I work at a Nuclear Power Plant and because of past events, like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, we as a society or culture have steer towards the thought that Nuclear Power is dangerous and hazardous to the public. This perception is not only false but has led to a lot of misconceptions and beliefs. In order to change this idea, that Nuclear Power is bad, our Plant hold a series of tours and informational sessions about what we do, in hoping that by educating the general public we will be able to change the culture of their beliefs.
Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) state that “Uncertainty avoidance indicates the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain or ambiguous situations”. (p. 19) When a tragic event happens people tend to think the worse. They tend to form opinions and thoughts that may be influenced by the press or media, without knowing all of the facts or information to make an educated opinion of the situation. Our plant understands that Hofstede’s dimension of culture of Uncertainty Avoidance is a focus area for us. As I mentioned before, our Plant holds a series of tours and information sessions so that we can educate the public on what we do and how we do it. These tours and sessions have involved members of our government to our local schools. Our main objective is to introduce fact and certainty, or rather remove any ambiguity, about how we operate and function.
I think another area our Plant tries to focus on is the long-term short-term orientation. I believe that Nuclear Power tends to sit in the middle of this spectrum. Because of events like TMI, we cannot ignore or forget how quickly things can go wrong. Learning from our past, having a focus on continuous improvement, and constant prevention is what makes our culture, here at the Plant, future oriented. We need to stay in the moment to ensure that what we are doing is deliberate and thoughtful but we need to be able to remove ourselves from the moment just enough to be able to see the big picture.
In general, I believe that we could do a lot better job at educating the public on what Nuclear Power can provide. The rules, regulations and processes that are put in place are un-comparable to other industrial industries I have worked in, and rightfully so. What we do and how we do it is unique. If we society would take the time to listen and fully educate ourselves, to remove any of the uncertainties or ambiguity we would be in a much better place.
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (Ninth ed.). New York: Routledge.
You provided a great example of a real life situation that relates to the content about how certain cultures can feel about nuclear power. After, hearing about those news stories about the dangers of nuclear power plants have caused then I can see why a certain culture would not want that type of power in their back yard. But, you gave me some great insight that you should not always judge something fully without truly understanding it. This goes very much like the lesson taught about culture, is that I have learned not to judge someone until I meet them and truly get to know everything about them. You also provide a great connection with the lesson material about how your plant practices Hofstede’s Dimension of culture with uncertainly avoidance. One can see if you have a strict set of rules then it would be hard for a culture to interpret the alternative motives of your job. I think your example could relate to the short term/ long term orientation as well nuclear power plants a future way of thinking and not everyone is going to be on board with that idea. Your plant give tours on to try to answer any questions, but what progress do you try to make to show the public there is no danger? Not everyone will be willing to go on those tours. What are some other actions that could be taken? Great blog!