Saw this in Business Finance Online…

Geert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher in social psychology, has penned provocative research about Eastern versus Western culture’s approaches to risk that sheds light on multi-cultural differences with risk appetite. One of Hofstede’s
studies created an Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) that gauges a country’s — or a society’s — tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, also known as its risk appetite. UAI scores can range from 0 — pure risk takers, such as casino gamblers — to 100 — pure risk avoiders, who are extremely cautious and conservative. Of all the countries, America ranked lowest, implying fewer regulations, fewer attempts to control outcomes, and greater appetite for a variety of ideas, thoughts, and beliefs. By contrast, Japan had the highest UAI score, implying high levels of control in order to eliminate or avoid surprises.  A culture such as Japan’s does not easily welcome change and is risk avoidant. An organization that self-assesses itself as having a low UAI implies having self-concerned employees, less conformity, reliance on intuition and gut instincts, avoidance of strict rules, low trust levels, and reasonable tolerance for conflict and disagreement. On the other hand, an organization with a high UAI implies being collectivist with needs for agreement, greater conformity, very strict and enforced rules, high acceptance of authority, and little tolerance for conflict.

So, what do you think YOUR UAI would be?

Some pretty interesting country data at http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_united_states.shtml

check out our masculinity index and our individualism index (highest in the world)….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 2:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.