KHOẢNG CÁCH QUYỀN lực TRONG môi TRƯỜNG đại học, TIẾP NHẬN bởi SINH VIÊN úc và SINH VIÊN VIỆT NAM

The development of mankind history requires international, thus intercultural communication. Among such communication, Power distance, one of six cultural dimensions introduced by Hofstede, has been playing the role in showing how societies handle unequal distribution of power. Since there has been little research on this in Vietnam, this paper was carried out to investigate power distance manifestation in the university environment, taking undergraduate students from Vietnam and Australia as research participants. Hopefully, the research would be a source of reference for students and teachers of English in general and cultural studies in particular. Qualitative research design was applied to discover the manifestation of power distance by students from University of Languages and International Studies VNU (Vietnam) and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne (Australia). Fifty students from both countries were chosen to take part in the research, which purposive sampling method was utilized. Structured questionnaire of 20 questions and semistructured interview were employed to collect data, studying two main aspects namely group work and classroom environment; meanwhile, content analysis was the main data analysis method. The findings indicated that Australian students were likely to behave in low power distance way in both group work and classroom atmosphere; whereas, Vietnamese students only followed high power distance behaviors in classroom environment while they manifested low power distance behaviors in group work. This finding suggests that students who schedule for overseas study should understand beforehand the working style of targeted environment. In addition, teachers are also advised to be careful with their foreign student evaluation, and should also negotiate working style with their students in the first lesson.

The development of mankind history requires international, thus interculturalcommunication Among such communication, Power distance, one of six culturaldimensions introduced by Hofstede, has been playing the role in showing how societieshandle unequal distribution of power Since there has been little research on this inVietnam, this paper was carried out to investigate power distance manifestation in theuniversity environment, taking undergraduate students from Vietnam and Australia asresearch participants Hopefully, the research would be a source of reference forstudents and teachers of English in general and cultural studies in particular.Qualitative research design was applied to discover the manifestation of powerdistance by students from University of Languages and International Studies VNU(Vietnam) and Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne (Australia) Fiftystudents from both countries were chosen to take part in the research, which purposivesampling method was utilized Structured questionnaire of 20 questions and semi-structured interview were employed to collect data, studying two main aspects namelygroup work and classroom environment; meanwhile, content analysis was the maindata analysis method The findings indicated that Australian students were likely tobehave in low power distance way in both group work and classroom atmosphere;whereas, Vietnamese students only followed high power distance behaviors inclassroom environment while they manifested low power distance behaviors in groupwork This finding suggests that students who schedule for overseas study shouldunderstand beforehand the working style of targeted environment In addition, teachersare also advised to be careful with their foreign student evaluation, and should alsonegotiate working style with their students in the first lesson

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of research problem and rationale 1

2 Research questions 1

3 Significance of the research 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Thesis structure 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1 Definition of key concepts 4

1.1 Culture 4

1.2 Communication 5

1.3 Hofstede’s cultural dimensions 7

2 Related studies on the definition and manifestations of Power distance 8

3 Power distance index of Vietnam and Australia 13

4 Chapter conclusion 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 17

1 Discussion of participants 17

1.1 Selection of participants 17

1.2 Sampling method 18

2 Research design 18

3 Data collection method 19

3.1 Data collection instruments 19

3.1.1 Structured questionnaire 19

3.1.2 Semi-structured interview 20

3.2 Construction of data collection instrument 21

3.3 Data collection procedure 26

3.3.1 Questionnaire 26

3.3.2 Student interview 27

4 Data analysis method 27

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29

1 Research findings 29

1.1 Vietnamese students’ perceptions of Power distance 29

1.1.1 Group work 29

1.1.2 Classroom environment 33

1.2 Australian students’ perceptions of Power distance 35

1.2.1 Group work 35

1.2.2 Classroom environment 38

2 Discussion of the findings 40

2.1 Group work 40

2.2 Classroom environment 42

3 Conclusion 44

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 45

1 Summary of the study 45

2 Implication of the findings 46

3 Limitations of the study 48

4 Suggestions for further study 49

LIST OF REFERENCES 50

APPENDICES 58

APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW CONSENT FORM 58

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR AUSTRALIAN STUDENTS 59

APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR VIETNAMESE STUDENTS 63

APPENDIX 4: TENTATIVE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 66

APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION AND NOTE 67

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The differences between a large power distance marketing department and a

small power distance one 10

Table 2: Power distance differences in general norms, family, school and workplace issue 11

Table 3: Power distance in classroom environment 12

Table 4: Construction of data instrument 21

Table 5: Data analysis units 28

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A comparison of cultural dimension index between Vietnam and Australia (Hofstede, n.d.) 14

Figure 2: Data collection procedure 26

Figure 3: Vietnamese students’ perceptions of group work 30

Figure 4: Vietnamese students’ perceptions of classroom environment 33

Figure 5: Australian students’ perceptions of group work 35

Figure 6: Australian students’ perceptions of classroom environment 38

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MOET Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam

ULIS University of Languages and International StudiesVNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This initial chapter justified the reasons for this research to be carried out.Research questions, significant of the research, scope of the study and the thesisstructure would be presented

1 Statement of research problem and rationale

“Our entire repertory of communicative behaviors is dependent largely on theculture in which we have been raised” (Zhang & Zhou, 2008:1) In addition, to achieveany goals, no matter public or private, it is a must for everyone to “communicate witheach other verbally” and in many circumstances people come from a variety of culturalbackgrounds (Tannen, 1985:280) Therefore, in the modern time, the appropriatebehaviors in many situations require not only suitable domestic-cultural but also fittingcross-cultural comportments

In such circumstance, thanks to the comprehensive studies of how values in theworkplace are influenced by culture, Hofstede cultural dimension analysis plays therole as an effective tool for researchers and communicators to behave interculturallywell There are six dimensions in Hofstede’s view, namely power distance,individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertaintyavoidance, long-term versus short-term orientation, and indulgence versus restraint Ofthe six dimensions, Power distance seems to be a worth-investigating one since itdiscusses fundamental issue of how the society handles inequalities between people(Hofstede, n.d.) Especially in modern university environment, since student-studentand student-teacher communications present as an important aspect, power distanceascertains its significance in research purpose

2 Research questions

The research was carried out with the hope of setting up tentative answers to thetwo following questions:

 What are the manifestations of power distance in university environmentperceived by Vietnamese students?

