21.Sep.2009 culture differences in web design – 2: power distance
Power distance is a concept introduced by Geert Hofstede, formerly professor of organisational anthropology and international management at the University of Limburg in the Netherlands. He was an employee at different companies including IBM and has brought about a paradigm change in intercultural studies with his book Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations.
Power distance is one of the four dimensions of cultural variation identified by Hofstede. He defines it as the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations (and similar systems) within a nation expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
That practically means that in countries with high power distance (Asian, African, Latin American..), the employees expect the boss to give orders and they won’t criticise his desicions or give suggestions (among other characteristics). In countries with low power distance (North America, Netherlands…), the relationship between the boss and the inferior is more equal, the superior asks for his employees opinion and they more often call them on their mistakes.
In front of this background I thought about the experiences I had when researching on Asian Websites, which I did during my internship in Taipei. Those are the features on these websites, which could have been caused by the high power distance:
- organization charts – one person on the top
- message from the CEO prominently placed
- often absence of corporate blogs or any other envolvement of employees
- almost no pictures of “real” employees (as the people behind the brand)
- …
These are a few I thought are the most obvious. I’d like to know about your experiences surfing Asian websites!
