# Power Distance Belief and Workplace Communication: The Mediating Role of Fear of Authority

*Dai · Culture & Context, Power & Equity, Voice & Silence · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2022 · Open access*

Four studies (N=1063) establishing that power distance belief impairs upward communication specifically — with superiors — while leaving peer and downward communication largely unaffected. The mechanism is fear of authority, which mediates the relationship between high power distance belief and communication failure with superiors. A cross-cultural replication (China and US) holds the finding across contexts. Directly relevant to the calculus of voice: it identifies the psychological pathway through which cultural power distance belief becomes suppressed upward information, and connects individual-level cultural internalisation to organisational accident risk.

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- **View the source paper:** https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8910159/
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