 What are the manifestations of power distance in university environmentperceived by Australian students?

3 Significance of the research

There are some reasons that urge this research to be conducted Firstly, inVietnamese context, it is seen that there has been little research and few articles and/orjournals distinctly discussing this dimension in university environment In addition,studying the similarities and differences in accordance with power distance dimensionbetween the perceptions of Vietnamese and Australian students is hoped to be one ofthe useful information resources for students who are going to schedule overseas study

in these countries Moreover, this research also plays an important role as a referencematerial for teachers in both countries since it investigates university environment,especially the classroom atmosphere Last but not least, this study is carried out to helpresearchers investigate the cross-cultural dimensions of the two societies

4 Scope of the study

Since manifestations of Power distance stretch in a large social area, this studyconcentrates only on its manifestation in university environment Since in universityenvironment, there are a lot of communication and relationship types, this researchconcentrates only on the manifestations of Power distance between students andstudents (group leader – group members) and between students and teachers.Meanwhile, the research has the characteristics relatively similar to a case study,carried out with just a small number of 50 participants from both countries; hence, nogeneralization to any bigger scope would be made, as the researcher would like toinvestigate to see whether in that small-sized group of students there are anydifferences between the findings of this research and the reviewed literature Moreover,

the study would likely to focus on the two aspects that relate directly to the researchpurpose, namely group work and classroom atmosphere

Chapter 2: Literature review

This includes the explanation of key definitions as well as the review ondifferent previous works on the definition of culture and communication, an overview

of Hofstede’s cultural dimension and Power distance – definition & manifestations

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter comprises of the description of research participants, populationand sampling method; data collection method and data analysis method

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion

In this chapter, research findings will be presented Also, discussion oncomparison between two groups of participants (Australian and Vietnamese students)and between the findings and reviewed literature will be delivered in this chapter

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Summary of the research, implication of the findings, the limitation of the studyand suggestion for further research will be presented in this chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter was constructed to set the theoretical background for the wholeresearch In this chapter, key concepts of culture, communication and a review onHofstede’s cultural dimensions would be thoroughly discussed Most importantly,previous related studies on definition and manifestation of Power distance would beconferred; hence, the gap for this research to fill in would be indicated

1 Definition of key concepts

1.1 Culture

There are many different definitions and perceptions of cultures Mulholland(1991, cited in Belshek, 2006) views culture as a complicated concept and states thatthere is hardly a definition that is commonly agreed among researchers

As defined by Tylor (1871, cited in Kipuri, 2008:52), culture is “that complexwhole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any othercapacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” He also notes thatculture is an efficient tool for people to survive, but this tool is fragile, which culture is

“constantly changing and easily lost because it exists in our mind” (p.52) Zhang &Zhou (2008) adapts a more specific perception of culture in which culture is defined as

a set of beliefs, habits, living patterns, and behaviors commonly agreed by people whosettle at a certain geographic region Hofstede (1980, cited in Belshek, 2006:21)understands culture in a broader and more abstract sense, as in his opinion, culture is

“the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of onegroup from another.” No matter concrete or abstract, these above definitions allforward to a common idea, which culture is a set of standard that helps behaveappropriately in a society and to distinguish different communities Moreover, thespecific culture can be inherited by later generations from previous ones via education

In agreement with these remarks, Sue & Sue (2003:9) summarize and give out thefollowing definition of culture, which will be adapted and used in this paper as:

Culture is the system of shared beliefs; values, customs, behaviors, and artifactsthat the members of society embrace Culture is transmitted from generation togeneration through learning, a process known as enculturation Our culturehelps to shape and influence our perceptions and behaviors

1.2 Communication

Communication, as defined by the online Oxford Advanced Learner’sDictionary 8th edition, is the activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or ofgiving people information Anaeto et al (2008) perceive communication as anexchange of meaning, which each person comes into the communication situation withhis or her own experiences which he or she is going to exchange with othercommunication participants Whereas, Savic (2002) sees communication thetransference of information to other people who are interested in the situation.According to this opinion, communication is only limited to the scope of the peopleinterested in the conversation, not the others, which is quite more narrow view incomparison with the definition given out by the Oxford dictionary or Anaeto et al Onthe other hand, Micheal (2012) introduces a broader and more general description ofcommunication, in which “communication is giving, receiving or exchanging ideas,information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals orgroups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions”(para 10) He also emphasizes that this broad definition also includes body language,skills of speaking and writing and stresses on listening as a significant part ofcommunication This research uses definition stated by Micheal (2012), as thedefinition is systematically presented in details and moreover, harmonious with theprevious introduced definitions

There are a number of different ways to classify communication Aarti (2011)categorizes communication into four types, namely verbal communication, non-verbalcommunication, written communication and visual communication Verbalcommunication regards spoken language as its outstanding feature, which concernssounds, words, language and speaking Non-verbal communication involves physical

ways of communication, for example, smell and body language Writtencommunication receives written language for its highlighted feature, while visualcommunication is of visual display of information Of these four types, verbalcommunication and non-verbal communication are the main ones Unlike Aarti, Dubey

& Burman (n.d.) have a different method to classify communication, which bases onthe number of communication participants, namely intra-personal communication,interpersonal communication and mass communication The first type impliesindividual reflection, contemplation and meditation The second one is commonlyagreed as direct communication between two or more people, while the last one dealswith communicating with a large number of people, often a community or populace;and is generally identified with tools of modern mass media

Regarding intercultural communication, there are a number of differentdefinitions and perceptions for the term Ting-Toomey (1999) claims that interculturalcommunication is the communication of people from different cultural communities.This definition is narrowed down by Gudykunst (2003), as the scholar viewsintercultural communication only in the sense of interaction between people fromdifferent nationalities On the other hand, Martin & Nakayama (2007) broaden thedefinition introduced by Ting-Toomey (1999) into the sense of interaction betweenindividuals from ethnic, religious and/or regional background Despite having differentapproaches to the term, all definitions above commonly mention the interactionbetween people from different cultural backgrounds Arent (2009:2), therefore, definesintercultural communication in a more holistic way, thus will be adapted in thisresearch as “Intercultural communication is the sending and receiving of messagesacross languages and cultures It is also a negotiated understanding of meaning inhuman experiences across social systems and societies.”

