power & individualism
In every society, certain people have more power, status, or influence than others, and each society creates its own cultural values to deal with this issue of power distance. You either have societies with high-power distance, or societies with low-power distance. In high-power distance cultures both leader and followers assume that the leader has more authority, respect, and status symbols. The leaders have the right to make unilateral decisions that will be obeyed without question. Leaders in low-power-distance cultures prefer a consultative participative or democratic decision-making style. Power is delegated to team members or to subcommittees.
NB! These are all average scores, and people do vary from these norms.
The Maritime Power Hub
We wanted to find the cultural power hub in the maritime sector. We analyzed the value of the global fleet per nation, versus share of crew per nation. We focused on the biggest ship owning nations and the biggest manning nations.
The Maritime Power Hub is where there is a high degree of collectivism and a high degree of power distance. This hub represents 23% of global fleet in value and about 20% of the seafarers globally. On the ship owning side we find Greece and Japan, whereas on the crewing side, we find India as the biggest force.
This ‘green square’ has an upper hand, where owners and crew know the rules of the game; hence the ambiguity is removed as a contextual aspect.
On deck, an officer can either be a leader or a boss. The Boss is a strong person who focuses on business outcomes rather than relationships. Whereas a Leader takes measure and make positive changes in relationships, business practices, and communications. Different situations require different skills (boss or leader), but in general, 85-90% of the success in a company is due to ‘soft-skills’. Being a boss or a leader is not directly linked to rank, but we often refer to it that way.
Statistics show that one angry person ‘converts’ 45% of people in his / her sphere to also become angry. On an average vessel with 20 people, one angry officer will result in 9 other angry people onboard. The change reaction results in a 70% higher likelihood of Crew P&I cases, 60% vessel-errors and 50% higher risks of accidents. Regardless of power and individualistic ego, training leaders to become empathetic, is a sound investment. The same results can be obtained in any other industry as well, regardless of cultural traits, but it is more predominant in a clashes of cultures.
Relationships & Goals
Both collectivist and individualistic cultures are concerned with how individuals in a society prioritize and manage their relationships and goals. They are often viewed as being in contrast with each other. Collectivist cultures value group cohesion over individual pursuits, and it sees long-term relationships as vital since it promotes group aims. On the other hand, individualistic cultures focus on autonomy. The interesting finding, is that there is no nation with a consultative mindset (low-power distance) in societies where the collectivism (low degree of individualism) stands strong.
Power in Asian countries
Most Asian countries are high-power distance cultures, where there are an established and accepted hierarchy to the social structures. The Asian hierarchies are typically where ‘there are great respect for age, experience, rank and status. Decisions tend to come from the top and then down. The traditional leadership style in both families and business has been autocratic.’ Asian leadership validates the acceptance of a high-power distance. Leaders have proven their character, their commitment to the community through results and relationships which indicates they can be trusted in the high-power distance role.
Individualism in Western Europe
Most West-European Countries are individualistic in nature, where the focus is on human independence and freedom. These cultures disagree that tradition, the church, and other social agencies can dictate a person’s limitations. It opposes the principles of collectivist cultures (like Asia, Latin America and East Europe) which prioritize tradition and group goals.
Members of individualistic cultures focus on individual rights, uniqueness, and self-reliance. For instance, a member of this society may describe himself using personal characteristics such as “logical”, “competitive”, and “unique”. On the other hand, someone from a collectivist culture may use adjectives such as “dependable father”, “loyal employee”, and “caring leader”.
Collectivist cultures are characterized by prioritizing group solidarity over individual goals. They see long-term relationships as important since it fosters the community’s objectives.
Overcoming cultural challenges
In companies where there is a cultural gap between e.g. a captain and the rest of the crew, the best way to overcome possible cultural conflicts, is to create a strong company culture. For those companies that invest in this, there is no longer ‘in country xyz we do this or that’, but rather ‘in company A we do this way’. The math is simple, the ROI is positive, and ‘united we stand’. The maritime cultural power hub is now not stronger than a company with a strong company culture.