{"id":635,"date":"2019-07-28T12:16:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-28T16:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=635"},"modified":"2022-04-13T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T02:14:09","slug":"power-distance-index","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Distance Index: Definition and Examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The \u201cPower Distance Index\u201d measures how hierarchical a country is and how its citizens value authority. In <strong>high-power distance index countries,<\/strong> employees are often afraid to express disagreement with managers, power in organizations is not equally distributed, and people in power hold special privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>In <strong>low-power distance index countries,<\/strong> people downplay their power, trying to look less powerful than they really are. There are fewer overt symbols of power, and power in organizations is often more equally distributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A culture with a high power distance index is not inherently bad. But it is bad in situations in which you don\u2019t feel comfortable disagreeing with your superior when lives are at stake. For instance, the airlines of high-power distance index (high PDI) cultures are more prone to crashes, particularly if they don\u2019t take steps to address this weakness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mitigated Speech and Plane Crashes<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/aviation-safety\/\">Aviation<\/a> errors are rarely the result of a lack of technical skill. More often, they are errors in <em>communication<\/em>: One pilot sees something and doesn\u2019t speak up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Communication errors are more common when pilots come from a culture with a high power distance index. This is due to <strong>\u201cmitigated speech,\u201d which avoids direct statements of what is intended<\/strong>. Because high PDI countries place a greater importance on respecting hierarchy, subordinates are more likely to speak indirectly to their superiors.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u201cPower Distance Index\u201d measures how hierarchical a country is and how its citizens value authority. In high-power distance index countries, employees are often afraid to express disagreement with managers, power in organizations is not equally distributed, and people in power hold special privileges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships","category-society","tag-outliers","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Power Distance Index: Definition and Examples - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the Power Distance Index? Why does it vary across different cultures and countries? Learn the meaning of the Power Distance Index.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Power Distance Index: Definition and Examples\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the Power Distance Index? Why does it vary across different cultures and countries? Learn the meaning of the Power Distance Index.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-28T16:16:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-14T02:14:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/outliers-powerdistance.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"793\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Allen Cheng\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Allen Cheng\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Allen Cheng\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e9c1cecc340502045489d4c4e6f4a877\"},\"headline\":\"Power Distance Index: Definition and Examples\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-28T16:16:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-14T02:14:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/\"},\"wordCount\":231,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/outliers-powerdistance.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Outliers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Relationships\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/\",\"name\":\"Power Distance Index: Definition and Examples - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/power-distance-index\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/outliers-powerdistance.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-28T16:16:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-14T02:14:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is the Power Distance Index? 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