1.3 Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

According to Hofstede (n.d.), six cultural dimensions include Power Distance,Individualism versus collectivism, Masculinity versus femininity, Uncertaintyavoidance, Long-term versus short-term orientation, and Indulgence versus Restraint

Power distance regards the acceptance of less powerful individuals to the factthat power is unequally distributed Hofstede (n.d.) concerns the society’s inequalityhandling the most important issue There are a number of adversarial characteristicsbetween LPD and HPD communities According to this viewpoint, people in HPDsocieties accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place without the need tohave explanation, while in communities with LPD, people try to balance thedistribution of power and demand justification for inequalities of power

The next dimension is individualism versus collectivism Hofstede (1991, cited

in Bassett, 2004) views individualism the preference for a loosely-knit socialframework Societies with individualism see people take care of themselves and theirimmediate families only In contrast, collectivism represents the choice towards aclose-knit social framework People can expect affection and protection from theirrelatives or certain cohesive in-group members for the exchange of undoubted loyalty

The third cultural dimension is called masculinity versus femininity Themasculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement,heroism, assertiveness and material reward for success; hence, masculine society ismore competitive than feminine one (Hofstede, n.d.) Its opposite, femininity, standsfor a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life, thusthe society is more consensus-oriented than masculine one According to Hofstede(1991, cited in Bassett, 2004), masculinity refers to societies in which social genderroles are clearly distinct while femininity pertains to societies in which social genderroles overlap each other

The degree of ambiguity and uncertainty that can be tolerated is perceived byHofstede as uncertainty avoidance, the fourth dimension Hofstede (n.d.) believes that

countries with strong uncertainty avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief andbehaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviours and ideas; while in weakuncertainty avoidance societies, a more relaxed attitude in which practices count morethan principles is maintained.

Long-term versus short-term orientation constitutes the fifth dimension ForHofstede (n.d.), “the long-term orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealingwith society’s search for virtue”, while “societies with a short-term orientationgenerally have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth” He called thiscultural value “Confucian dynamism” (cited in Bassett, 2004:3)

Last but not least, the pair of indulgence versus restrain is the sixth and introduced dimension In Hofstede’s opinion (n.d.), while indulgence stands in societythat witnesses quite free complacence of basic and natural human drives that are related

newest-to enjoying life and having fun, restraint society prevents gratification of needs andregulates it by means of strict social norms

As this paper investigate the manifestation of power distance in Australian andVietnamese university environment, this dimension is discussed more thoroughly inthe next section

2 Related studies on the definition and manifestations of Power distance

Power distance, in Hofstede’s viewpoint, is defined as the extent to which theless powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect andaccept that power is distributed unequally (1991) A review on the Hofstede’s 1991book retrieved from psychicsahar.com (2003) adds with notice that Power distanceindex only measures the individual's perception of the degree of inequality in a society,not the degree of wealth Another opinion towards power distance is from EuropeanCommission (2006:10), which “the Power Distance index Hofstede defines does notreflect an objective difference in power distribution but rather the way people perceivepower differences.” Archer (2011:para 2) sees Power distance in the angle of the

extent to which “major differences between the most powerful and the least powerful(the “haves and have-nots”) are accepted within the culture.” Although the wordings ofthe three concepts’ ways of understanding are different, the content delivered is almostthe same Nguyen (2010), therefore, views power distance the issue of whether or notstatus is important to a society

Regarding the manifestation, Hofstede (n.d.) raises some differences betweensocieties of HPD and ones of LPD He sees that people in large power distancesocieties, people “accept a hierarchical order” in which everyone has a certain placewhich further justification is not necessary (para.1) Andersen (2003, cited in Nguyen,2010) clarifies this as in large power distance societies, employees consider employers

to be mentors and will not question or doubt the given orders In societies with LPD,residents strive to equalise the distribution of power and demand justification forinequalities of power

Archer (2011) provides examples for this He points out the lowest Powerdistance index scored by countries strongly giving emphasis to equality, opportunities

to rise in society, et cetera Some countries in this list are Austria, Israel, Denmark,New Zealand, and Ireland On the other hand, the highest Power distance scores belong

to countries “where massive differences between the powerful and the powerless arenormal and accepted parts of life” (para 4) Some of the countries scoring high index

in Power distance cultural dimension include Malaysia, Guatemala, Panama, thePhilippines, and Mexico

In addition, Archer (2011) also presents some differences in detail betweenlarge power distance communities and small power distance ones He takes the

example contextualized from a marketing department (See Table 1).

Table 1: The differences between a large power distance marketing department and a small power distance one

The powerful feel they have so much to

lose that they instinctively go on the

defense, only approving safe,

comfortable, familiar solutions

Executives understand the dangers ofcomfort and monotony, and theydemonstrate their willingness to attemptbold and innovative solution

Apart from numbers in spreadsheets,

employees rarely notice any observable

difference created by their actions

Employees see the results of theiractions, and can really feel the differencebetween what works and what doesn’t.Employees are expected to stay in their

place and not make waves Creative ideas can come from anyone.Employees are encouraged to speak up

instead of sitting quietly

People who can actually make important

decisions are inaccessible, protected by

layers of middle management

Lower-level employees are empowered

to make important decisions, allowingthem to happen quickly and with morecontext

Managers view employees who

challenge norms or questioning

decisions as disrespecting their

authority

The company culture values employeeswho question decisions and challengeaccepted norms

Priority is placed on never making

embarrassing mistakes, making it

difficult to take a stand on anything

Employees are encouraged to try newideas and allowed to fail gracefully,helping them feel [that] it’s safeenvironment for innovation (which leads

to the big game-changing ideas)

