Correlation of Mexico’s Long Term Orientation, Power Distance and Masculinity.
Photo Credit: Kurv.com
There is much to be said about the history, present day culture and future vision of Mexico. Mexico is a country in North America that sits between the United States and Central America. Mexico has a population of roughly 124M people in a diverse landscape of mountains, deserts and jungles. In this article we will examine the correlation of Mexico’s long term orientation, power distance and the impacts of a masculine dominated culture. We will also examine how these variables influence and impact the Mexican leadership and over all culture from a global perspective. Additionally we will identify how Mexico rank compared to other regions in proximity based on empirical data.
Geert Hofstede is a Dutch social psychologist who focused his work on the study of cultures across nations. His core competencies quantifies research by using empirical data and synthesizing that data in a measurable range on scale. Amongst the data in this piece we limit the scope to long term orientation, power distance and masculinity. Long term orientation scores indicate how a country or culture focuses on the future. Short term orientation on the other hand is when a society is focused on the present or past. This would be consistent of the countries that have a strong cultural focus on past traditions. Mexico’s LTO is a 24.0 which compared to the rest of the world is significantly lower. The rest of the world averages at around 45.48. Though there is a natural standard deviation, this data shows that Mexico is living much more in the moment than focusing on the vision of the countries future. From a leadership perspective this has its downstream effects as it pertains to governance and culture development. People in such societies have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth; they are normative in their thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results. (Hofstede, N.d.). A theory to this cultural analysis has to do with growing economic concerns Mexico faces and in a state of “survival” a nation must act quickly and decisively in order to alleviate the immediate concerns as opposed to thinking about the future. Another theory could be due to the power distance or masculine culture the country cultivates in which is further explored in this piece.
The Masculinity score for Mexico is very high in comparison to its neighbors and even the world. According to Hofstede, the world average for Masculinity rounds out at 49.53 as opposed to Mexico’s rating of 69. This in fact has a very profound impact on the culture from a gender role perspective. The lack of gender diversity much of the time creates a heavy handed superioristic leadership style. This also indicates according to Hofstede-insights that; the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success… people “live in order to work”, managers are expected to be decisive and assertive, the emphasis is on equity, competition and performance and conflicts are resolved by fighting them out. In knowing this, one can better understand the dimensions of the inner workings of politics, power and governance.
Power distance is the last of three areas of Hofstede’s theories that plays a role into the overall cultural and global leadership style of Mexico. Power distance is defined as “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, N.d.). Mexico scores an 81 in comparison to the world average of 59.31. What this shows is that Mexico’s hierarchical order is very defined and is positioned quite intently. This means members of less powerful positions accept that power is distributed unequally. (Hernández-Pozas.) Government corruption in Mexico has been a hot topic over the years. According to the BBC in 2015 Mexico’s Congress approved the creation of an anti-corruption system to try and improve Mexico’s reputation for graft. But despite these efforts to clean up its act, Transparency International still rates Mexico as the most corrupt OECD nation.
All in all, power distance, masculinity and long term orientation play a significant role role in the development of interculturalism and how global leaders lead their countries amongst other diverse countries. These cultural elements appear to be contingent upon each other and we can see cause and effect running its course. Establishing a strong culture that is harmonious and productive starts from the top and transcends not only through the present day society but through the generations of the future.
Author: Steven Strauser
Pennsylvania State University – Organizational Leadership
Work Cited:
FLG Consulting.com. (n.d.). Hofstede analysis of Mexico. Retrieved on March 21st 2019 from https://flgconsulting.skyrock.com/2990031933-Hofstede-analysis-of-Mexico.html
Hernández-Pozas, O. (2013). Let’s talk about the Mexican culture. Oliviahdzp.com. Retrieved on March 19th 2019 from
http://www.oliviahdzp.com/2013/09/27/let´s-now-talk-about-the-mexican-culture/
Hofstede-Insights.com. (n.d.). What about Mexico. Retrieved on March 19th 2019 from https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/mexico/
Pennsylvania State University. (2019). Central America and Mexico. Retrieved on March 20th 2019 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821719
Study.com. (n.d.). Long-Term Orientation vs. Short-Term Orientation: Hofstede’s Definition & Concept. Retrieved on March 19th 2019 from https://study.com/academy/lesson/long-term-orientation-vs-short-term-orientation-hofstedes-definition-lesson-quiz.html
Watson, K. (2016). How people power is tackling corruption in Mexico. BBC News. Retrieved on March 20th 2019 from https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-35873559/how-people-power-is-tackling-corruption-in-mexico
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