Breaking down power distance into 5 dimensions

Prior research has frequently used an employee's power distance orientation to explain differences in leadership effectiveness, work attitudes, consumer attitudes, and job performance. However, researchers have reported low reliabilities of power distance scales. One reason for these low reliabilities might be the application of country-level power distance scales to the individual level of analysis. Another reason might be the existence of different measurement scales that capture important but not all aspects of power distance. To expand power distance research, we propose a construct mixology approach and introduce a new fine-grained conceptualization of power distance at the individual level of analysis, which we call psychological power distance. Psychological power distance is based on five sub-dimensions: 1) Power, 2) conflict with authority figure, 3) hierarchy, 4) prestige, and 5) social distance. To validate this new conceptualization, we conducted a survey study with 8423 people from 28 countries. The results support the five-dimensional conceptualization of psychological power distance among employees from different countries.