Managers are looking for immediately

demonstrable results, leading to a focus

on tactics over strategy

Decision-makers understand that theday-to-day execution of a long-termvision isn’t always easily measurable.The culture encourages gut instincts,trust, and a willingness to let a strategyplay out before killing it

Source: Archer, 2011

Greer & Kleef (2008) mention another aspect of Power distance, which relates

to conflict resolution They see that HPD helps justify the roles of each member in agroup, which may facilitate conflict resolution in the team By making clear of rolesand positions, power distance may play the role as an experience to guide conflictresolution in teams where members have a low level of power On the contrary, thetwo authors see the downside of power distance in resolving conflict if the averagelevel of member’s power is high, as members with high organizational power may also

be more competitive due to the fact that they are so close to the top Therefore, it isbest for the group if its members both include high and low level of power This is alsoagreed by Nahapiet & Ghoshal (1998, cited in Greer & Kleef, 2008), as teams withboth HPD and LPD may be best for conflict resolution

Hofstede (1991) also draws out thoroughly the differences between high and LPDsocieties in terms of general norms, family, school and workplace issue Regarding this

aspect, the differences can be summarized as the following table (See Table 2).

Table 2: Power distance differences in general norms, family, school and workplace issue

Inequalities among people should be

minimized

Inequalities among people are bothexpected and desired

There should be, and there is to some

extent, interdependence between less

and more powerful people

Less powerful people should bedependent on the more powerful; inpractice, less powerful people arepolarized between dependence andcounterdependence

Parents treat children as equals Parents teach children obedience

Children treat parents as equals Children treat parents with respect

Teachers expect initiatives from students

in class Teachers are expected to take allinitiatives in class Teachers are experts who transfer

impersonal truths Teachers are gurus who transfer personalwisdom Students treat teachers as equals Students treat teachers with respect More educated persons hold less

authoritarian values than less educated

persons

Both more and less educated personsshow almost equally authoritarianvalues

Hierarchy in organizations means an

inequality of roles, established for

convenience

Hierarchy in organizations reflects theexistential inequality between higher-upsand lower-downs

Decentralization is popular Centralization is popular

Subordinates expect to be consulted Subordinates expect to be told what to

do

The ideal boss is a resourceful democrat The ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat

or good father

Privileges and status symbols are

frowned upon Privileges and status symbols formanagers are both expected and popular.Source: Hofstede, 1991

Meanwhile, power distance is said to have enormous impact on the learner’soutcome result (Paulus et al., 2005 & Wang, 2006) Before that, Hofstede (2001)figured out the exactly the same findings, as he concludes that power distance has beenaffecting the academic performance of student teams (cited in Koh & Lim 2007) Later,this is once again concerned by Hofstede (2008, cited in Li & Guo, 2012); but thistime, he concentrates particularly to the classroom environment In this work, Hofstedegives out a number of differences of teaching and learning styles as well as teacher-student relations and interaction Similarly, Tananuraksakul (2009) discusses a number

of impacts on students created by power distance She finds out a resembling result incomparison with Hofstede’s The research findings of these two scholars can be

synthesized and summarized as the following table (See Table 3).

Table 3: Power distance in classroom environment

Teachers are as equal as students

Teachers treat students as equal and they

expect to receive the same treatment

from students

Teachers are treated with respect (Olderteachers more than younger ones)

Student initiation is “premium” A strict order is established, as teacher

always initiate first

Uninvited interventions in class are

expected and questions can be raised at

any time

Students are supposed to speak only ifthey are allowed and invited In otherwords, “students were required to listen

to the teacher quietly and wait until theywere allowed to raise their handspolitely.”

Teachers are supposed to cope with

disagreement and criticism from

The education process is

student-centered Therefore, the learners are

subject to “find their own intellectual

Teachers expect their students to engage

themselves in an active

participatory-interactive environment

In some lessons, students are selected toask questions which are very structured

Students never call teachers by first

In modern education, the idea of communicative language teaching and learninghas placed the learners into center, it would be quite subjective to conclude in everylarge power distance society, none of the small power distance manifestation isapplied As a result, to see whether there are differences or not, surveys need to bedone in order to get evidence to comprehend

3 Power distance index of Vietnam and Australia

Figure 1: A comparison of cultural dimension index between Vietnam and

Australia (Hofstede, n.d.)

5 LTO Long-termed vs short-termed orientation

As can be seen from the chart, Vietnam scores 70 for power distance index andAustralia scores 36 According to Hofstede, 70 is a high score for power distance index,thus places Vietnam into the group of HPD countries On the other hand, Australiascores just 36, which, according to Hofstede, is a low power distance country

In Vietnamese context, Truong & Nguyen (2002) study thoroughly on thepower distance aspect According to them, the HPD characteristic manifests in thedaily life as well as in business of Vietnamese people In family, children have to obeyparents’ orders In any organisations, no matter business or administrative-career, there

is a clear subordinate-superior relationship Titles, status, and formality are veryimportant in Vietnamese society Nguyen (2010) adds more details and indicatesVietnam’s special situation The scholar sees that the combination between Communistphilosophy and traditional values makes up the specialty of Vietnam Communismviews everyone to be equal in every walk of life, while traditional values, stronglyinfluenced by Confucianism (Hoang & Dung, 2009, cited in Cao, 2012), shows theopposite Therefore, complicated social interaction and communication style is formed

As a result, LPD manifestation can be found in macro socio-political situations (i.e.law), whereas HPD presents in micro daily social situations as those in family, school,and workplace Sharing the same opinion, Gudykunst (2001) and Heymer (2008)specify the certain criteria of hierarchy which can be identified, namely gender(male/female), age (older/younger, parents/children), qualification (teachers/students, superior/subordinates), and money status (rich/poor) These criteria areimportant, in Heymer’s opinion, as each position is associated with specific roles,norms and expectation, which Vietnamese people always find a way to display

