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Sequential vs. Synchronic Cultures: How Different Cultures Experience Time and Adhere to Schedules
Different cultures manage their time with elastic and flexible schedules, multi-tasking and not adhering to strict time constraints. Others fulfill each task one at a time while being time and schedule sensitive. Which of these best describes our culture?
Introduction
In 1997, Dutch organizational theorist Alfonsus (Fons) Tompenaars and British business philosopher Charles Hampden-Turner published Riding the Waves of Culture, in which they identified the now-famous seven cultural dimensions for which they are now known. These dimensions are:
- Universalism versus particularism
- Individualism versus communitarianism
- Specific versus diffuse
- Neutral versus emotional
- Achievement versus ascription
- Sequential time versus synchronous time
- Internal direction versus outer direction
In this article we will look at the cultural dimension described as sequential and synchronous. It will detail how different cultures adhere to time constraints such as punctuality, planning, maintaining events in chronological order and multitasking.
For those readers who travel internationally, understanding how time is perceived by other cultures is crucial, especially in regards to business.
We go back and forth between being time’s master and its victim. James Gleick
How Countries Adhere to Time
In Germany, you can set your watch by the arrival and departure of trains. A business associate in Frankfurt once told me that if she has an appointment at 9:00 AM, she makes sure to arrive at 8:57 AM.
The reason is that it takes one minute for her client to beckon her to come into his office, one minute to walk to the office and one minute to enter, sit down and settle into the chair. This would ensure that the meeting can start promptly at 9:00 AM as…
