This study is based on the results of Hofstede’s previous study, ‘The BIG 5 personality factors(extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and neuroticism) have a significant effect on uncertainty avoidance among cultural levels’. So, the hypothesis was established that there would be a clear correlation between personality factors and the uncertainty avoidance index, and the investigation was conducted. In particular, focused on his previous argument that ‘Respondents in cultures with a strong tendency to avoid uncertainty rated their neuroticism higher and their agreeableness lower’.
To measure BIG 5 personality factors, a total of 40 items were measured on a Likert 5-point scale, including 20 measurement items(4 extraversion, 4 agreeableness, 4 conscientiousness, 4 openness to experience, 4 neuroticism) and 20 measurement items to measure uncertainty avoidance tendency. In addition, demographic questions such as six questions corresponding to the respondents’ gender, age, educational background, industry, position, and tenure were added,, and the questionnaires written in Korean and Chinese were checked through reverse translation to ensure the consistency and accuracy of the questions. For the empirical analysis of this study, questionnaires were distributed and collected from 100 Korean workers in Korea and 100 Chinese workers in China, and the collected questionnaires were analyzed using IBM SPSS 21.
As a result of comparative analysis of the BIG 5 personality factors and uncertainty avoidance tendency values of Korean and Chinese office workers based on the average values of SPSS 21 and surveys, the figures for uncertainty avoidance tendency are higher in Korea(3.47 in Korea and 3.35 in China), but the agreeableness is higher in Korea(3.91), and the neuroticism level in China is 3.35, which is much higher than Korea. This is a completely opposite result from Hofstede’s previous assertion, ‘Respondents in cultures with a strong tendency to avoid uncertainty rated their neuroticism higher and their agreeableness lower’.
Nevertheless, the study is meaningful in that it was able to derive some results consistent with Hobstead’s overall research that ‘BIG 5 personality factors have a significant effect on uncertainty avoidance tendency’ through the figures of personality factors other than agreeableness and neuroticism. However, there are also limitations.
This study was conducted extensively on a total of 200 Korean and Chinese office workers, but the possibility of problems in generalizing the research results cannot be ruled out because there is a deviation in the sample, and total of 40 questions were organized by referring to the research of three scholars for the design of the questionnaire, but there are limitations in accepting the questionnaire due to the use of words or expressions unfamiliar to Chinese respondents. therefore, in future studies, it is necessary to reconstruct the questions by referring to the research of Chinese scholars. In addition, although the SPSS 21 program was used as an analysis method of the survey, it is difficult to completely exclude the possibility of poor operation, so it is necessary to make efforts for higher-level analysis methods through various methods such as regression analysis in future studies.