Han Mingyi-------CWID:11682799---------Section(350-001) South Korea, Switzerland and United States

Power Distance: The first time I saw the phase “power distance”, I thought it must mean the ability that government control the whole country; however, it means to what degree that a person can influence others’ behaviors and ideas. Compared the score of power distance in United States,
Switzerland and South Korea, we can easily conclude that South Korea is a much more hierarchical country. In South Korea, people tend to influence by others, thus prefer a central organized society without so many arguments about the inequalities exists. On the contrast, United State and Switzerland all have lower ranking of power distance. It indicates that people in that two countries try to minimize the inequities in the society. They are independent and not believe in superior control.
Individualism
Individualism is highly associated with power distance. In United States and Switzerland, they are much more independent so the score of individualism is relevantly high. Countries like United States and Switzerland are defined as individualist societies, in which people tend to only care about themselves and their direct family. A case in point is that Americans always pursue “liberty and justice for all”, which indicates that they emphasis everyone born equals in the society. Examples lie in various aspects of Swiss and American’s life. For instance, the relationship between employer and employee are contrast but based on bilateral advantage. American are the most active people in the world, but it is hard to keep relationship with them. Relatively, South Korea, with an 18 individualism score, is considered to be a collectivistic society. In South Korea, it is important to commit to the member “group”, not limited within direct family. They believe loyalty