Hofstede • Culture Matters

Examples of Uncertainty Avoidance

by: Chris Smit - September 3rd, 2012 Add Comment

Since this is (or at least I think it is) one of the most difficult dimensions of Professor Geert Hofstede to explain, it makes sense to give some extra context and examples of Uncertainty Avoidance.

Correlations with Uncertainty Avoidance

I found that to best understand Uncertainty Avoidance it works to link real life examples (or phenomenon) to this dimensions in terms of correlations.

Below you see an image with an incomplete (!) list of correlations with Uncertainty Avoidance. I’ll explain them below the image. So in a culture that scores high on Uncertainty Avoidance people will do/show/consume/etc. more of the points mentioned below. Read More

What is Uncertainty Avoidance

by: Chris Smit - August 13th, 2012 18 Comments

From all of Professor Geert Hofstede’s dimensions I find this the most difficult one to explain in a Cultural Awareness Training.

Reason being is that most people seem to associate Uncertainty Avoidance with only formal rules and nothing else.

High and Low Uncertainty Avoidance

My experience is that Western Europeans and North Americans view mediterranean countries as quite relaxed and therefore low scoring on this dimension. Whilst the opposite is true. Italy Greece and Spain all score relatively high. Read More

Prof. Geert Hofstede on Cultural Awareness

by: Chris Smit - April 24th, 2012 3 Comments

Meet the “Master” of Cultural Awareness Training: Prof. Dr. Geert Hofstede.

In this informal, forty minute interview he explains, in his own words, the 5 dimensions of Culture, being:

Power Distance
Individualism
Masculinity
Uncertainty Avoidance
Long Term Orientation Read More

Cultural Awareness Training: A Definition

by: Chris Smit - March 16th, 2012 1 Comment

You’re on the website Culture Matters now. But what does this word “Culture” mean? Or better, in which context is it used on this website?

When you look up “Culture” in Wikipedia, there are 8 chapters of information and dozens of pages. Using Google to look up “Culture” gives you over 1.5 million hits. Not very helpful. Read More

Cultural Awareness Training: On Individualism & Collectivism

by: Chris Smit - November 3rd, 2011 Add Comment

How do you respect your neighbor?

Do you leave eachother alone and respect eachother’s privacy, or is the neighbor more of a neighborhood whereby you might even keep in touch with neighbors from a long time ago?

From a western perspective it is one of the most difficult dimensions of Hofstede to comprehend; What is Individualism versus collectivism?

Professor Geert Hofstede even wrote a whole book on it (Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method, and Applications (Cross Cultural Research and Methodology)). In more simple (and his own) words it is explained in this short video below.

Cultural Awareness Training and Power Distance. Hofstede explains

by: Chris Smit - November 3rd, 2011 1 Comment

One of the easiest dimensions to understand in Cultural Awareness Training from Professor Geert Hofstede’s 4 dimensions of culture is Power Distance. Sometimes attributed to as much as 80% of all the “difficulties” people experience when working internationally.

In this short video professor Hofstede explains the essentials of one of his dimensions called Power Distance.

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