Hi, I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution, putting the pieces together. Today, we're going to talk about tolerance for ambiguity and how that relates to cultural worldviews. So ambiguity is that uncertainty that we have in certain situations about what's true or right or proper or what's going to happen, and each culture takes on a certain worldview position on the degree that details are needed in a plan, or a clarity, or specifications, or an agreement. So there are varying degrees in which cultures need to have this degree of detail, and we call this tolerance for ambiguity, and cultures either have a low tolerance for ambiguity or a high tolerance for ambiguity. And these levels of tolerance for ambiguity show to which degree or what degree an individual, influenced by their culture and norms, can feel confident in functioning in those ambiguous or uncertain situations.
So let's talk a little bit more about these varying degrees of tolerance for ambiguity. If a culture has a low tolerance for ambiguity, that means that they need a high level of detail. So they really need to make sure that they have things planned and they understand exactly what's going to happen and be specific in order to feel comfortable and confident, and basically, they need to know the rules. Whereas a culture that has a high tolerance for ambiguity, they are more comfortable with vagueness and generalization and don't necessarily need to know all of the specific details and are more willing to figure it out as we go along.
Let's take a look at some examples on tolerance for ambiguity. Let's say, for instance, time. In Germany, they have a very low tolerance for ambiguity specifically or especially around time, and they need to know the specific details about what's going to happen, and what time you're going to be at a certain place, and if you're not there at that time, they feel really uncomfortable, or if you can't specify a time in which you're going to meet, they have a hard time with that, whereas in Singapore, they have a high tolerance for ambiguity, so they would be less inclined to feel uncomfortable around issues of time and maybe more willing to improvise and go with the flow and not necessarily stick to a strict schedule.
Also, let's look at a business example. In Japan, they have a very low tolerance for ambiguity, whereas the United States, we have a more high tolerance for ambiguity. So if we're going to have a business transaction, Japanese individuals may need to have more detail on the business plan and exactly what's going to happen and what the expectations are and how effective it's going to be, whereas the business from the United States may feel that, we don't need to get into so much detail if we have a broad idea of what's going to happen. That will work for us in our business plan.
Another thing that we need to know is that these different positions on tolerance or ambiguity are not absolute. So not every single person will ascribe to these specific positions on ambiguity that is generally ascribed to their specific culture. We are making broad assumptions and expectations about these positions on ambiguity, and it's important to note that it's not the same case for every single individual of that culture.
Let's look at ambiguity and its relationship to conflict and conflict resolution. So let's say there is a conflict between two individuals, and one of them comes from a low tolerance culture where the other comes from a high tolerance culture, and both of these individuals may have varying views on the process. A person with a high tolerance for ambiguity may not need all of the details about what the process is going to entail, whereas a person from a low tolerance may need to know every single step that is going to happen in the conflict resolution process.
Also, again, we're talking about the level of detail here. So when we're in a process, a low tolerance individual may need the high tolerance individual to really break down all of the details in the conflict and why they acted a certain way or give a lot more details about everything, whereas a high tolerance person may not need so much detail and may be more comfortable with having generalizations or maybe skimming over a few of the issues within the process. And also, effectiveness may be an issue within conflict resolution. A high tolerant individual may not need to know or feel that there has to be certainty within a conflict resolution process, and they may be OK with knowing that it might not work out, whereas a person with a low tolerance may feel less comfortable in going through the process knowing that going through all of this, it may not result in something that's going to be effective. So those are just a few examples on how ambiguity relates into conflict and conflict resolution processes.
Let's look at our key points here on targets for ambiguity before we go. Cultures take on worldview positions on ambiguity. So the tolerance that they have for uncertainty in given situations about what's going to happen and specifics and clarity and detail.
And there are two types of ambiguity or tolerance for ambiguity that we talked about, high and low. A high tolerant culture doesn't really need a whole lot of detail and is able to go with the flow, whereas a low tolerant culture really needs to know the rules on how to act or what is expected in processes, relationships, or even social situations. And we need to know that in conflict and conflict resolution processes, these worldviews are felt and expressed. So it could be whether or not they need to have a lot more detail in the process about what's going to happen, or they may be more open and OK with going with the flow of a conflict resolution process.
That's all I have for you today. Here are your key terms. Feel free to pause and look at them a little bit closer. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.