Kazakh power distance dimension in business discourse

The article is considered to be of current interest, because it is a relatively new area for research. This paper focuses on measuring Hofstede’s power distance index for different countries, particularly in Kazakh culture. A novel technique is proposed, where verbal index is calculated from the analysis of publically available texts delivered by representatives of different cultures. The authors analyzed public speeches made by leaders of various countries. From these texts, a verbal index was derived, which closely correlated with Hofstede’s power distance data. As a result, the authors were able to obtain a power distance index for Kazakhstan, which was previously unavailable. Furthermore, this method can be used as a cheaper alternative to conducting surveys in estimating Hofstede’s power distance indexes for different cultures.