DEFINITION:
The phrase “tolerance for ambiguity” refers to the personality trait of being comfortable with doubt, uncertainty, vagueness, and puzzlement.
A tolerance for ambiguity is important in the workplace because decision-making, whether by managers or by individual workers, nearly always occurs within a context of incomplete information.
ETYMOLOGY:
The phrase “(in)tolerance for ambiguity” was introduced into the literature bythe Polish-born, Austrian-Jewish psychologist Else Frenkel-Brunswik (1908–1958) in a paper entitled “Intolerance of ambiguity as an emotional and perceptual personality variable” (Journal of Personality, 18: 108–143), published in 1949.
The English noun “tolerance” is attested from the fifteenth century. It is connected to the verb “to tolerate,” which derives from the Classical Latin past participle tolerātus, meaning “endurable,” from the verb tolero, tolerare, meaning “to bear,” “to carry,” “to keep up,” “to maintain,” “to sustain,” or “to endure.”
The English noun “ambiguity” is attested from the fifteenth century. It is connected to the adjective “ambiguous,” which derives from the Classical Latin adjective ambiguus, meaning “moving from side to side” or “of doubtful nature,” which is connected to the verb ambigo, ambigere, meaning “to wander about,” “to be uncertain,” “to hesitate,” or “to doubt.”
DISCUSSION:
The character trait “tolerance for ambiguity” determines the extent to which an individual responds, affectively and behaviorally, when encountering situations or events that are difficult to clearly understand or interpret.
Tolerance for ambiguity is a highly useful trait in the workplace because industry and commerce inherently give rise to many situations and events that are in fact difficult to comprehend with confidence.