July 7, 2015
Time is Relative – Cultural Differences in the Perception of Time
Submitted by Aliah Mestrovich Seay
Do you ever wonder why some of your 4-H members or their parents arrive “late” to 4-H club or why Parliamentary Procedure just doesn’t seem to fit with certain groups? One main reason is that there is a different perception of time depending on a person’s culture.
There are two main ways to distinguish time orientation as a binary construct: task-oriented or socially/people-oriented individuals.
Individuals who have a task focus tend to want to complete one task at a time. Completing the task is a priority over socializing which makes it important for these individuals to start meetings at a certain time and follow a schedule or timetable. Individuals who are task oriented value punctuality; if they are not exposed to individuals who follow people or socially oriented time, they could find a person’s tardiness to be disrespectful, rude, or even ungrateful. Task-oriented people have a more linear way of carrying out a meeting where each event happens one at a time. Examples of cultures that tend to use task-oriented time would be White Euro America, Germany, Israel, and Switzerland.
On the other hand, individuals who are socially or people-oriented are much more flexible when it comes to meeting times. In fact, in some cultures, it is inappropriate to arrive on time because the hosts will not even be ready yet! Socially-oriented people incorporate socializing and tasks into the same meeting with the focus mainly on maintaining and building strong interpersonal relationships. If the task is not completed and the schedule is not followed, that is okay within this cultural time orientation. It is possible for many events to be happening at the same time within the same meeting and as a result, the conclusion to the meeting might not be precise or linear but rather an ongoing process. For socially oriented individuals, people who are more task-oriented could be perceived as rigid, cold, or even unapproachable. Cultures that traditionally tend to follow a people-oriented time orientation would be Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
With this knowledge, it is important for us as Extension professionals to withhold judgment when 4-H members or participants in other Extension programs have different time orientations than ourselves. In reality, time orientation is not a binary but a fluid construct depending on experiences, culture, and most importantly, the ability to adapt to meet the needs of our youth and adult audiences. As such, we can learn to understand different frames of reference as well and make our 4-H culture a place where time orientation is relative and adapted to the needs of the group.
For more information about time orientation, visit http://www.celt.iastate.edu/celt-resources/international-resources/cultural-differences/.
Do you have experiences about time orientation and working with various groups that you would like to share? Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss your experiences so that others can learn from them. I can spread the word in a follow-up to this article.