Reflection about Hofstede’s Power Distance 


Yo Guys,


Today we spoke about various topics connected to power distance. It was interesting to see how everyone had different perspectives on each one relative to his culture. Starting on the very first question about if a child's opinion matters as much as their parents, I couldnt disagree more (lowkey). Of course it depends on the age, because as you progress as a person you become more mature and are able to make more reliable and optimal decisions. But the point of the parent in a way is to show the child the way as it grows. Of course their opinion matters and they need to be shown that they are heard, but after all I think the opinion of a 40 year old woman/man matters more than a 7 year old.

Also, the second question relates to that. You as a parent needs to show that you can give trustworthy advice, but I still think the kid should ask "why?" so that it can develop critical thinking.

I do not understand how the 3rd question can work if you answered 1. As long as the company is not a startup where in the very beginning they can choose what position they want to have, I think each company should be at least 4 or 5 on the question's scale. That way everything is more organized and things stay in order with less room of things going to chaos and people not doing their job.

For the 4th one I am in between. I still think the boss should have authority because he is, well... the boss. He needs to be an orchestrator of sort and keep everything under control so that the business can operate as a well-oiled machine. Buuuut, I do not like bosses that do not allow to have any friendly relationship with the workers. I think if you try to have balance, but stray more towards a higher power dynamic you can still have the respect while learning more about your workers. People like working for people that they like more than a terrible boss.

For the last question, I truly believe in democracy and I think its the best available way to choose the people in power if it works how it is supposed to. Unfortunately for my home country the same party has been chose over and over again for the past 20 years with no change because of corruption. So in the case for Bulgaria I voted 5 because the people in power needs to be changed to the last one.

All of the paragraphs above are mostly influenced by Bulgarian culture. In the power distance department I think Bulgaria could be very similar to Japana although they miiiiight be a tad bit more extreme than us. For the raising children aspect from what I from the Japanese students is class is that it is in the middle. Which, is not very far away from the Bulgarian way, but there parents definitely have more authority over the kid.

About the video, Hofstede explains culture as the “software of the mind”, which shapes how people behave and perceive the world in general. His explanation is straight to the point and full with integrity, because he does not focus on trivial aspects of culture like food or traditions. He dives deeper than that to see how people were brought up connected to their values.

I like it, because he says that culture can influence anyone. Although his outlook on national cultures can be seen as a bit dated, because the world has grown to very globalized meaning in each country the people begin to be more mixed. Besides that the message is still important. With culture in sight we can observe people from different backgrounds think in an unorthodox way according to our perception.

These were my scattered thought for most of the things we discussed in class, sorry if it was longer than 200~ words. Until the next time.

Sincerely Yours,

Hristiyan

Comments

  1. EmilijaOctober 13, 2025 at 11:09 PM

    I rly like the reflection on the video…your viewpoints on the given questions in the quiz are pretty interesting, however I’d be down to discuss them more deeply bc I answered some of them differently😅

    ReplyDelete
  2. caryOctober 13, 2025 at 11:16 PM

    It seems no matter who I talk to, the politics in their country sucks 😂 A Romanian recently told me how they have 15 parties but they all suck, and a Mexican said both candidates suck, with the United States in my experience leaning into that narrative.

    ReplyDelete

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