Time measured in small units.

Linear-time cultures (the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, and the Scandinavian countries) measure time in relatively short periods: minutes, hours, days; plan for the short term; and report earnings and profits in quarters and years.

 

The languages of linear-time cultures abound in expressions which capture the idea of time as a precious entity:

• Time is money. Save time. Don’t waste time. Use time wisely. The early bird catches the worm. (United States)

• He who hesitates is lost. Strike while the iron is hot. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. (England)

• Time is everything. (advertising slogan for Swissair)

• Uberpunktlich (German expression for being on time, literally, over-punctual)

• Wasting time is stealing from yourself (Estonian proverb)

• Rest makes rust. (Dutch proverb)

• Lose an hour in the morning, chase it all day long. (Yiddish proverb)

 

Flexible Time

 

Time is the master of those who have no master. (Arabian proverb)

If it’s not your time, you won’t be born and you won’t die. (Corsican proverb)

In contrast to linear cultures, cultures that view time as flexible are reluctant to strictly measure or control it. Southern Europeans, the cultures bordering the Mediterranean, and South American cultures are flexible about time. In fact, the more things they can do at the same time, the happier they are; interruptions are welcome and multi-tasking or clustering is the rule. Although they will pretend to observe schedules in deference to their linear business associates, most Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Greeks, Arabs, and Latinos ignore the passing of time if it means that conversations or human interactions will be left unfinished.

 

Emphasis on relationships.

For flexible time cultures, schedules are less important than human feelings. When people and relationships demand attention or require nurture, time becomes a subjective commodity that can be manipulated or stretched. Meetings will not be rushed or cut short for the sake of an arbitrary schedule. Time is an open-ended resource; communication is not regulated by a clock.

A focus on the present.

People in flexible time cultures tend to focus on the present, rather than the future (linear cultures) or the past (cyclical cultures). It’s not that they don’t value the past, nor believe in the future; it’s just that they tend to live very fully in the present.

 

A reluctance to measure.

Although adept at business, many people in flexible time cultures find the intricate measurement of time or earnings performed by linear time cultures tedious and unnecessary. When pressed, they will comply with the business contingencies imposed on them by their linear business associates, but their hearts may not be in these calculations.

 

Utterances that capture the subordination of the clock to human reality:

• The famous “manana” attitude of the Spanish

• The often repeated “In sha’a Allah” (If God wills) of the Arab

• The Filipino “bahala na” (accept what comes)

• The Turkish proverb “What flares up fast extinguishes soon”

• The Mongolian proverb “Profit always comes with a delay”

• The Italian proverb “Since the house is on fire, let us warm ourselves”

Cyclical time

 

With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.
(Chinese proverb)

A ripe melon falls by itself. (African proverb)

Man has responsibility, not power, over time. (Native American proverb)

Although in fundamentally different ways, both linear time cultures and flexible, multi-tasking cultures believe they manage and control time; in cyclical time cultures, however, time manages life, and humans must adjust to time. In these cultures, time is neither viewed as linear nor as event/person related, but as cyclical, circular, repetitive. The human being does not control time; the cycle of life controls people and they must live in harmony with nature and subscribe to the cyclical patterns of life. Examples of cyclical time cultures include most Asian, African, and Native American (including the Inuit) cultures.

 

Understanding connections.

Cultures that subscribe to cyclical time seek to understand linkages and connections. Links show the wholeness of life and allow contrasts or contradictions to exist. Cyclical cultures believe that logic is not linear (cause/effect), nor people-driven, but captures the unity of human experience with the whole of life, nature, and existence.

“The Masai, a nomadic culture of Kenya, do not compartmentalize time into minutes

and hours but instead schedule time by the rising and setting sun and the feeding of their

cattle. The typical Masai day begins just before sunrise, when the cattle go to the river

to drink. This period is called “the red blood period” because of the color of the

sunrise. The afternoon is “when the shadows lower themselves.” The evening begins

when “the cattle return from the river.” Seasons and months are determined by rainfall

—a particular month lasts as long as the rains continue and a new month doesn’t begin

until the rains have ceased.”

(Adapted from Neuliep, Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach)

 

Making decisions.

In cultures that subscribe to a cyclical view of time, business decisions are reached in a very different way. Decisions are not made quickly nor in isolation, purely on their present merits with scant reference to the past; decisions have a contextual background and are made long term. Unlike linear cultures which see time passing without decision or action as “wasted,” cyclical cultures see time coming around in a circle, again and again. The same opportunities will recur or re-present themselves when people are that many days, weeks, or months older and wiser. Many cyclical time cultures will not tackle problems or make decisions immediately in a structured, sequential manner; they will circle round them for a suitable period of reflection, contemplating the possible links between facts and relationships, before committing themselves.

Wise men are never in a hurry. (Chinese proverb)

A proposal without patience breaks its own heart. (Japanese proverb)

To know where you are going, look back to where you’ve come from. (Arab proverb)

 

Forging relationships.

Although people from cyclical time cultures may have a keen sense of the value of time and respect punctuality, this is dictated by politeness or by form and will have little impact on the actual speed with which business is done. A liberal amount of time will be allotted to the repeated consideration of the details of a transaction and to the careful nurturing of personal relationships. And it is the forging of a relationship that is all-important; business is facilitated by a degree of closeness, a sense of common trust, of connection, of linkage, that informs both the present deal and future transactions.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
We are all interconnected. (Native American proverb)

Every seed knows its time. You won’t help shoots grow by pulling them higher.
(Japanese proverb)

 

Focusing on the past.

People in cyclical cultures pay a great deal of attention to the past because they

believe they can find many links and connections there. Since their focus is on the

unity of human experience with the whole of life, planning is very long-term indeed

(decades) and earnings per share or per quarter are far less important than the building

of equity.