Hofstede's Concepts: Power Distance and differences between the societes.

 In the last class we discussed about several communication topics including the topics we like to talk about (like hobbies and favorite things), also if we like to be short when we’re communicating or we rather give more information to the person.

On the other hand, we also shared how we feel when someone antagonizes our opinion and things we don’t like in a conversation; in this case the results where so similar, in average we don’t like when someone is not paying attention when we speak or if the topics are boring.

Although the results on the manners were similar, the content on the conversation was somewhat different, for example; in the countries where everyone hates the government, politics is a common and accepted topic with strangers (normally because everyone agrees) while in other countries like Mexico the opinion is divided 50/50 and it’s so sad.

Talking about the main topic of the class; power distance refers to how equally power is distributed in group settings. A high power distance means authority is concentrated at the top, while a low power distance means power is shared more equally among everyone. We also discussed related concepts like individualism vs collectivism, which matches topic.

In asian cultures like Japan or China, power distance is usually high and really marked. These societies emphasize harmony and respect for authority, so it’s uncommon or inappropriate to question superiors such as bosses or elders but on the other hand, individualistic societies like the U.S. prioritize personal freedom, so workplaces tend to have lower power distance, making it more acceptable to speak informal and open, even with superiors. And actually, in large organizations, even in individualistic countries, the structure often becomes more hierarchical again.

This helps us to understand better the way they communicate in different countries, specially Japan now that we are here and we get confused sometimes. Personally I think power distance should exists in order to keep the roles and the importance of winning this role in a company, but outside work this should be ignored completely if it’s not age related.