Reference no: EM133029125

1. Demonstrate case evidence from the case study below: for the concept of the 'Uncertainty Avoidance dimension' from Hofstede's categorisation of culture. Explain how the evidence illustrates the concept.

Joe, the manager of a garden and homewares mega store, has approached you to help understand an issue that has developed amongst his staff. He has hired several new casual employees, some of whom are University of Wollongong students trying to earn income while studying. Li is 20 years old, from China, and lives on campus with other Chinese students. Alex, who is 25, has just arrived from Guatemala and lives with his brother who also studies at UOW. Li and Alex' supervisor is Jenny who has been Assistant Manager for seven years. She is experienced, well organised, and task oriented, issuing clear instructions to all team members. Rumour has it that she has never been late or missed a day's work. She likes to help new employees and prides herself on her consultative leadership style. She also has announced plans to organise a meeting so staff can discuss their ideas to improve workflow and explore issues they may have at an individual or team level. Jenny has complained to Joe that the new employees are difficult, saying: "Li is very uncooperative. We had a meeting the other day to discuss a new work process and when I asked her for her ideas, she would not say anything. When I ask her to take on a new task, I must tell her in detail what to do. She's noticeably very respectful, polite, and nonconfrontations. But she doesn't use her own initiative. She just agrees with all the ideas I have, even if I try to give her more opportunity to say what she really thinks about a decision I've made or something that Joe has decided to do." Jenny went on to describe Alex as appearing to be disorganised. "Instead of quickly finishing his allocated task and moving on to the next one, he chats with the other workers. Sometimes he looks like he has only partly finished two or three tasks, and often moves on to another one before the original job is completed. He doesn't seem to follow the work-flow schedule that has been established for employees in his division. His approach to work is very different from mine. I think punctuality is very important, but last week Alex was thirty minutes late because his brother was not well and needed to be looked after. He doesn't seem to focus on his work commitments".