Uncertainty Management Theory Research Articles

Assessing the communicative experience of student orientation leaders: peer and professional

ABSTRACT The value of student peer leadership is consistent with trends in higher education. While extensive research reveals how student peer leaders benefit the overall student experience and contribute to institutional recruitment and retention, little research has considered the communicative experiences of student orientation leaders. This study focuses on the unique communicative experiences and challenges student orientation leaders encounter in their role as students and university ambassadors. Student orientation leaders function as both student leaders and university professionals; they serve as liaisons among incoming university students, parents and families, and the academic institution. This multifaceted role management creates a unique experience for student orientation leaders distinct from other paraprofessionals. Our study focuses on the perceptions of communicative experiences and the uncertainties experienced by student orientation leaders from a midsize southern university. Guided by the uncertainty management theory, the study findings reveal that student peer leaders primarily focused their communicative efforts on developing and managing relationships with fellow students; peer leaders experienced uncertainties when communicating with different groups (e.g., first-year students, transfer students, and family members) who have unique uncertainties and informational needs; finally, peer leaders developed confidence and leadership skills from the communicative interactions they experienced from serving as peer leaders on campus.

Cultural Adaptation of Indonesian Muslim Women Students in Europe

Cultural adaptability in the context of international students' intercultural communication has affected how communication works. Indonesian students, especially those who display their identity as Muslim women, have their challenges in adapting to both academic and social-cultural contexts. This study discusses the cultural adaptation of Indonesian Muslim women students to societies in Europe. All informants who are scholarship awardee students have obstacles in adapting, especially when communicating with the societies. This study aims to discover how Gudykunst’s Anxiety and Uncertainty Management theory interprets the experience phenomena around individuals in adapting to Societies in Europe through intercultural communication. The study uses a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. Five informants in this research have gone through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. The results of the study show that the experiences are related to academic and social experiences adapting to the local community’s culture (cultural), adapting to individual personality (sociocultural), and adapting to interpersonal perceptions (psycho-cultural). Indonesian Muslim women students need to be familiar with the local community, open to accepting differences in society, and able to interpret the meaning of accepted in intercultural communication context.

“Teetering on a Tightrope”: Uncertainty and Information Management During the Cancer Pre-Diagnosis Phase

Facing a potential cancer diagnosis can be rife with dichotomous and chaining uncertainty. This study draws from Uncertainty Management Theory and the Theory of Motivated Information Management to explore patient experiences in the pre-diagnosis phase: the time between when suspicious symptoms are observed and a positive or negative cancer diagnosis is received. Fifty-five interviews were conducted with people who underwent a cancer diagnosis process in the five years prior to the interview. Using thematic analysis, this study highlights the challenges of temporal and testing uncertainties, as well as information management strategies of avoidance, tailored experiential support, and agentic medical research.

How Chronic Pain Patients’ and Physicians’ Communication Influences Patients’ Uncertainty: A Pre- and Post-Consultation Study

Chronic pain is a health problem that is difficult to diagnose, treat, and manage, partly owing to uncertainty surrounding ambiguous causes, few treatment options, and frequent misunderstandings in clinical encounters. Pairing uncertainty management theory with medical communication competence, we predicted that both physicians and patients are influential to patients’ uncertainty appraisals and uncertainty management. We collected pre- and post-consultation data from 200 patients with chronic neck and spine/back pain and their physicians. Patients’ reports of their physician’s communication were a consistent predictor of their post-consultation uncertainty outcomes. Physicians’ reports of both their own and patients’ communication competence were associated with patients’ positive uncertainty appraisals. Physicians’ reports of patients’ communication competence were also associated with reductions in patients’ uncertainty. Findings illustrate how both interactants’ perceptions of communication competence—how they view their own (for physicians) and the other’s—are associated with patients’ post-consultation outcomes.

Crossroads on the Silk Road: accounts of a U.S.-American faculty member’s culture shock and adaptation in Uzbekistan

ABSTRACT The knowledge of and experience with culture shock and intercultural communication come under analysis in this autoethnography of a U.S.-American faculty member’s Fulbright teaching experience in Uzbekistan. As a relatively new country couched under the blanket of Russian and Chinese influence, Uzbekistan strives to shift its economy, language, and geopolitical connections toward the West. Cultural knowledge about Uzbekistan is likewise still hidden behind the Uzbek and Russian languages, leaving English speakers from the West with few resources to engage in predeparture uncertainty reduction. This manuscript chronicles the early days of a sojourn of a faculty member who had cognitive knowledge of intercultural communication concepts but had no immersion experiences in which to test her abilities to adapt. Anxiety uncertainty management theory offers some insight into the culture shock and adaptation experienced by this faculty member. The study benefits teachers who may enter this or similar cultures, teachers who instruct with an interpreter, and anyone seeking cultural information about Uzbekistan.

