Hi, I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution-- Putting the Pieces Together. Today, we're going to talk about high and low power distance as it relates to cultural worldviews.
So first off, a power distance is a gap in rights or treatment or power of members within a specific culture. And these power distances take on worldview positions of the specific culture. So it's part of their assumptions and beliefs and how they are going to interact with their feelings and relationships, and so on. And in this tutorial, we're going to explain high and low power distances within cultural worldviews.
In high power distance cultures, the members of that culture believe that only some individuals deserve specific respect, consideration, power, and rights. And they deserve this special treatment because they have a specific status or special or certain characteristics that place them above others. So they in turn deserve these specific types of treatment that we've listed here.
And some of these statuses or characteristics could be due to social or economic status, or your birth order, or even your age. So those are some examples of why some individuals deserve these specific or special treatments over others.
Also in high power distance cultures, there are various levels of ascribing or giving respect and privileges and rights to people within the culture on their specific status. But sometimes people can move up in status. So if they maybe gain some wealth or get an education, this would probably qualify them to move up in their level of status.
This member that is moving up within the status could also be a member of an opposed minority. So we have to take into consideration that the different status markers within a specific high power culture may affect the treatment of the specific individual. So even though they may be gaining higher status, they still may also be treated less or not gain as much status as they possibly could if they weren't a part of an opposed minority within that specific culture.
In low power distance cultures, we see members that believe all individuals deserve respect, consideration, power, and rights. And this is regardless of their status or special characteristics that they may have.
So everyone deserves all of these specific levels of treatment. And it's not based upon their social or economic status or other special characteristics that they may possess within that culture. So let's look at some examples of what high and low power distance cultures would look like in certain situations.
So let's take for example your workplace. In a high power distance culture, in the workplace, there may be a boss who holds the highest status, and the workers below them. And the workers that are considered below them really don't challenge or try and work through specific problems within the workplace.
They basically just take the jobs that are given to them and work it, and don't offer any more suggestions or even question the validity of the specific work or project that they may be assigned to.
Whereas in low power distance cultures, managers or bosses may have an open door policy where you can come in and really ask questions and make suggestions and possibly even challenge some of the policies or work that's being done.
Also another example could be within the government. In high power distance cultures, we don't see a lot of members of society or that culture challenging or rising up against policies that a leader in the government is making. They rather just go with the flow and take that specific leader as being absolute.
Whereas in low power distance cultures, we see a lot of the citizens rising up and challenging certain policies that they don't agree with. And it's a part of their political discourse to be able to challenge their government and its policies to make change.
Let's talk about high and low power distance within a conflict resolution scenario. So when we go into conflict resolution processes, and as an intervener, we really need to be aware of the high power and low power distance cultures in this process.
And so for example, we really need to address the power balance that is within the conflict resolution processes. And so this will really, for example, give a lot more assurance to those individuals that come from a low power distance culture. So they will know that even though somebody who is within this process may come from a high power distance culture where they have a higher status, that in this process the power is equal. And we are neutral in that fact.
And on the other side, we may need to acknowledge that person's status in the higher power distance culture. So we need to recognize that they have a specific status within their culture. But also that that status really does not overshadow the power balance that we need to address within this conflict resolution process.
Let's take a look at our key points here on high and low power distance before we go. So high and low power distance takes upon specific cultural world views. So these are positions that a specific culture believes to be right and correct about their beliefs and assumptions and how they interact with their worlds.
And in high power distance cultures, people deserve treatment based upon specific status or special characteristics. So specific people rather are given greater respect based upon their status or special characteristics. Whereas in low power distant cultures, we are seeing that the culture holds all individuals, regardless of their status or characteristics, as being entitled to equal respect. And when we are in conflict resolution processes, we need to take into consideration high and low power distance culture when we are dealing with individuals from either of those cultures.
So for example, we need to make sure that we know that this process involves equality. So everyone in the process is treated as equals. But we also need to take into consideration those individuals in high power distance cultures and recognize their status, but also keep a balance between the equality in the process of the individuals.
So here are your key terms before we go. Feel free to pause and look at them a little closer.
Thank you so much for taking the time out to view this. I hope you learned something. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.