Cultural Differences In Power Distance Essay

First, power distance is the first dimension in Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. Power distance is the “extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, 2017). When comparing China and the United States, China had twice as high power distance score than the United States. The high-power distance score in China shows that it is acceptable to have inequalities in their society, and that the people accept and expect power is distributed unequally.

Geert Hofstede is a Dutch researcher who identified five dimensions of culture to help understand how and why people from various cultures behave the way they do. The five Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity vs. femininity, and time orientation. Taiwan has a high power distance meaning that people blindly obey the orders of their superiors, and strict obedience is found. Taiwan ranked high in uncertainty avoidance meaning that the people do not like uncertainty and tend to have a high need for security and a strong belief in experts. In individualism Taiwan ranked as a low individualistic

In general, parents from different cultures differ in the methods to deal with the relationship between their children. Comparing with the Western cultures, Eastern culture places greater emphases on stability, collectivism and peace. These values are believed to promote a kind of general restraint or control of emotions in the interest of maintaining group harmony. Thus,

Amy Chua, author of the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, writes about the differences between Western style parenting and Chinese style parenting. Although Chua acknowledges that Chinese parents are strict and Western parents are less strict, she knows it is a generalization. She outlines the high expectations that Chinese parents have for their children. She compares the statistics about strictness in the eyes of Western and Chinese parents. Chua says that Chinese parents get away with things that Western parents can’t. She also expresses that she does things to her children that her parents did to her. She describes Chinese parents as straight up and honest. She describes Western parents as people that care too much

Power distance is the extent to which people of a culture accept and expect power inequality among themselves regarding the allocation of authority. France has a score of 68 on the power distance dimension while Russia has a score of 93 (Hofstede Insights, n.d.). In Russia, from a young age, children are taught to show respect and deference to their fathers. Ultimately, learning “to comply and follow the decisions and directives made by the father—the ultimate authority in the family” (Dorfman et al., 2012). France is also “a country of family empires with many paternalistic traditions” (R. Moran et a., 2014). As a result, both France and Russia can be characterized as high-power distance cultures. In both societies, it is expected for

On the topic of culture, ethnocentrism should be mindful as it refer to culturally biased judgement of an individual’s perspective of their own culture is superiors than another (Levines 2001). This is not to be confused with racism as to be an ethnocentric often relates to how we individuals view another culture from our own. For example it is considered norm in China for fellow co-workers to ask each other’s how much they earned whereas in European country it is considered rude and inappropriate.

Discussion: The role of culture in human relationships with considerations of the implications for attachment theory.

“Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, by Amy Chua, is all about the Chinese motherhood lifestyle. In this article she explains what a Chinese mother does that makes them better than Western parents. Yet, we learn from Betty Ming Liu in her article, “Parents like Amy Chua are the reason why Asian-Americans like me are in therapy”, that this lifestyle is indeed harmful pushing many to escape the life they know for real happiness. Although relatively successful the Chinese mother way of doing things in the end is more harmful to a child than it is helpful. Being a Chinese mother means controlling every aspect of your child's life.

and China. In this article, the theory is that Chinese families are less affectionate in their verbal and nonverbal communication than American families. The first context explored is parent-child relationships and the effect negative communication has on their bond. This article states that affectionate communication is “an expression or enactment of feelings of fondness, care, closeness, and positive regard… affectionate communication is vital to the formation and maintenance of relationships and well-being, generating long-term relational, personal, mental, physical, and physiological benefits for both senders and receivers” (Zhang,

There has been many different changes throughout my family history that really does surprise me sometimes. In the beginning of my childhood, I was not really that close to my parents; more so my mother. However, after my mother left; my family became extremely close. As soon as I left for college, my father got engaged and once again our relationship dwindled. In my paper, I will discuss the things that makes us a family, how we work together, and how our roles have developed in accordance with the family system theory.

They looked for the modern style, which became independent. Obviously, they could decide their marriage and did whatever they want. However, it created some conflicts in their childhood because they did not meet their parents’ expectations. Their parents tried to train them and developed their talents in some activities. Asian parents expected children follow their steps and made them satisfied. In contrast, the local-born daughter would like to be independent. They wanted to have their own life. Parents felt stressed to force their children practice. They always considered that they helped children, but they ignored children’s thinking. Though children tried to fight with their parents and gained more freedom, they still affected by some of the traditional mindsets, which showed in their marriage. In general, the new generation transferred to the modern style family, but old generation still remained some old

Power Distance is the dimension that deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. At 80 China sits in the higher rankings of power distance a society that believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable, therefore subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and there is no defence against power abuse by superiors. Individuals are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for leadership and initiative. People

The cultural shock of my girlfriend’s family was very surprising. I assumed that her family shared the same cultural ideas that my family did. My girlfriend role in her family’s culture is the youngest out of all of the relatives there. Her role in my family’s culture is the better half of our relationship. The norms of her family is one of quite conversations and more silence that almost drove me through the wall. On the other hand the norms of my family are to be in everybody else’s business and then to tell the rest of the family your business in a very loud manner. The status that my girlfriend has in her family is the last one to graduate from college. Her status in my family I her being my girlfriend in college. The fact that the cultures of our two families are so significantly different that it is surprising.

For the first question, I asked my parents how they approached power, decision-making, and conflict in their relationship. After asking this question, my mom replied with “I think we both have very easy going personalities, so when it comes to conflicts, we both talk about different options and listen to each others ideas.” (S. Zwanziger, personal interview, June 25, 2017.). My dad replied with “Yes, I definitely agree with that. We both have different ideas sometimes, but we make sure that we are open to each others ideas as well as our own.” (B. Zwanziger, personal interview, June 25, 2017.). As I watched them answer this question, I noticed that they both paid very good attention to each other and let one another state their opinions, just like how I would imagine their conversations about solving a conflict would be. Just like my parents, Galvin, Braithwaite, and Bylund (2015), believe that decision-making in a family involves more than just one individual (p. 197). They agree that whatever decisions that are made will affect the entire family, so everyone in the family should have a say in what the decision is

For any relationship to succeed both parties need patience, tolerance, and understanding. This becomes especially important when individuals come from dissimilar cultural backgrounds. If the individuals take the time to learn about the other’s culture many stereotypes and misconceptions will be eliminated. If they slow down and listen to one another they will likely find that despite their differences they share many basic needs; this can serve as the common ground or a starting point needed for understanding one another. However, if both parties remain staunchly entrenched in their own culturally-based viewpoints confusion and turmoil will