Bridging the expatriate and host country national knowledge transfer gap: managing interaction anxiety and uncertainty

Purpose Integrating anxiety and uncertainty management (AUM) theory and theory of organizing, this study aims to contribute to the knowledge management literature by examining the interdependent and bidirectional nature of knowledge transfer between expatriates and host country nationals (HCNs). Specifically, the authors investigate how receivers’ cognitive response to senders’ behaviors during their interactions becomes an important conduit between senders’ behaviors and the successful transfer of knowledge. Design/methodology/approach The authors used the actor partner interdependence model to analyze data from 107 expatriate-HCN dyads. The authors collected the responses of these expatriate-HCN dyads in Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and India. Findings Receivers’ interaction anxiety and uncertainty, as a response to senders’ relationship building behaviors, mediate the relationship between senders’ relationship building behaviors and successful knowledge transfer. When senders are expatriates, senders’ communication patience and relationship building behaviors interact to reduce the direct and indirect effects of both receivers’ interaction anxiety and uncertainty. However, when senders are HCNs, the moderation and moderated mediation models are not supported. Originality/value The study contributes to the knowledge management literature by investigating knowledge transfer between expatriates and HCNs using an interpersonal cross-cultural communication lens. The authors make refinements to AUM theory by going beyond the sender role to highlighting the interdependence between senders and receivers in the management of anxiety and uncertainty which, in turn, influences the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication. The study is also unique in that the authors underscore an important yet understudied construct, communication patience, in the successful transfer of knowledge.

An Examination of Visually Impaired Individuals’ Uncertainty Management

ABSTRACT Being visually impaired or legally blind (having vision that is uncorrectable or cannot be corrected to a legally acceptable level) is inherently uncertain. Although uncertainty can result in positive, negative, or neutral consequences, little is known about how uncertainty is experienced and negotiated in this understudied population. Thus, through in-depth, semi-structured interviews of 24 individuals with a visual impairment, we apply uncertainty management theory (UMT) to examine the communication strategies visually impaired individuals used to manage the personal, vision-related, and social uncertainty they experienced. Many participants appraised the uncertainty negatively and consequently aimed to reduce it by seeking social support and information, using instrumental strategies, and proactively disclosing their visual impairment. Interviewees who preferred to remain uncertain maintained it by avoiding thinking about their visual impairment or worsening vision and/or by concealing their low vision and passing as sighted. Last, some participants, particularly those who were born with low vision or had been visually impaired longer, learned to adapt to the uncertainty through reframing and accepting, self-care, and by turning to God. The study also uncovered that some participants’ uncertainty management was limited by ableist constraints, such as inadequate support systems, systemic barriers, and stigma. The study also underscores the universal and fluid nature of uncertainty and uncovers tangible ways individuals with visual impairment can navigate uncertainty within a pervasive cultural biomedical model of disability.

Ethically treated yet closely monitored: Ethical leadership, leaders' close monitoring, employees' uncertainty, and employees' organizational citizenship behavior

SummaryDrawing on uncertainty management theory, we propose that employees' uncertainty is a distinct key mechanism explaining the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We contend that ethical leadership, by promoting a work environment governed by moral principles, reduces employees' sense of uncertainty and thereby fosters their OCB. However, we suggest that leaders' close monitoring, which ethical leaders may utilize to be informed about employees' adherence to their moral standards, nullifies these positive implications of ethical leadership. To test these contentions, we conducted an online vignette study (Study 1) and a field study (Study 2). In Study 1, we found a significant and negative main effect of ethical leadership on employees' uncertainty, but this effect was negated when leaders' close monitoring was high. In Study 2, we replicated the findings—ethical leadership was negatively related to employees' uncertainty and this relationship became nonsignificant when leaders' close monitoring was high. In addition, uncertainty was negatively related to employees' OCB toward the organization (OCBO) but not their OCB toward individuals (OCBI). Consequently, uncertainty mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and OCBO, and this mediation was moderated by close monitoring. However, such mediation and moderated mediation did not occur for OCBI. Taken together, our research reveals that close monitoring is not a viable strategy to be implemented alongside ethical leadership for managing employees' uncertainty and fostering their OCB.

