What’s your PDI – I ?

PDI stands for Power Distance Index.

Let us check out few real time examples to understand what PDI means.

# Would you expect to be forced to get out of the court room since you are sitting cross-legged?

# Even in your wild dream, would you ever think that you will lose your arm for sitting cross-legged in your house?

# Would you hesitate to overtake car moving in a slow pace because it’s your boss who is driving the car?

All the questions raised above are real instances that happened in India.

The first instance happened in the madras high court wherein the judge questioned a person who was sitting cross-legged. He was forced his way out of the court room. I am not sure even Barrack Obama would mind if you were to sit cross legged in front of him.

The second instance happened in down south of Tamil Nadu wherein a person was sitting, again, cross-legged in his house veranda.  A politician who happened to pass by did not like it and they had a verbal conflict. The same day, the person was dragged into a nearby area and his arm was severed.

The Third instance is my own experience. I hopped onto my colleague’s two-wheeler and I found that he was riding it at a low speed. There was only one car ahead of us that was not blocking his way to overtake. Puzzled by his unusual low speed, I’ve asked him to overtake. There came an immediate reply, that’s my boss driving the car. He would not like me overtaking him.

I am sure, you should have got a feel of, more than mere understanding, what PDI is.

PDI is how a person would react to someone at higher level in the hierarchy or an authoritarian figure. If it’s a high PDI culture, people will accept the authoritarian figure and are less likely to question authority and accept instruction.  Hierarchy is very much important to you and you want to know where you stand. If it’s low PDI culture, sub-ordinates will be more willing to disagree and question the orders of the superiors.  (Definition taken from the open sources from the net)

India is one of the countries with high power index. Pls check the pictures given below to understand where India stands and countries with high and low PDI.

It goes without saying, or even without this term PDI, we Indians know that we come from a very hierarchical society and culture. Hierarchy is in our DNA and we are woven by hierarchical fabric. 

Is high PDI good for corporate culture.

Certainly No.

When you have high PDI, people will become YES men. But in corporates, we don’t want yes-men. Rather we want our employees to disagree wherever it’s required, share different perspectives and solve problems together. We don’t want anyone to take order and execute it the way it’s told without any deviations. We need deviations for good. We need disruptive thoughts for good. We want people leaders, not authoritarians. People with high PDI are not good team players and they come with un-proportionally swollen egos. 

Do stay connected to get to know more about PDI. Watch this space. 

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