. So I note that here you refer to their acceptance as an indicator, not as a cause. With that wording I have no quarrel.

But I think it would be good to leave no room for the kind of confusion reflected by the woman I describe above. High power inequality is actively maintained by high power people in most settings; they move to reinforce their power whenever they feel it is truly threatened. Less powerful people are often either too intimidated, or too brainwashed, or too exhausted by the daily struggle to survive, to resist. And tragically, of course, many accept the worldview and cosmology of the powerful, accept that they are undeserving of better, and that this is the way things should be.

I think it is of utmost important to present your insightful theory in a way that does not suggest that power distance is a creation of or the "fault of" low power people. It is created and actively, often violently maintained by high power people, and it continues with the ongoing acceptance of low power people.

Yet even they typically believe that in the next life things will be better; that there they themselves will enjoy the things the powerful today enjoy. This suggests to me that, at some deep level, even the most quiescent and passive victims of low power do not fully accept their status. They simply think the time is not yet here for them to be lifted up.

[TheSummeryly]

how exciting to see Hofstede in youtube！ I can see the wisdom from his words and his eyes. Knowledge is for you to understand society today as well as the relationship between countries, even I firstly totally agree with him that the stability of the PDI score even though it changes with the ages but all the countries are changing at the same time. How impressive! However, I began to have my own concern, since the development of the country is not the same for the last 30 years, why the position of the country in PDI would not change??

[ScotttheCyborg]

Over 20 years ago I had a temp job in a rocket factory. As a temp, a lot of my non-temp coworkers could bounce things off me without fear of repercussions. I had not yet discovered the concept of power distance. Thus I had no problem going into the manager's office and telling him my opinion. I think the reason he kept me as a temp was that he found it amusing, that there was someone who did not fear being fired or demoted. I also didn't do it very often.

[henrysmith]

This session is the last dimension I watch among all six in a series and as expected it is the most easily understood one. All other dimensions got something not so intuitive or even to the contrary of daily experience, probably because the concepts have subtle difference in denotation and connotation in my country from the Netherland or the West in general. But interestingly, Power Distance has so much clearity and universality that I put it the last one to watch and only watching only once is enough to understand, while for other 5 dimensions, to be frank, I watched at least 3 times each. I am a coach to business people and I have to be careful about precison. All comments are beautiful, and I think in the disguise of debates, all of you guys and me know what we are talking about exactly. This dimension perhhaps is the most candid and transparent dislosure of human nature in social terms.

[aaronwimberleymbamsf]

Hofstede is a must for any MBA curriculum.

[itzbaksheeva]

Just watching this video and find it very informative, but I have a question? Wy is North Korea and South Korea aren`t on the list of PDI, neither large, nor low?

[MichaelJohnFaria]

1:53 damnit boom guy. distracting me and stuff.

[natashas]

Thank you so much, the best explanation ever

[hadeelmo]

meaning of hierarchy?

2. What is a high power distance culture? Does this apply to your culture? Explain with an example to illustrate it applies or not.

3. What is a low power distance culture? Does this apply to your culture? Explain with an example to illustrate it applies or not.

Can you answer this for me

[eagleacademylanguages]

Learning so much! Tod bless you, sir. Jesus loves you.I must tell you the good message: Believe in Jesus Christ and the whole good message found in the bible about Him dying on the cross for your sins and can forgive you all your sins. Believe in Him and you will live forever with Jesus and not perish. If you believe in Him and His resurrecton from the dead, you will be forgiven and be given new LIFE in Christ Jesus. If you don't believe in Him, you will remain and die in your sins. The ending consequence of that is to perish and be punished in hell for those who don't believe in Jesus. Hell was made for satan and demons, but Adam and Eve decided to belong to the lie instead of the TRUTH a long time ago. You and I were born of Adam, but if you believe in Jesus, you will be "born again". And you will be saved. You will belong to the TRUTH, WHO is Jesus, and you will never die. Adam dies, but Jesus rose from the dead! If y ou believe in Him, your Spirit will be reborn and will one day receive a new eternal body, too! Choose Christ! Don't die in your sins and remain under the wrath of God almighty! Receive HIs mercy!

[jambomambo]

Would be awesome to see someone fixing some of the subtitle errors.

[Jojo-qcyg]

Anybody knows what is the meaning of hierarchy??
I didn't understand 😕

[ribbitcoffee-x-tea]

Yk im watching this for homework but its damn entertaining for what it is. good formatting

[MrThaiko]

Powerdistance is the range of Power delivered at different rmp, hue

[lesgrossman]

wish me luck on a fucking retake exam... :(

[destroydate]

How is "power distance" quantified? Where does GH get his world results? It sounds too general to be a legitimate form of scientific research. There's a lotta play in his definitions. A more precise example would be helpful. Michel Foucault wrote a great deal about power, Is there a comparison between MF and GH?

[metodisea]

Great investigation
It's exactly what happens in Colombia, since kids we are told " Because I'm you mum/dad and we grew up believing that submission means respect

It trespasses culture, work and politics, anyone in a bit of power abuses it and anyone in the bottom is too scared as thinking different is dangerous.

That was the beginning of guerrillas, really smart people, fed up and never heard went into revolution, creating a new problem

[magictricks]

Just to mention something Hofsted have noticed, is that the larger power distance a country embodies . The more revolutions will be . In coutries such as morocco which i consider is one of the larger power distance countries, political systems don't even change using the maintained power of social class. There is a high social stratification . However, we're known only as a startum .