Chapter 10 Leadership and Decision Making in Groups 285about the new deadline”), whereas those from a low-context culture would be
more direct (“Sorry, we can’t make the new deadline”).
Power distance is another cultural difference that affects how groups may
communicate with their leaders. As we learned in Chapter 3, power distance is the
extent to which less powerful members of a group, be it a business organization or
a family, accept that power is distributed unequally. In a high power distance cul-
ture, the members are not likely to challenge their leader’s opinions or authority.
This means that a leader who wants all members to offer their ideas at a meeting
might need to make a special effort to encourage everyone to participate in the
discussion. In contrast, in a culture with low power distance, members are likely
to offer their opinions and disagree with the leader without much prodding.
Decision Making in Groups
On January 28, 1986, the blue skies above Cape Canaveral in Florida seemed
to be ripped open when the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger suddenly exploded
shortly after liftoff. One of the worst disasters in NASA history (the second
being the explosion of the Columbia seventeen years later), it claimed the lives of
seven astronauts. Investigation into the tragedy found that faulty fittings (called
O-rings) had failed during takeoff, causing the explosion. But a large part of the
blame for the disaster was laid on communication failures within NASA. Prior to
launch, there had been some concern among NASA engineers that the O-rings
might fail, but the shuttle launched in spite of these concerns.
How could a collection of such brilliant minds have committed such a
grave error? Although some faulty leadership may have played a role, there
were many people involved in the exchange of information as well as in the
final decision making. Indeed, decision making in a group is more complex
than decision making by one leader or between just two people, and thus it is
important to examine the forces that influence the group decision-making pro-
cess. In the following sections, we examine each of these topics in detail, look-
ing at the Challenger disaster specifically as an example of what can go wrong
in group decision making.
IN A LOW POWER
DISTANCE culture, meet-
ings might feel like roundtable
discussions, where everyone
gets a chance to speak. In a
high power distance culture,
meetings are usually more
hierarchical. (left) Image
100/Punchstock/Getty Images; (right)
Blend Images/Punchstock/Getty Images