Uncertainty avoidance is a cultural concept that significantly influences the workplace. It describes how a society or culture deals with situations it perceives as uncertain, ambiguous, or unknown. This avoidance manifests in different ways in companies and in the way people work.
Cultures with High Uncertainty Avoidance
In cultures with high uncertainty avoidance, the need to establish norms is an emotional and cultural reaction. These societies prefer very structured and organised environments, which is why rules are created to regulate labour relations, production processes, and service protocols. Precision, punctuality, and a sense of urgency are hallmarks of the way people work in these cultures, where time is considered a valuable resource.
These cultures also tend to be very bureaucratic, meticulous, and detail-oriented in their processes. Employees are less participative and tend to be more conservative.
Cultures with Low Uncertainty Avoidance
At the opposite extreme, cultures with low uncertainty avoidance tend to feel uncomfortable with the proliferation of norms. Rules are only established in cases of extreme necessity or to control exceptions, as is the case with traffic laws. In these environments, people are accustomed to solving problems without a strict set of rules, thanks to an education that fosters debate and participation.
In these cultures, people don’t work intensively as a system, but rather when necessary. Punctuality and precision are not innate cultural values and must be learned. The organisational “anarchy” of these societies, for example, could explain why they don’t develop technologies at a similar pace to other cultures. Still, they are also more prone to innovation and imagination. The obsession with regulation and control disappears.
How is this Avoidance Explained?
The origin of uncertainty avoidance is found mainly in political regimes and religions. Societies that have lived under an authoritarian central power or where religion has been imposed by force and has persecuted dissidents tend to have a high degree of uncertainty avoidance.
Countries that were part of the Roman Empire or those with religions that have not tolerated criticism (such as Catholicism or Calvinism, which have punished dissent) usually exhibit high levels of uncertainty avoidance.
