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

Dai et al · 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.

Dai, Y., Li, H., Xie, W. and Deng, T. (2022) 'Power distance belief and workplace communication: The mediating role of fear of authority', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(5), 2932.

Neighbours (11)

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