Uncertainty Avoidance

In the 1960s Arndt Sorge did his military service in the West Germany army. Near his home town, where he spent his free weekends, were the barracks of the British ‘Army on the Rhine’. Sorge was keen on watching British motion pictures with the original soundtrack which were shown in the British barracks, and he walked up to the sentry to ask whether he, as a German soldier, could attend. The sentry referred him to the sergeant-on-the-guard who called the second-in-command on the telephone, and then tore a page out of a notebook, on which he wrote ‘Mr. Arndt Sorge has permission to attend film shows’ and signed it, adding that permission was granted by the second-in-command.

Sorge used his privilege not only on that occasion, but several other times, and the notebook page always opened the gate for him, in conjunction with his German army identity card. After he was demobilized, he asked the British sentry whether he, now a civilian, could continue to come. The sentry looked at the notebook page, said ‘This is for you personally’, and let him in.

Arndt Sorge became an organization sociologist, and he remembers this experience as an example of how differently the British seemed to handle such an unplanned request, from what he was accustomed to in the German army. The Germans would have taken more time and would have needed the permission of more authorities; they would have asked more information about the applicant, and issued a more formal document. Finally, the document would have been issued to him as a member of the armed forces, and there would have been no question of his using it after his demobilization. (Hofstede, 1997 : 109)