The cultural concept of uncertainty avoidance is that each regional or national group has a level of uncertainty they expect in general life and consequently communications, like power distance, individuality, masculinity and long term views they are largely ingrained into the fabric of the society and coded into individuals as they grow up within the society.
The way the uncertainty avoidance manifests its self as far as project communications is concerned is is through the level of detail produced and/or expected in discussions, meetings and most specifically formal and informal reports, it also impact on the way instructions and directions in the workplace are viewed and acted upon.
People from countries with high uncertainty avoidance, such as Greece, Russia and many of the former soviet states, Argentina and Chile, will typically expect explicit instructions and direction for many tasks and will provide very detailed and formal responses to requests and questions, these individuals feel at their most comfortable and productive in a world of structure and rules. People from the low uncertainty avoidance countries such as Singapore, the nordic countries, Great Britain and the United States of America are usually less rigid in their expectations for instructions and will typically be more generalist in reports and responses to requests, these people feel most comfortable in a world with few rules and where those rules are more there for guidance than direct control.
According to some research, when viewed by people from the opposite end of the uncertainty avoidance scale, people from high uncertainty avoidance cultures can appear fidgety and aggressive, while those from the low uncertainty avoidance cultures may appear dull and lazy. All of this is however subjective and is largely a relative view from someone with different perspectives on the world.
So, how best to communicate between countries with highly divergent levels of uncertainty avoidance;
- As with all cultural differences, the first thing to do is to really try to understand the expectations of your international partner, avoid making any unfounded assumptions, discuss with your partners how best each party expects to communicate and how to be treated and, where appropriate, put documented and structured processes in place that satisfy the expectations of the high uncertainty avoidance members of your team, it has been my experience that high uncertainty avoidance members will be the ones more uncomfortable with a more casual arrangement than the low uncertainty avoidance personnel will be with a more structured one and as such, it is more efficient to structure the communications around them.
- Once the basics are in place, keep to the schedule for meetings, issue well presented minutes that detail actions and clearly assign responsibilities for these actions, regardless of which side of the scale the assignee is at (this is good practice in meetings anyway but is often overlooked in the lower uncertainty cultures)
- As with all international communications matters, continuous or at least frequent reviews of the processes and their efficiency and acceptance is a requirement through the entire lifecycle of the project.
These differences are all part of the overall pattern of international communications, as frequently stated in both this blog and other similar sites, everyone is different, there is no right or wrong way to do things, just different ways that have been developed and adopted across the world to reflect social, economic, political and other drivers. As we learn to work together we all need to be conscious of these differences and work with them not fight against them.
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