Whereas in Australian context, the people’s perception of power distance can besummarized as follows (Bassett, 2004) Theoretically, the issue is assessed anddiscussed with the participant of the subordinates, who are given an opportunity tomake suggestions in an attempt to resolve the situation Last but not least, conflicts,which cannot be solved internally between organization and staffs, will most likely be

solved by getting the union In addition, Taylor (n.d:para.4) views some manifestations

of the Australia’s low power distance index: “This is indicative of a greater equalitybetween societal levels, including government, organizations, and even within families.This orientation reinforces a cooperative interaction across power levels and creates amore stable cultural environment.” Samovar, Porter & McDaniel (2009) believe that alow power distance implies the power in Australia being spread out to everyone instead

of being reserved to a few groups As a result, Australian people trust that they areclose and should have access to power The powerful and the powerless should try tocoexist in harmony with each other Last but not least, a hierarchy is an inequality ofroles established for convenience

4 Chapter conclusion

In short, this chapter has raised a number of related studies on the symptom ofhigh and low power distance societies, especially in working environment Sinceprevious Hofstede studies have shown that Vietnam scored 70 for Power distanceindex while Australia scored 36, the researcher situated a hypothesis here thatVietnamese students would behave in a way that a typical high power distanceenvironment would follow, whereas Australian students would be likely to manifest theLPD behaviors Therefore, this research was hoped to yield evidence to support orprotest that hypothesis

In addition, since there was little research on this topic in Vietnamese universityenvironment, this gap opened a path for the researcher to work on In suchcircumstance, the researcher would base on the comparison between the two types ofcultures raised by scholars to design questionnaire as an instrument in this research.Hopefully, the findings could contribute to fill in the indicated gap

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter was written in order to present the methodology that the researchemployed Critical analysis and discussion on choosing research participants as well assampling method would be thoroughly discussed Moreover, data collection methodsand data analysis methods would be mentioned and justified

1 Discussion of participants

1.1 Selection of participants

As mentioned in the research title, manifestations of power distance in universityenvironment perceived by Vietnamese and Australian students were investigated;therefore, students from both countries were chosen to participate in research In orderfor the comparison between the two nations to be balance and to enhance the reliability

of the research, students chosen in Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne wasAustralian-European native speakers; while in Vietnam, the researcher engaged nativeVietnamese students from ULIS, VNU to be the research participants

In order to be involved in the research, participants had to satisfy twocompulsory conditions: native nationality and age

First of all, they had to be native speakers in either two countries As stated byJulia Gillard (n.d.), the current Prime Minister of Australia, it should be noticed thatthis country is a multicultural one Therefore, it should be understood that in Australianuniversities, there could be many overseas students of various nationalities Under suchcircumstance, in order to get most trustworthy information and fit the research purpose,

it was best to take native-speaker students from this country as the researchparticipants Similarly, and in order for the comparison to be balance and reliable,Vietnamese native students were taken as participants as well

The second condition was age As aforementioned in the scope of the studysection, this research only sought answer from undergraduate students Therefore, the

students had to be certainly at the common undergraduate age, which depended on thetwo countries’ education system According to the Working in Australia website,young people aged 17 or 18 and older may choose continue with formal further study(university and higher education) Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the age for higher educationsystem falls into 18 and older (MOET, 1993) Therefore, the age of participants rangesfrom 17 to 24, since the undergraduate programs last for four to five years in bothcountries

1.2 Sampling method

In this research, purposive sampling method was employed As mentioned byTongco (2007:151), this method is used when “information is held by only certainmembers of the community.” Oliver (2006:para.1) expresses an agreement with thisopinion, but further notifies that this method is “based upon a variety of criteria whichmay include specialist knowledge of the research issue, or capacity and willingness toparticipate in the research.” Black (1999) justifies one benefit of this samplingtechnique, which is the ability to balance the number of participants in each groupwhen multiple groups are to be selected

Therefore, a total of 50 students from both countries (25 from Australia and 25from Vietnam) were chosen to be the sample for this research 25 students fromSwinburne University of Technology, Melbourne were engaged in this researchbecause the researcher had friends currently studying in this university Thanks to thisrelationship, it was easier to administer the questionnaires since the researcher’sfinancial and time conditions were not plentiful enough Similarly and for conveniencereason, 25 Vietnamese students from ULIS, VNU were taken as research participants

concerned In this type of research, scholars study the research context with the aim of

“observing whatever may be present there, and letting further questions emerge fromcontext.” As a result, researchers can become more flexible to unexpected situationsduring the research process and this enhances the capability to “develop empiricallysupported new ideas and theories” (Ospina, 2004:2) Sandin (2003) adds more thatindividual being studied will be paid more attention to his or her actions, as well as therelation with the other participants and the community in which the study is carried out(cited in Aneas & Sandin, 2009)

Therefore, being aware of these advantages, the researcher decided to choosequalitative research as research design, as this research aimed at exploiting themanifestation of power distance in a part of university students only In other word, nogeneralization would be made This was because the researcher would like to seewhether in this small group of students, the manifestation was different from whatHofstede and other researchers mentioned or not Additionally, time and financialcondition would be a disturbing trouble if this research were carried out to generalizeits findings

3 Data collection method

3.1 Data collection instruments

3.1.1 Structured questionnaire

Ackroyd & Hughes (1981) list some main advantages of questionnaire Thisinstrument can be carried out by the researcher or by any number of people with limitedaffect to its validity and reliability Moreover, the results can usually be quickly andeasily processed by the researcher In addition, it is possible for analyzer to study thedata in a more scientific and objective manner than other forms of research Milne(1999) & Evidence Base website (2006) add more that this instrument is regarded asrelatively quick to get response and the responses are of a standardized way; therefore,this helps researchers save time and energy while studying data (Anderson, 2007) She

also reinforces that “straightforward written questions requiring an answer by ticking theappropriate box are very efficient ways of collecting facts [perceptions]” (para 8) Inaddition, structured questionnaire is widely appreciated for its efficiencies Bryant (n.d.)lists out two main advantages of this type of questionnaire First, it enables theresearchers to reach a large number of participants fast, easily and efficiently using a

“postal questionnaire.” Additionally, if closed questions are used, the questionnaire ismuch likely to be easily created Moreover, highly-structured, close-ended questions areuseful in the way that they focus on the point and enable comparisons to be made acrossgroups in the sample (Oppenheim, 1992, cited in Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007)

