Uncertainty Avoidance, Face-Saving, and Organizations

Chapter 8 describes the cultural dimension uncertainty avoidance. The chapter begins with a representative example to explain how those with high uncertainty avoidance also feel more stress, try to maintain the status quo, prefer structure, formalization, rules, and rituals because they are predictable. Since those with high uncertainty avoidance have anxiety, they first have to reduce their uncertainty before dealing with new people and are known to express aggression when stressed out. The associations between uncertainty avoidance and tightness, looseness, trust, openness, corruption, sexual harassment, organizational teamwork, leadership, and organizational rituals are also discussed in this chapter.