The effect of interpersonal conflict on employee behaviors: the role of perception of politics and competence uncertainty

PurposeConflict, between individuals and groups, in organizations is a common phenomenon and can have varied implication for the employee and the organization. This paper aims to determine whether experiencing interpersonal conflict drives employees to engage in prosocial behavior (prohibitive voice) and antisocial behavior (interpersonal deviance). Using Stressor–Emotion Model, Uncertainty Management Theory and Impression Management Motives, this study examines the relationship and explores competence uncertainty as a mediator and perception of politics as a moderator.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a cross-sectional design where data collected is from 386 employees working in nine different public sector enterprises in India. Structural equation modeling using SPSS AMOS was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThe results show that interpersonal conflict leads to both prohibitive voice behavior and interpersonal deviance. However, the mediating role of competence uncertainty is valid only for the effect of conflict on interpersonal deviance. Also, the perception of politics strengthens the positive relationship between interpersonal conflict and competence uncertainty.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first empirical studies to have validated prosocial and antisocial work behavior as outcomes of interpersonal conflict. Again, this is one of the first few studies to examine the mechanism through which interpersonal conflict impacts interpersonal deviance.

The Effect of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty on University Students' Anxiety, Academic Engagement, and Prosocial Behavior.

Uncertainty, as the predominant characteristic of the contemporary landscape, poses significant challenges and exerts profound influence on individual decision making and behaviors; however, there remains a limited understanding of its impact on university student behavior. Building upon the uncertainty management theory, this study presents a conceptual framework to investigate the impact of perceived environmental uncertainty on university students' anxiety levels and behaviors, including academic engagement and prosocial behavior. Additionally, our model proposes that the intolerance of uncertainty moderates a mediating effect on anxiety. These hypotheses are empirically tested using a sample of 221 Chinese university students. The results reveal a positive relationship between perceived environmental uncertainty and anxiety among university students; subsequently, anxiety exerts a negative influence on both academic engagement and prosocial behavior. Furthermore, we find that anxiety serves as a psychological mediator between perceived environmental uncertainty and both academic engagement and prosocial behavior. This research also underscores the significance of the intolerance of uncertainty in shaping university students' involvement in academic pursuits when confronted with anxiety stemming from perceived environmental uncertainty. Consequently, these findings have practical implications for facilitating university students' adaptive coping strategies in uncertain contexts and mitigating the negative effects of anxiety on their behavioral responses.

How and when does authentic leadership reduce employee resistance to change? An explanation from uncertainty management theory

PurposeIn the period of organizational change and transformation, the attitude of employees towards change has become a key factor in the success of organizational change. Based on the uncertainty management theory (UMT), the paper considers authentic leadership as an important antecedent of employee resistance to change and explores the mediating role of perceived uncertainty and the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance between authentic leadership and employee resistance to change.Design/methodology/approachThe paper conducted a questionnaire survey study and a scenario experimental study. In study 1, the authors collected two stages of data from 256 employees in Central China, one month apart. In study 2, the authors designed a scenario experiment and invited 130 Chinese adults to participate.FindingsThe authors find that authentic leadership can effectively reduce employee resistance to change by reducing employee perceived uncertainty. In addition, for individuals with a higher (vs lower) degree of uncertainty avoidance, the direct impact of authentic leadership on perceived uncertainty and the indirect impact of authentic leadership on resistance to change through perceived uncertainty are both stronger (vs lower).Originality/valueThe presented results reveal the mechanism between authentic leadership and employee resistance to change from cognitive perspective and depict an important step toward understanding how authentic leadership and employee uncertainty avoidance interact and how they interact with employee resistance to change.

