5/21/2020 Cultural Differences Concerning Time

Monochronic Versus Polychronic Time

Hi Everyone,

Let me share my new learning on diversity. This time it is about cultural time differences. Thanks to the lecture of professor Iver of BYUI on line education (my TESOL class). It is amazing. I finally found the perfect ideas how to articulate the behaviors of different cultures as pertains the observance and use of time. The map below shows that more places in the world including my country the Philippines, belongs to the polychronic time culture. I say yes to this ideas and I,  myself is so comfortable in my polychronic time except at work. My work has already taught me to be monochronic. Late reporting to work means salary deduction. So somehow I would say, I am living in both time culture.

Map of Monochronic and Polychronic cultures (click to enlarge)
Based on Morden, 1999; Kotabe and Helsen, 2001

Below is a quick look for this differences:

            

Monochronic Cultures	Polychronic Cultures
They prefer doing one thing at a time	They prefer doing many things at the same time
They concentrate on their tasks and try not to disturb others	Interruptions aren’t really interruptions, they can still carry on with what they’re doing now or later
Time is linear, they take deadlines and time schedules seriously	Time is spatial. Deadlines and time schedules can be kept to, if possible
Their communication is low context	Their communication is high context
They need explicit information	They don’t usually need explicit information, because that is what their network is for, to keep them informed up to the minute
They’re task oriented	They’re relationship oriented
They do their work swiftly and promptly	How swiftly and promptly they work depends completely on how good the relationship is
They make plans and keep to them	They make plans and change them with the greatest ease and flexibility

My own thoughts and take away for teachings are:

• understand your own time to understand the difference from others
• always consider your learners culture time background
• have a lot of patience and understanding
• be amazed and enjoy diversity.

References:

Kristof ( 2019) Are your Freelancers Polychronic or  Monochronic?.https://habitgrowth.com/polychronic-vs-monochronic/