Colombian Salesperson

According to the reading of Leadership Behavior and Organizational Commitment: A Comparative Study of American and Indian Salespersons, I will try to define the Colombian Salesperson taking into account the variables that they talk about in the reading.

According to Hofstede, Colombia has high power distance, but low individualism. In Colombia people prefer to work in groups and they respect the hierarchy of the Company and comply with it. In this specific case, it applies that cultures with high power distance tends to have low levels of individualism.

Related to the H1 of HPD/LI where Colombia will fit, I think it applies that there is a negative relation between initiation and role of ambiguity. This could be seen in some cases when managers delegate and directly assign the tasks for their subordinates and these subordinates have not other path than start doing what they are ask for without questioning and asking for advices, that’s why I think, it’s really common within our culture that people make mistakes while they are performing their tasks, because they are not trained to ask when they have doubts or dichotomies.


1. Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions. Itim International. Retrieved from: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_colombia.shtml
2. Agarwal, S. DeCarlo, Vyas, S. Leadership Behavior and Organizational Commitment: A
Comparative Study of American and Indian Salespersons. Journal of International Business Studies; 1999 4th Quarter, Vol. 30 Issue 4. Retrieved from: agarwal_decarlo_vyas_1999 sasia tema 8.pdf