Cambodia is a country with high power distance culture: People accept the inequality of power, not only in workplace, but also in everyday life. It is where people accept orders almost without dispute, the culture where it is hard to say “NO”.
Power Distance, according to Hofstede, describes the characteristics and attitudes in workplace where people accept and expect that power is distribute to them unequally. Put it simply, people in lower position accept the inequality in everyday communication. This leads to high social status and prestige, wealth and power. High power distance is seen in many Arab countries, where democracy applications are limited.
By Paularps
Social Norm: In Khmer culture, young people have to respect the older. Young people have to lower down when walking near the older(even though it is disappearing). This attitude is to show respect. In addition, showing respect appears not only in terms of age. It also happens in everyday communication between people and public authority. Most of the people who work in governmental institutions regard themselves as those who has the highest social status and privilege. Because of this perception, it is a huge challenge when ordinary people go to get public services such as at hospital and other institutions. In public hospital, for example, doctors and resurgent regards patients as low as beggars. They speaks to them with harsh languages. The situation is even worse when young people go to get public service, for example to get document signed.
Home and School: At home, parents are living gods to whom we have to show respects, not only for showing gratefulness, but also for other decision-making. This can be seen in arranged marriage. At school we regard teachers as second parents. So when talking about parents, it means we have to show respect with less discussion or no question. However, high level of respect, either at school or at home, can affect the creativeness and braveness of children.
At work: At workplace, people under subordinate have to respect order from their superiors. They expect to be told what to do by their superiors. However, this characteristic is limited at NGOs. This is because in NGOs environment, there are normally participation from international staff or consultants. So working environment seems to adapt to intentional standard which every voice should be heard. Moreover, NGOs work to improve society, so only people whit open minded are suitable for this place.
Political: At political level, high power distance can affect decision-making process. In Cambodia centralization is practiced, even though decentralization has been introduced in recent years. So, there is less discussion on social issues at national level. High power distance at political level can lead the country to oligarchy, only a few families govern the country and they are struggling for power. At this level, we can also see that there are a lot of titles in Cambodia ranging from Samdech, His Excellency, Her Excellency and so on. This titles clearly distinguish the big gap of social status that lead high social hierarchy.
Conclusion:
Cambodia has a good culture of respect. Young people respect the older, children respect parents, students respect teachers. However, children should be given the opportunity to resist and to show their creativeness. Public service and government officials should be more open-minded and treat people equally, they should lower themselves and their social status practically.
Author: Chheng Niem
