How African Workplaces can deal with Power Distance Issues

Geert Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions stands as one of the most popular in understanding cultural diversity in the workplace. In Africa, or a work setting with predominantly Africans, the most obvious of these is the dimension of power distance. Societies with high power distance have an expectation of uneven distribution of power between the more powerful and less powerful in the society. Low power distance societies on the other hand have an expectation of inclusiveness and decentralization of power.

 Having worked in Africa and Europe, I cannot help but notice the steep difference between the high power distance culture in Africa and otherwise in Europe. Even in supposedly multi-national firms who often profess adopting a global culture, the differences are overwhelming. It is however important to realise that a high degree of even distribution of power in an African workplace might fail as it firmly clashes with the individual and societal culture. Nevertheless, one cannot help but notice the work and relational problems caused by an “unequal” workplace.

Junior employees are often too afraid to speak and be heard and consequently many fresh, bright and contemporary ideas are lost in “respect for your seniors”. Even the ones that are courageous enough to speak up sometimes have their ideas shunned by managers and top level executives have the “you implement! We have got the strategy stage covered” approach. Although, it is only fair to admit that some firms, especially global ones in Africa are doing a lot to mitigate this occurrence and some of them, successfully so.

Therefore in order to bring the situation to a manageable equilibrium, I have, from my own experience, come up with five things every organisation needs to consider engineering into its work culture if it truly seeks to strike a comfortable balance.

1. 360 performance appraisal. This gives everyone an opportunity to have a voice and be heard. Also, the awareness that everybody; including your peers, subordinates and supervisors will have to give feedback on your performance will definitely play a key role in putting checks on the abuse of power by superiors and supervisors

2. Team work. When team spirit is truly brought to the heart of the job, everyone becomes important. Teams have to be created in ways that places every person in a strategic and functional position.

3.  Open door policy. If employers and senior management are genuinely serious about creating a more neutral organisation power wise, they have to have a true open door policy. Almost every organisation claims to have this, but those that do put in place measures to ensure that every employee feels free to come up to the CEO with a genuine concern

4.  Let go of the complex organogram! When there is a very complex and detailed organisational structure with many reporting points along the way, this automatically creates power hubs as it increases the distance between the bottom and the top. Only necessary reporting and managerial lines that help with workflow should exist.

5.Employee voice. This is one of the most controversial and yet the most effective ways to hear what your employees are saying. Listening to them as a unified front, if possible from different levels respectively. Most employers would rather turn this page quickly because it is costly in terms of time and sometimes money. However it has for many centuries and in my opinion will remain the best way to know what the organisation is thinking, and consistently lead to total evolution of work culture as we know it.