What is Uncertainty Avoidance?

Uncertainty avoidance is a cross-cultural phenomenon that describes how different cultures or societies react to and tolerate uncertainties. More specifically, it refers to how communities cope with unpredictability and uncertainty that are evident in the major aspects of governance. 

Back to: Management & Organizational Behavior

Uncertainty Avoidance in Society

Uncertainty avoidance reflects the degree at which a society or members of a society, tolerate, cope with or combats unpredictability otherwise known as the unknown. It describes individuals reaction to ambiguity. 

 Using the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), countries fall into different ranks depending on their tolerance for uncertainty. 

They develop and implement laws driven towards sustainable development and prevention of uncertainty. 

Some countries have strong or high UAI, these are countries with conventional behaviors and standards approaches. 

Countries with weak UAI on the other hand embrace unconventional practices and are comfortable with uncertainty. 

Individuals or countries with high uncertainty avoidance come up with effective measures and ideas to combat or reduce the occurrence of the unknown and make changes and step by step by planning to mitigate uncertainty. 

Many countries are in the high Uncertainty Avoidance index (UAI), these countries include Mexico, Germany, Finland, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Korea, Greece, Portugal and Guatemala. Greece, Guatemala, and Portugal are however the highest uncertainty avoidance countries. 

Although, quite a number of countries fall in the category of low uncertainty avoidance countries, Jamaica, Denmark, and Singapore are regarded as the lowest uncertainty avoidance countries.