Moderating Effects of Perceived Fairness between Job Insecurity and Outcomes in Sport during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions throughout the sport and recreation industry. Given the heightened levels of stress and uncertainty brought by the pandemic, the purposes of the current study were to (a) examine the structural relationships among job insecurity, job satisfaction, and turnover intention and (b) test the moderation effect of perceived fairness toward governmental policies and actions during the COVID-19 pandemic among these variables for employees in the sport and recreation industry. The conceptual model, including four latent variables—job insecurity, perception of fairness, job satisfaction, and turnover intention—was developed based on uncertainty management theory. A total of 321 sport and recreation managers in South Korea participated in the online survey. Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that job insecurity had a partial mediating effect on turnover intention through job satisfaction. The results of the moderated mediation analysis indicated a significant difference for the path from job insecurity to job satisfaction between the group with high fairness perceptions and the group with low fairness perceptions. However, the direction of the effect was contrary to expectations. These results provided an opportunity for empirical examination of the psychological and mental health conditions of sport service employees and relevant implications for governmental policies and actions under conditions of uncertainty, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vaccine confidence in New Zealand: understanding the influences of demographic characteristics and patient self-advocacy

ABSTRACT Based on uncertainty management theory, this study examined the extent to which demographic factors and patient self-advocacy predict COVID-19 vaccine confidence in New Zealand. Based on a nationally representative sample of 1852 New Zealanders, the results revealed various demographic factors and belief in one’s ability to get vaccinated were significant predictors of vaccine confidence. Additionally, patient self-advocacy was a significant predictor of confidence, with individuals who seek out more information having more confidence and those who are more prone to nonadherence to provider instructions having less confidence. Implications for uncertainty management theory, vaccine confidence, patient self-advocacy, and public communication campaigns during pandemics are discussed.

Navigating uncertainty: exploring festival and community events’ crisis management in three North American countries

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic affected many industries, including the organisation of community events. One of the main consequences of the pandemic has been ongoing uncertainty. Defining and managing uncertainty is complex and has been explored from different angles; however, little has been written from the perspective of event and festival organisations. This study employs qualitative interviews with festival organisers in Mexico, the United States and Canada at two points during the pandemic. Based on Uncertainty Management Theory, we conducted a thematic and comparative analysis where the main objective was to explore how event organisers experienced uncertainty, which allowed us to identify causes, feelings, management, and consequences of uncertainty experienced by interviewees. We identified four pathways that describe the ways event organisers experienced uncertainty. The knowledge gained may provide insight into uncertainty in various recreation and tourism management contexts.

Speaking for organization or self? Investigating the effects of perceived overqualification on pro-organizational and self-interested voice

Guided by uncertainty management theory, we investigate the effects of POQ on both pro-organizational voice behavior and self-interested voice behavior through the mediating role of felt uncertainty. In addition, we propose that ethical leadership serves as a key moderator mitigating the negative relationship between POQ and felt uncertainly. We tested our proposed model across two multi-wave and multi-source field studies. Specifically, with 411 subordinate–supervisor matched observations in Study 1, we found that POQ predicted higher levels of felt uncertainty, which in turn, was negatively related to pro-organizational voice behavior and positively related to self-interested voice behavior. In Study 2, with 188 subordinate–supervisor matched observations, we replicated the mediating effects of Study 1 and tested the full moderated mediation model in Study2. Taken together, our results highlight the importance of felt uncertainty as a key underlying mechanism influencing overqualified employees’ voice choices. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Fairness uncertainty and pay information exchange: Why and when employees disclose bonus pay to pay information websites

SummaryHaving limited information regarding how pay is distributed in their organization, employees often find it difficult to assess the fairness of their pay. Uncertainty management theory (UMT) posits that fairness uncertainty is aversive and that individuals experiencing it search for information to reduce this uncertainty. Pay information exchange – the communication of one's pay‐related information to others in return for information from that other – provides a mechanism to reduce pay information uncertainty. We focus on third‐party mediated pay information exchange (such as via Glassdoor and PayScale), an increasingly prevalent form of exchange. Drawing on UMT, we investigate why and when individuals exchange their pay information with such agents. Using data from a field experiment we find that (a) the willingness of employees to disclose their pay to a pay information exchange platform is influenced by perceived utility of a‐priori information offered by the exchange partner, but that this relationship depends on the salience of fairness uncertainty to the employee, and (b) employer pay communication restrictiveness only attenuates the impact of disclosure willingness on actual disclosure when individuals engage in deliberative thinking about such restrictiveness and its possible consequences. We discuss the implications for theory and practice.