Therefore, these factors are beneficial for this research’s author in a number ofways First and foremost, the questionnaire was sent to Australia with the help fromresearcher’s acquaintance Due to limited financial condition which the researchercould not manage to travel to Australia to carry out this research, this was possibly thebest way to collect data In addition, highly structured questions in the questionnaireenhanced the response rate; thus would save much time and effort Moreover and mostimportantly, it was possible to make comparisons between the perception ofVietnamese student group and Australian student group thanks to the characteristics ofthis type of questionnaire

3.1.2 Semi-structured interview

Bryman (2004:66) claims that interview enhances chances for the researchers to

“investigate phenomena that are not directly observable, such as learners’ self-reportedperceptions or attitudes.” It is also known that qualitative interview data oftenwitnesses more comprehensive understandings on participant attitudes, thoughts, andactions (Kendall, 2008, cited in Harris & Brown, 2010) Semi-structured interview’sbenefits include “the ability to gain rapport and participants' trust, as well as a deeperunderstanding of responses Data sets obtained using this style will be larger than thosewith structured interviews” (Santiago, 2009:para 5) Kajornboon (2004) adds that in

this type of interview, the researchers may ask additional questions that have not beenplanned before the interview, thus can collect more data

Hence, in this research, semi-structured interview was used to elicit moreanswer from the participants, as well as some of their indirect phenomena if possible.Due to the aforementioned difficulties in financial and time condition, interview toAustralian students was carried out online via network applications (for example,Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, Google+, Facebook, et cetera) Meanwhile, Vietnamesestudents were interviewed face-to-face

3.2 Construction of data collection instrument

In this research, structured questionnaire and semi-structured were employed.This section provided a detailed justification of questionnaire items and interviewquestions In order to construct questionnaire, the researcher based on a number ofknowledge taken from literature review part to build up simulated situations whichneeded solutions, which were of two different perceptions namely HPD and LPD.Meanwhile, interview questions were brainstormed to investigate furthermanifestations These questions depended on the options that participants had chosen

in the questionnaire (See Table 4)

Table 4: Construction of data instrument

Q Questions in

questionnaires

High power distance option(s) (HPD)

Low power distance option(s) (LPD)

b It’s better for you

to do this/You aresuitable for thiswork/…

Explanation (Exp.): Subordinates expect to

be consulted (LPD) / Subordinates expect to

be told what to do (HPD)

2 Your group is a The group leader b There will be

Exp.: Subordinates expect to be consulted(LPD) / Subordinates expect to be told what

b Anyone canbecome the leader,

knowledgeable orexperienced level

Interviewquestionfocused on thereason(s) whyparticipantschose theiroptions

Exp.: More educated persons hold lessauthoritarian values than less educatedpersons (HPD) / Both more and lesseducated persons show almost equallyauthoritarian values (LPD)

a Only few groupmeetings are held

member does theirindividual work athome

Interviewquestion was

to find outhow groupmeetingsaffected thegroup workefficiency

Exp.: Decentralization is popular (LPD) /Centralization is popular (HPD)

different

opinions toward

the group leader

b The group leader

existential inequalitybetween the leaderhim/herself andgroup members

a The group leaderreflects the unequalroles and chosen forconvenience

Exp.: Hierarchy in organizations means aninequality of roles, established forconvenience (LPD) / Hierarchy inorganizations reflects the existentialinequality between higher-ups and lower-downs (HPD)

6 How do you

oppose the group

leader’s opinion?

b No, it willabsolutely not work/

You mustn’t do this/

You had to do other

a I think it’s betternot to do this/This ismore appropriateif…

things but not this…

Exp.: Similar to question 1

7 When you come

to finish at any cost /There is absolutely

no time left forextension / etc

c I believe / I seethat I cannot giveyou that extensionbecause…

Interviewquestionexploited thedata on howfrequent thegroup leadergave deadlineextension

Exp.: The ideal boss is a resourcefuldemocrat (LPD) / The ideal boss is abenevolent autocrat or good father (HPD)

8 When you have a

creative idea that

you really want

Employees are encouraged to speak upinstead of sitting quietly (LPD)

him/her and consideryou as a rebel

b The group leaderappreciates your

promises to considerit

Exp.: Managers view employees whochallenge norms or questioning decisions asdisrespecting their authority (HPD) / Thecompany culture values employees whoquestion decisions and challenge acceptednorms (LPD)

10 You and other

does the group

leader often react

Exp.: Priority is placed on never makingembarrassing mistakes, making it difficult

to take a stand on anything (HPD) /Employees are encouraged to try new ideasand allowed to fail gracefully, helping themfeel [that] it’s safe environment for

innovation (which leads to the big changing ideas) (LPD).

Interviewindicated thereasons whyfailures should

be avoided oraccepted

Exp.: Similar to question 10

between the two

a You can see thedifference betweenthe two even beforethe result was seen

Exp.: Apart from numbers in spreadsheets,employees rarely notice any observabledifference created by their actions (HPD) /Employees see the results of their actions,and can really feel the difference betweenwhat works and what doesn’t (LPD)

Exp.: Uninvited interventions in class areexpected and questions can be raised at anytime (LPD) / Students are supposed tospeak only if they are allowed and invited

In other words, “students were required tolisten to the teacher quietly and wait untilthey were allowed to raise their handspolitely” (HPD)

15 How would you

teachers’ role in

class?

b All teachers asteachers, who teachyou knowledge bylecturing

a All teachers asinstructors, who helpyou get knowledge

this question: “It varies from teachers toteachers.”

a “Teacher” + firstname of teacher

b Teacher’s firstname

Reasons forcalling teacher

in the waystudents chosewere exploited

interview

Exp.: Students never call teachers by firstname (HPD) / Teachers encourage a first-name basis (LPD)

18 You want to ask

b Call teacher’sname and go straightinto question

Exp: Similar to question 14

19 How do you treat

your teachers? b They are highlyrespected by you and

other classmates

a They are treated

as equally as otherstudents in class

Exp.: Teachers are as equal as students

Teachers treat students as equal and theyexpect to receive the same treatment fromstudents (LPD) / Teachers are treated withrespect (Older teachers more than youngerones) (HPD)

20 You realize that

Exp.: Similar to question 16

3.3 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure was carried out according to the following flow

chart (See Figure 2).

