The Application of Youth With A Mission’s Foundational Values Through Different Cultural Lenses

68 that's part of your culture that's who you are. And understand that's not a bad thing.” (C-4, personal communication, Feb 10, 2021) I-1 put it this way, "So even within the (Asian) culture, there's variances to that, but generally, they're non-confrontational, and they're non-directive, so when you get the westerners put in that, then it really challenges them." (Feb 4, 2021) There is one point I-1 made which is a good reminder for us who study culture, "Of even what they thought was Asia, now I just say to them sometimes go to Singapore they're taskorientated, they're straight; they're directive, they're like the west, but they're Asian. So we have such a mix here in Asia that you just can't afford to pigeonhole people. Even within cultures, there's differences there, and so that's the challenge of how do you bring a commonality so that people can enjoy the difference."

Power Distance When doing the interviews, the question was asked if the participant understood the concept of power distance. Four of the participants could define it (three individualists and one collectivist), while the other six needed a definition provided. All of the individualists spoke about it in negative terms. I-4, who had an understanding of power distances, said, "Where there's an underlying fear of leadership because of the power, that's what creates the distance. So you don't feel like you can be close to a leader." (Feb. 23, 2021) He, later on, said when referring to it in meetings, "So I think the tendency is those with perceived power distance can tend to dominate, and then oftentimes, those without it can just kind of go with the flow." I-1, who also understood the concept, said, "What I love about YWAM is that we try and bring that together so that there isn't any power distance. And so that we're like this (making hand signals meaning all