High Uncertainty Avoidance

High uncertainty avoidance cultures endeavor to reduce unpredictability and ambiguity through intolerance of deviant ideas and behaviors, emphasizing consensus, resisting change, and adhering to traditional social protocols. These cultures are often characterized by relatively high levels of anxiety and stress. People with this orientation believe that life carries the potential for continual hazards, and to avoid or mitigate these dangers, there is a strong need for laws, written rules, planning, regulations, rituals, ceremonies, and established societal, behavioral, and communication conventions, all of which add structure to life. Social expectations are clearly established and consistent. Nations with a strong uncertainty avoidance tendency are listed in Table 2.

Japan is a high uncertainty culture with many formal social protocols that help to predict how people will behave in almost every social interaction. Japan’s high uncertainty avoidance was illustrated in a poll taken in 2007 which revealed that for Japanese in their 20s, over 42 percent of males and more than 38 percent of females had reservations about living overseas [47].

Low Uncertainty Avoidance

At the other end of the continuum are low uncertainty avoidance cultures. They more easily accept the uncertainty inherent in life, tend to be tolerant of the unusual, and are not as threatened by different ideas and people. They prize initiative, dislike the structure associated with hierarchy, are willing to take risks, are flexible, think that there should be as few rules as possible, and depend not so much on experts as on themselves. As a whole, members of low uncertainty avoidance cultures are less constrained by social protocol.

As with other value dimensions, differences in uncertainty avoidance influence communication and activities in varied contexts. In a classroom composed of children from a low uncertainty avoidance culture, such as Britain, you would expect to see students feeling comfortable dealing with unstructured learning situations, being rewarded for innovative approaches to problem solving, and learning without strict timetables. A different behavior is the case in high uncertainty avoidance cultures like Germany, where you find that students expect structured learning situations, firm timetables, and well-defined objectives [48].

TABLE 2

Uncertainty Avoidance Values for Fifty Countries and Three Regions

RANK COUNTRY RANK COUNTRY RANK COUNTRY

1 Greece 19 Israel 37 Australia

2 Portugal 20 Colombia 38 Norway

3 Guatemala 21/22 Venezuela 39/40 South Africa

4 Uruguay 21/22 Brazil 39/40 New Zealand

5/6 Belgium 23 Italy 41/42 Indonesia

5/6 El Salvador 24/25 Pakistan 41/42 Canada

7 Japan 24/25 Austria 43 United States

8 Yugoslavia 26 Taiwan 44 Philippines

9 Peru 27 Arab Countries 45 India

10~15 Spain 28 Ecuador 46 Malaysia

10~15 Argentina 29 Germany 47/48 Great Britain

10~15 Panama 30 Thailand 47/48 Ireland

10~15 France 31/32 Iran 49/50 Hong Kong

10~15 Chile 31/32 Finland 49/50 Sweden

10~15 Costa Rica 33 Switzerland 51 Denmark

16/17 Turkey 34 West Africa 52 Jamaica

16/17 South Korea 35 Netherlands 53 Singapore

18 Mexico 36 East Africa

The lower the number, the more the country can be classified as one that dislikes uncertainty; a

higher number is associated with a country that feels comfortable with uncertainty. Source: Adapted

from G. Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations

Across Nations, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001).