Figure 2: Data collection procedure

3.3.1 Questionnaire

The administration of questionnaire was carried out in accordance with the waythe questionnaire was administered For online administration, the researcher contactedhis acquaintance who was currently studying in Australian universities and asked themfor a help to represent the researcher to administer the questionnaire Then, completedquestionnaires would be sent to the email address stated clearly in the questionnairedocument After receiving the questionnaire, a confirmation email would be sent tothank all people who had cooperated with the researcher The questionnaire would bethen transferred to the first-analysis period Face-to-face questionnaire administrationwas applied for Vietnamese students who agreed to participate in the research Likeonline questionnaire, the researcher contacted the students in ULIS, VNU and askedthem to participate in the research If they agreed, the questionnaire would be thendelivered to them and they could complete it right away Eventually, all the receivedquestionnaires were transferred to the first-analysis period

3.3.2 Student interview

The interview took place also depending on the participants’ location ForAustralian students, online interview was done while for Vietnamese students, face-to-face interview was applied However, no matter what way it was carried out, theinterview had to go through three clear steps The first step was called selectinginterviewee, which was already helped by the preceding questionnaire The interviews

would all be recorded or taken note, depending on interviewees’ choice In the laststeps, all recorded interviews were transcribed and all unrecorded ones weretransferred into written notes These items would be then used for analysing data.

4 Data analysis method

According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005), one of the most commonly usedmethod to analyze qualitative data is content analysis Meanwhile, Palmquist(1980:para.1) concerns content analysis as a research instrument to “determine thepresence of certain words, concepts, themes, phrases, characters, or sentences withintexts or sets of texts and to quantify this presence in an objective manner.” Sharing thesame opinion with the above scholars, Zhang & Wildemuth (2009) spend timeconstructing a framework to perform the content analysis method According to Zhang

& Wildemuth’s opinion, content analysis can be carried out in eight steps namelypreparing the data, defining the unit of analysis, develop a category and a codingscheme, test coding scheme in a sample text, coding all the text, assessing codingconsistency, drawing conclusions from the coded data and reporting methods andfindings In accordance with this research context and data collection instruments, thisscheme was employed to analyse data Especially, this scheme specifically concernedthe objectivity of the research outcome, as it mentioned problems which could be facedduring the coding duration and proposed solutions to these problems

In this research, data analysis coding scheme included two categories based on

the questionnaire, which were constructed by a total of nine analysis units (See Table 5) For each of the following units, answers were arranged into two categories, namely HPD and LPD one (See Table 4)

Table 5: Data analysis units

GW1 Workload related(Q 1, 2, 4 in questionnaire) CE1 Teacher-student communication related(Q 13, 14, 18 in questionnaire)

GW2 Leader related(Q 2, 5, 6, 9, 10) CE2 Students’ perception of teacher’s role(Q 15, 19)GW3 Deadline related

GW6 Member’s result foreseeingability (Q 12)

In conclusion, this chapter has presented a number of arguments chosen andpresented in order to justify the participants and the data collection and analysismethod that this paper employed

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter was constituted to present the research findings and the discussionabout those findings Therefore, there were two parts in this chapter, namely researchfindings and discussion of the findings While the former was loyal to what had beeninvestigated via research instruments, the latter illustrated more comments and criticalanalysis of the researcher

Respectively to items in the research instruments, the two main categoriespresented in this chapter were group work and classroom environment In order to havethe best answer for the research questions, the analysis of collected data would bepresented in accordance with those questions

1 Research findings

According to Archer (2011), Hofstede (1991), Paulus et al (2005) & Wang(2006), students’ perceptions of Power distance can be categorized into two mainaspects, namely group work and classroom environment Regarding group work,indicators include Workload related, Leader related, Deadline related, New ideaproposal related, Failure related and Member’s result foreseeing ability In terms ofclassroom environment, Communication related, Teacher’s role and Teacher criticismmake up the main issues In each of the following sections, these two aspects would bepresented distinctively

1.1 Vietnamese students’ perceptions of Power distance

1.1.1 Group work

Vietnamese students’ perceptions of Power distance in terms of group work

were demonstrated as the following figure (See Figure 3)

7 GW6 Member’s result foreseeing ability

As can be seen from the chart, generally, a majority of answers came into thecategory of low power distance (LPD), whereas just over a quarter of answer numberfell into the high power distance (HPD) As a result, it could be concluded thatalthough Hofstede found Vietnam a HPD nation, the outcome of this research indicatedthat the chosen research participants, also known as a group of 25 students from ULIS,VNU, appeared to manifest the LPD behaviors However, the indicators were shown towitness different results

It was easy to recognize that Failure related made up the highest proportion forHPD group of answer with well under a half of the answers on this extreme In order toelicit more explanation, the interviewed was carried out The result turned out to berelatively identical among students who were interviewed For ones who believedfailure could happen in their group, they stated that it was very hard to be avoided right

from the very first time implementing new ideas In contrast, according to studentswho answered failure should be avoided by all means, they were confident that theycorrectly materialized the new ideas step by step; hence, there was no space for failure

This was followed by the workload related, which was the one to have thesecond highest proportion of HPD group of answers More specifically, more than ahalf of the participants agreed that to divide workload, discussion among memberswould be organized; while the rest stated that their group leader assigned the workloadfor everyone In addition, 68% of the participants revealed that it was not necessary tohold many group meetings in order to achieve the task because of many reasons First

of all, some interviewed students concerned the development of the application thathelped people work online, for example Facebook chat, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype,Google plus, et cetera Furthermore, it was quite expensive for ones who lived far awayfrom meeting place to travel for work Last but not least, discipline while workingoffline was regarded as a significant issue, as one student interviewed confessed that hecould not concentrate on the topic; instead, talked about something else but work Forthe rest 32%, they found that group meeting should be held in order for everyone tounderstand what they had to do thoroughly; and more significantly, offline meeting

