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Received: 2026-01-11 | Accepted: 2026-03-17 | Published: 2026-06-30

Title

Impact of power distance on decision quality in project management: a cross-cultural study

Abstract

International projects increasingly rely on cross-cultural collaboration under conditions of uncertainty, time pressure, and incomplete information, making decision quality a critical but difficult-to-measure determinant of project performance. Despite its importance, comparable project-level indicators of decision quality are rarely available for cross-country analysis. This study addresses this gap by examining whether cross-national differences in hierarchy acceptance are systematically associated with decision-environment integrity, used as a proxy for comparable decision-quality conditions in international project contexts. Drawing on a conceptual framework that links power distance to decision quality through voice, information sharing, and challenge capacity, the study adopts a parsimonious, proxy-based cross-national design. Empirically, it uses a matched-country dataset of 69 countries combining Hofstede’s Power Distance Index (PDI) and the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The analysis applies distributional testing, Pearson correlation, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, and cluster analysis. The results reveal a strong negative association between PDI and CPI (r = −0.663, p < 0.001) and a statistically significant regression relationship (CPI = 88.850 − 0.601 × PDI; R² = 0.439), indicating that higher hierarchy acceptance co-occurs with weaker integrity conditions of the decision environment. Cluster analysis further identifies two stable decision-environment profiles combining hierarchy acceptance and integrity conditions. The findings do not imply cultural determinism but highlight a systematic vulnerability pattern: in higher-hierarchy contexts, decision quality becomes more dependent on compensatory governance mechanisms that preserve voice, escalation, documentation, and independent review. The study contributes by providing a transparent, reproducible macro-level test of a theoretically specified decision-quality mechanism and by translating cultural differences into governance-relevant insights for international projects.

Keywords

project management, voice mechanisms, Power Distance Index (PDI), Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)

JEL classifications

D81 , D83 , D91 , M10 , M14

URI

http://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/6637

DOI

DOI 10.9770/b3633688587

Pages

25-39

Funding

The article has been developed and funded within the Daugavpils University’s (Latvia) research project No 14-95/2026/16 “Human Resource Management in Cultural Diversity: Organizational Challenges and Strategies”.

This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License