Page 244 - Cultures and Organizations

What Is Different Is Dangerous 217

TABLE 6.4 Key Differences Between Weak and Strong Uncertainty-
Avoidance Societies
III: Work, Organization, and Motivation

WEAK UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE STRONG UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

More changes of employer, shorter Fewer changes of employer, longer
service service, more diffi cult work-life
balance
There should be no more rules than There is an emotional need for rules,
strictly necessary. even if they will not work.
Work hard only when needed. There is an emotional need to be busy
and an inner urge to work hard.
Time is a framework for orientation. Time is money.
Tolerance for ambiguity and chaos Need for precision and formalization
Belief in generalists and common Belief in experts and technical
sense solutions
Top managers are concerned with Top managers are concerned with
strategy. daily operations.
More new trademarks Fewer new trademarks
Focus on decision process Focus on decision content
Intrapreneurs are relatively free from Intrapreneurs are constrained by
rules. existing rules.
There are fewer self-employed people. There are more self-employed people.
Better at invention, worse at Worse at invention, better at
implementation implementation
Motivation by achievement and Motivation by security and esteem or
esteem or belonging belonging

country of two relatively simple civil procedures: collecting a bounced
check (one refused by the bank) and evicting a tenant for nonpayment of

rent. The figures varied between forty days and three years, and across
sixty-seven countries for which culture indexes were available, the duration
of either procedure was highly signifi cantly correlated with UAI, and not
48
with any of the other indexes or with national wealth. More uncertainty-
avoiding cultures are well provided with laws, but for the citizen to make
them work in these two simple cases takes more time—possibly so much
that citizens may not even try.