Chapter 5 Communication and Culture 131Approaches to Power Distance
The critically acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire is about Jamal, a Mumbai
teen who grew up in the city slums and became a contestant on the Indian
version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Jamal endures brutal police interro-
gation on suspicion of cheating because the show’s producers cannot imagine
that he could know so much. This may seem shocking to some people in the
United States, where upward mobility is a value and underdogs become folk
heroes. Why?
It has to do with a culture’s ideas about the division of power among indi-
viduals, a concept known as power distance. In India, social status is far more
stratified than in the United States. The caste system—formally outlawed in
1950 but still lingering in India’s culture—placed individuals, families, and
entire groups into distinct social strata. That meant that the family you were
born into determined who you could associate with and marry and what job you
could hold. Those born into the lowest tier (the untouchables) were considered
subhuman, even contagious, and were ignored by higher castes of people. Indi-
viduals generally accepted their place in the caste system. Even today, the idea
that one’s social status is set in stone lingers (Bayly, 1999).
Status differences in a culture result in some groups or individuals having
more power than others. But a person’s position in the cultural hierarchy can
come from sources besides social class, including age, job title, or even birth
order. In high power distance cultures (like India, China, and Japan), people with
less power accept their lower position as a basic fact of life. They experience
more anxiety when they communicate with those of higher status. And they
tend to accept coercion as normal and avoid challenging authority. People in
low power distance cultures (such as the United States, Canada, Germany, and
Australia) tolerate less difference in power between people and communicate
with those higher in status with less anxiety. They are more likely to challenge
the status quo, consider multiple options or possibilities for action, and resist
coercion.
Figure 5.2 shows how different types of cultures vary in their value of power
distance, as well as how they differ on the other cultural dimensions of individu-
alism and uncertainty avoidance.
Time Orientation
When you are invited to someone’s home for dinner, when is it appropriate to
arrive? Early, the exact time of the invitation, or twenty minutes (or even two
hours!) later? Time orientation, or the way cultures communicate about and
with time, is an important—yet frequently overlooked—cultural dimension
(Hall, 1959).
Many Western cultures (such as the United States and Great Britain) are
extremely time-conscious. Every portion of the day is oriented around time—
including time for meals, bed, meetings, and classes. Even sayings express the
importance of time: time is money, no time to lose, wasting time (Mast, 2002).
But in many Latin American and Asian cultures, time is fluid and the pace of
life is slower. Arriving two hours late for an invitation is perfectly acceptable.
HYACINTH BUCKET of
the British sitcom Keeping
Up Appearances epitomizes
monochronic culture: she
holds friends and neighbors
to strict social appointments
and tracks them down if
they’re so much as seconds
past due. © BBC. Courtesy Everett
Collection