Managers' Power Distance in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Managers' Power Distance in Bosnia and Herzegovina

BRANKOVIC, AZRA

Power distance is a cultural dimension developed by Dutch scientist, Geert Hofstede and determines how different societies handle inequality. Inequality is a fact that exist in the family, school, organization and society. The Gini index shows that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a very unequal country, just behind the poor African countries such as Namibia, Botswana and Sierra Leone. Bosnia and Herzegovina is also the most unequal country in the region. The paper will present Gini index for selected countries and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper will explain characteristics of cultures with high and low power distance and present index of power distance for selected countries based on secondary research. Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to these dates, has a high index of power distance. The paper will try to explain the reasons for high power distance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inequality is present in organization in manager-subordinate relation. The power is concentrated in the hands of the boss and different opinions and critics can be dangerous. Not agreeing with the decisions of the chiefs, or public criticism or exposing irregularities can lead not only to problems in the work, but also to loss of job. Primary research has been done on the sample of 50 managers from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Managers participating in research belong to the different ethnic groups. Managers are genders, approximately half of managers included in the research are men and the other half is women. Managers have different jobs. Half of the targeted managers work as civil servants for the ministries, parliaments and government agencies. The other half of managers work for international organizations, business or business related to international clients. The purpose of this research is to determine if there is difference in power distance related to gender, ethnicity or job of managers. The purpose of the research is to determine if there is a difference in power distance between managers and average citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Date was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Keywords: Managers, Culture, Power Distance, Inequality, Bosnia And Herzegovina

Article
PeerReviewed

ISSN 978-9958-834-23-3

International Burch University

2013-05-10

1496