In the context of mass entrepreneurship network embeddedness and entrepreneurial innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong province

PurposeThe study aimed to analyze the influence of network embeddedness on the innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong Province.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model of the influence of network embeddedness on the innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong province is established, which takes the business model as the mediating variable and political association as the moderating variable. Multivariate statistical analysis and the MacKinnon confidence interval method were used to analyze 418 questionnaires.FindingsThe results show that both relational embeddedness and structural embeddedness have significant positive effects on the innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong Province. The business model has a partial mediating effect between relationship embeddedness, structure embeddedness, and innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong Province, respectively. Political relevance has a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between the relationship embeddedness and innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong Province, but the moderating effect on structural embeddedness and innovation performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong province has not been verified.Research limitations/implicationsThe study of this paper also has some shortcomings: very few data research samples exist; the external factors affecting the performance of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong Province need to be further refined. The research scale needs further improvement.Practical implicationsIn this paper, embedding theory, transaction cost theory, resource dependence theory, rent-seeking theory, new institution theory and uncertainty management theory were integrated by system attempt to reveal the mediating and moderating roles of business model and political relevance, respectively, between network embeddedness behavior and entrepreneurial innovation performance of high-tech enterprises. The research conclusions expand the relevant research in the field of entrepreneurial innovation. At the same time, the research results provide theoretical support and reference for the innovative growth of high-tech enterprises and government behavior decision-making in Guangdong province.Originality/valueNetwork embeddedness will have a profound impact on the entrepreneurial innovation performance of high-tech enterprises. Existing research has overlooked discussing this issue from the perspective of internal and external influencing factors within the enterprise. Therefore, this study addresses this issue by (1) introducing the business model as the mediating variable from an internal perspective of the enterprise, (2) introducing political association as the moderating variable from an external perspective of the enterprise and (3) 418 original questionnaires of high-tech enterprises in Guangdong Province were used to test the effect of the study variables.

“What about me?”: veteran organizational members’ negative emotional responses to newcomers

ABSTRACT Uncertainty is a pervasive feature of organizational membership, exasperated by the presence of newcomers. Using uncertainty management theory (UMT), this study explored how veteran organizational members emotionally respond to the presence of new coworkers. Results revealed that veteran organizational members’ perceptions of new coworkers’ work, social, and relational performance associated with veteran members’ jealousy, envy, and job insecurity. This study progresses knowledge of how organizational members emotionally respond to uncertainty. Considering the “Great Resignation,” managers should clarify newcomers’ roles while veterans and newcomers should acquaint themselves with one another and find common ground for themselves and their organizations.

KOMUNIKASI ANTAR BUDAYA DALAM BINGKAI TEORI-TEORI ADAPTASI

Adaptation is a problem that needs to be solved from the study of intercultural communication because, when a person or group of people communicate with other parties who are culturally different, it can present problems between them. This research aims to describe the theories of intercultural communication adaptation. This research uses qualitative research methods with a library research approach. In this study, researchers used data analysis techniques in the form of analyzing the content of documentation. This analysis is a way to get the appropriate data, thus the strategy is to identify data from the bias of data characteristics, then the information is made systematically so that the object under study is able to provide perfect conclusions. The results of the research show that the theories of intercultural communication adaptation include: uncertainty reduction theory, anxiety theory or uncertainty management theory, acculturation and culture shock theory, and co-cultural theory.

Understanding the Strength of Muslim Identity as a Way to Manage Anxiety and Uncertainty for Foreign Students While Communicate Digitally in the US

This study aims to provide recommendations to foreign Muslim students studying in the United States (US) so they can manage their anxiety and uncertainty when communicating digitally on social media. This research is motivated by the challenges foreign Muslim students face when they have to adapt to interactions that exist in conditions of society that are far different from their origin country, there is not much time, and the scope is now also expanding into the digital world. The method used in this research is qualitative with a case study approach. Data was collected through in-depth interviews based on the Anxiety and Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory by William B. Gudykunst with three foreign Muslim students from Turkey, Morocco, and Pakistan who were studying at Utah Tech University. The research results show that understanding the strength of Muslim identity contained in oneself is one of the most effective ways to reduce the anxiety and uncertainty they often experience. In addition to understanding Muslim identity, other recommendations include using social media to educate people about negative Islamic stereotypes, not giving opinions that conflict with local values, and trying to communicate like US netizens to familiar people. Suggestions for further research are to expand the scope of research by adding more participants from more diverse cultural backgrounds.