Part I Uncertainty Avoidance (UA)
The lecture is devoted to such dimensions of Hofstede’s five-dimensional (5D) model of differences among national cultures as: Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) and Masculinity versus Femininity.
Tell me please, what other dimensions of Hofstede’s 5D model are you familiar with? (You have already been familiar with Power Distance and Individualism versus Collectivism).
Lecture's plan for Part I
1. The term Uncertainty Avoidance (UA).
2. Uncertainty Avoidance, Risk avoidance, Anxiety and Fear.
3. Weak and Strong Uncertainty Avoidance Cultures in different communication settings.
4. Uncertainty avoidance Index and its importance for various countries.
Uncertainty Avoidance and Ukraine.
Let’s start with UA. In the book “Culture and Organization. Software of mind” by Geert Hofstede and Michael Minkov in Unit 6 “ What is different is dangerous” there is a very interesting example which show the largest difference between the two countries called uncertainty avoidance.
“ In the 1960s Arndt Sorge did his military service in the West German army. Near his hometown, where he spent his free weekends, there were barracks of the British “Army on the Rhine.” Sorge was keen on watching British motion pictures with the original sound track, which were shown in the British barracks, and he walked up to the sentry to ask whether he, as a German soldier, could attend. The sentry referred him to the sergeant of the guard, who called the second in command on the telephone and then tore a page out of a notebook, on which he wrote, “Mr Arndt Sorge has permission to attend fi lm shows,” and signed it, adding that permission was granted by the second in command. Sorge used his privilege not only on that occasion but also several other times, and the notebook page always opened the gate for him, in conjunction with his German army identity card.
After he was demobilized, he asked the British sentry whether he, now as a civilian, could continue to come. The sentry looked at the notebook page, said, “This is for you personally,” and let him in.”
Arndt Sorge became an organization sociologist, and he remembers this experience as an example of how differently the British seemed to handle such an unplanned request in comparison with what he was accustomed to in the German army. The Germans would have taken more time and would have needed the permission of more authorities; they would have asked for more information about the applicant and issued a more formal document. Finally, the document would have been issued to him as a member of the armed forces, and there would have been no possibility of his using it after his demobilization. “
Germany and Britain have a lot in common. Both are Western European countries, both speak a Germanic language, their populations are of roughly equal size, and the British royal family is of German descent. Yet it does not take a very experienced traveler to notice the considerable cultural difference between the two countries. Sorge’s surprise at the easygoing approach of the British sentry suggests that the two countries differ in their tolerance of the ambiguous and the unpredictable.
The term Uncertainty Avoidance (UA)
The term uncertainty avoidance has been borrowed from American organization sociology, in particular from the work of James G. March “A Behavioural Theory of the Firm” (1963). The first key concept from “A Behavioural Theory of the Firm” on which internationalization process theory builds is the notion of uncertainty avoidance.
I would like to give you some definitions of UA taken from different sources.
1. " Uncertainty Avoidance, is "a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity". It reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. The uncertainty avoidance dimension expresses the degree to which a person in a society feels uncomfortable with a sense of uncertainty and ambiguity. The fundamental issue here is how a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen?"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_avoidance]
2. “ Uncertainty avoidance is the degree to which members of a culture feel threatened by situations that are unknown to them” [Ann C. Wintergerst, Joe McVeigh “Culture. Practical Approaches to Intercultural Communication”. Pearson Education, Inc. 2011].
3. “Uncertainty Avoidance: the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened. by ambiguous or unknown situations. One of the dimensions of national cultures (from weak to strong). This feeling is, among other manifestations, expressed through nervous stress and in a need for predictability: a need for written and unwritten rules.”
“Ways of handling uncertainty, of course, are part and parcel of any human institution in any country. All human beings have to face the fact that we do not know what will happen tomorrow: the future is uncertain, but we have to live with it anyway. Extreme ambiguity creates intolerable anxiety. Every human society has developed ways to alleviate this anxiety.” [Geert Hofstede, G. Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov “Culture and Organizations. Software of the Mind” The McGraw-Hill 2010, p.189].
Uncertainty Avoidance, Risk avoidance, Anxiety and Fear
Anxiety is a term taken from psychology and psychiatry that expresses a diffuse “ state of being uneasy or worried about what may happen.” It should not be confused with fear, which has an object, a feeling you get when you are afraid or worried that something bad is going to happen. We are afraid of something, but anxiety has no object.
Uncertainty avoidance should not be confused with risk avoidance. Uncertainty is to risk as anxiety is to fear. Fear and risk are both focused on something specific: an object in the case of fear, and an event in the case of risk. Risk is often expressed as a percentage of probability that a particular event will happen. Anxiety and uncertainty are both diffuse feelings. Anxiety, it was argued earlier, has no object. Uncertainty has no probability attached to it. It is a situation in which anything can happen and we have no idea what.
“ For example, imagine you’re walking down a dark street. You may feel a little uneasy and perhaps you have a few butterflies in your stomach. These sensations are caused by anxiety that is related to the possibility that a stranger may jump out from behind a bush, or approach you in some other way, and harm you. This anxiety is not the result of a known or specific threat. Rather it comes from your mind’s vision of the possible dangers that may result in the situation.
Fear is an emotional response to a known or definite threat. Using the scenario above, let’s say you’re walking down a dark street and someone points a gun at you and says, “This is a stick up.” This would likely elicit a response of fear." [http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/understandingpanic/a/fearandanxiety.htm]
Weak and Strong Uncertainty Avoidance Cultures
According to the ways of handling uncertainty Hofstede divided the cultures (countries) into two types: weak or low uncertainty avoidance (UA) cultures and strong or high uncertainty avoidance (UA) cultures.
Ann C. Wintergerst and Joe McVeigh speak about truth value as “a dimension of culture that ranges from strong uncertainty avoidance (UA) to weak uncertainty avoidance (UA)” ['' Culture. Practical Approaches to Intercultural Communication”. Pearson Education, Inc. 2011].
Cultures with a high (strong) level of uncertainty avoidance are less comfortable with uncertainty and try through rules, regulations, laws, controls, and behavioral norms to reduce or manage uncertainty and ambiguity. It is worth noting that high UA cultures attempt to manage unstructured, ambiguous situations not only through formal, explicit rules and laws, but also through informal, implicit rules. On the contrary, low (weak)uncertainty avoidance cultures are comfortable with uncertainty, and are relaxed in the face of ambiguity or unstructured situations. These cultures do not rely as heavily on rule-oriented mechanisms for uncertainty mitigation, are typically more tolerant of risk taking, and are more open to change.
We may define the key differences between weak and strong uncertainty avoidance societies in different communication settings: family – education/school – workplace – state structure – ideas/philosophy
UNCERTAINTY