“enhanced the efficiency of discussion.” Interestingly, more than four-fifths of theVietnamese participants indicated that courtesy language – a manifestation of LPDculture (for example, it’s better for you to… or you are suitable for the work…) wasused by the group leader to assign workload, while the rest pointed out that HPDstronger language (for example, you have to do this, you must do this) was employed

In contrast, member’s result foreseeing ability, deadline related and new ideaproposal were the indicators which there were least answers manifesting HPDcharacteristics Regarding deadline related, it was found out that only 6 among 25participants chose strong language, which was a characteristic of HPD, as the languagethey received for the request for extension in deadline Students also noted that theextension in deadline could only happen for a limited number of times, provided that

the responsible people had to provide acceptable reasons If this situation kept onappearing, solutions would be taken More considerably, there was just only oneperson who could not foresee the result when new ideas were about to be implemented(HPD option), whereas the rest 24 could (LPD option) In terms of new idea proposal,approximately 85% of the students would raise their original and creative ideas (LPD)while the rest dared not to do so and stayed silence (HPD)

Leader related was the category to receive most attention from the researcher, asthere were six out of total 20 questions in the questionnaires focusing on this aspect.Similarly to any other indicators, the outstanding proportion belonged to the group ofLPD answers The most noticeable answer could be of leader’s reaction to objection, as100% participants received a welcome reply from the leader that he or she promised toconsider the opinion, 92% of whom even received a courtesy reply from the leader.Meanwhile, courtesy language was used by almost all participants when opposingleader’s opinion Interestingly, opinion towards group leader made up the mostcontroversial topic in this aspect While three-fifths claimed that the group leader onlyreflected the unequal roles and was chosen for convenience (LPD), the rest 40% had amore aggressive viewpoint about this, as they viewed leader as existential inequalitybetween the leader him/herself and other group members (HPD) On the contrary,leader choosing was the indicator to witness a large number of answers on HPDmanifestations, as exactly 20 out of 25 students based on the level of knowledge andexperience to choose the leader This was concerned more in the interview, asaccording to the students who voted for highly-experienced and/or knowledgeableperson, this was the decisive factors to choose the leader because “voice of people withless experience or knowledge would be paid less respect”, or “experienced studentswere likely to have an organizing mind, which would help him/her to assign otherpeople.” On the other hand, for students who understood that anyone could become theleader regardless of experience or knowledgeable level, they perceived that since theywere experienced or knowledgeable in some aspects, “there was no guarantee that

these people could connect people and possess leadership potential, which may leadthem to assign others to follow their desire, not the reasonability.”

In conclusion, for group work, HPD answers only accounted for the minor part

of the result, while the LPD group prevailed with more than 70% of the answers Thishighly suggested that though Vietnam was officially recognized as HPD country byHofstede (1991), this fact did not fit in the context of the 25 ULIS students who werechosen to participate in the research

Figure 4: Vietnamese students’ perceptions of classroom environment

2 CE1 Teacher-student communication related

3 CE2 Students’ perception of teacher’s role

4 CE3 Students’ perception of teacher criticism

It was clear from the chart that unlike group work, the proportion of HPDanswers of classroom environment was noticeably high with well under 50% of thetotal answers Therefore, on the contrary to group work, Vietnamese participants’manifestation on classroom environment fell into HPD group, which was appropriatewith the theories constituted by Hofstede (1991) There were three indicators in thisaspect, namely Teacher-student communication related, Students’ perception ofteacher’s role and Students’ perception of teacher criticism

Among these three indicators, students’ perception of teacher criticism was theonly one to have LPD answers mostly chosen A large number of students regardedteacher criticism as a normal action, while the rest did not This was further exploited

by the researcher via interview, as Vietnamese students shared different opinions aboutthis One student viewed this issue ordinary since students often “rebelled againstthings that they found contradict to their opinion”, especially when these come fromteachers This issue became more serious when it came to unqualified teachers, who

“neither had profound knowledge nor behaved in a suitable way.” In addition, studentsclaimed that teacher was no different from other people, thus committing mistakes andbeing criticized were no different from normality Teacher criticism was alsoinvestigated via the way students reacted to teachers’ mistakes Among 25 Vietnamesestudents who were the research participants, 21 revealed that they would right awaycorrect teachers’ mistakes (LPD); meanwhile, the rest four students decided to staysilence (HPD)

In contrast to teacher criticism, teacher-student communication received mostattention on HPD answers More than 90% of the students considered teacher as theone who initiated communication and just seven students shared that teachers often had

to deal with unexpected questions from students When being asked about what types

of questions teachers had to cope with, almost all students confirmed that there weretwo main types of questions The former was lesson-related, which was quite normal

In contrast, the latter was more complicated, as students might ask irrelevant questionsfor various purposes, “just for fun” was one of which, while “playing tricks on theteachers” made up another Additionally, students’ teacher interruption behaviorscontributed largely to the HPD proportion of teacher-student communication, as morethan four-fifths of the answers concentrated on HPD option In contrast, LPD language

to address teacher was proved to be applied by more than half Vietnamese students.Explaining about this in the interview, students perceived that this way of calling

teacher showed their certain respect to the teachers; and this way of teacher calling hadbeen used for years already

In the same way, more answers on HPD option were given for the indicator ofstudents’ perception of teacher’s role Interestingly, the majority responded that the role

of teacher varied from teachers to teachers; while only three regarded teacher as the onewho taught by lecturing (HPD), and the rest nine people voted for the instruction role(LPD) Nevertheless, no matter what role they defined for teacher, it was noticeable thatall students except for only one paid a high respect for their teachers, which meant thatthey placed their teachers at least one step above themselves

To sum up, it could be drawn out that for classroom environment, students werelikely to behave in the HPD way, which appropriately proper to Hofstede’s findings result

1.2 Australian students’ perceptions of Power distance

1.2.1 Group work

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

All GW 1 GW 2 GW 3 GW 4 GW 5 GW 6

High PD answe rs (%) Low PD answe rs (%)