How power distance affect motivation in cross-cultural environment: Findings from Chinese companies in Europe

Abstract

Motivation is a key factor for success in education and modern working life. Cross-cultural environment is a challenge to it and, if not taken into account, it can impair learning outcome and lead to high turnover rates in companies. We performed an ethnographic study in two Chinese companies expanded to Europe and observed what problems the organizations faced. Our finding is that main problems originate from cultural differences between Chinese and Western organizations, and that they are mostly explained by the different power distance in the two cultures. The host company has a steep hierarchy of the organization, and it did not delegate the decision making to the locals. This led to frustration, loss of motivation, and high turnover rate.

Keywords

• cross-culture organization
• power distance
• hofstede dimensions
• motivation