Power Distance
(google images)
Power Distance refers to how much a culture does or does not value hierarchical relationships. Countries with high power distances are those where ranks stand out and class division is greatly encouraged. Countries that clearly reflect this are China, India,Russia, France, among others ( see graph). Germany is also an example of this, as a matter of fact there was a case where a German family lived in the United States for a year and when they returned to Germany they were surprised to see how much the power distance differences among the two countries reflected in a simple scenerio in the supermarket. They were in the supermarket and were scolded by the cashier who told them to hurry up packing the grocieries, something that is not seen in a country such as the United States with a lower power distance.
WHY DID THE CASHIER SCOLD THE CUSTOMER? In socialist Germany, cashiers had great power and could speak whatever way they pleased to the customers since they were the ones who provided the things you needed and had the ¨power", which is why the cashier felt complety normal treating the cashier this way, however this same kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable in countries such as United States or low power distance countries.
This minor example comes to show us that cultural differences play an important role when it comes to business implications because culture affects the way people act, think, and see the world around them and it is important to understand this in order to avoid unpleasant situations in the business field.
