Another variable that communicates culture is the way people regard and use time (discussed in Chapter 3.. To Brazilians, relative punctuality communicates the level of importance of those involved. To Middle Easterners, time is something controlled by the will of Allah.
To initiate effective cross-cultural business interactions, managers should know the difference between monochronic time systems and polychronic time systems and how they affect communications. Hall and Hall explain that in monochronic cultures (Switzerland, Germany, and the United States), time is experienced in a linear way, with a past, a present, and a future, and time is treated as something to be spent, saved, made up, or wasted. Classified and compartmentalized, time serves to order life. This attitude is a learned part of Western culture, probably starting with the industrial revolution. Monochronic people, found in individualistic cultures, generally concentrate on one thing at a time, adhere to time commitments, and are accustomed to short-term relationships.
In contrast, polychronic systems tolerate many things occurring simultaneously and emphasize involvement with people. Two Latin friends, for example, will put an important conversation ahead of being on time for a business meeting, thus communicating the priority of relationships over material systems. Polychronic people-Latin Americans, Arabs, and those from other collectivist cultures-may focus on several things at once, be highly distractible, and change plans often.36
The relationship between time and space also affects communication. Polychronic people, for example, are likely to hold open meetings, moving around and conducting transactions from one party to another, rather than compartmentalizing meeting topics, as do monochronic people.
We can discuss endless nuances and distinctions regarding cultural differences in nonverbal communication listed in Exhibit 4-3. Wise intercultural managers will take careful account of the role that such differences might play.
What aspects of nonverbal communication might have created noise in the interactions between the American supervisor and the Greek employee in Exhibit
4-2? Undoubtedly, there were some cues in the kinesic behavior of each person that could have been picked up. It was the responsibility of the manager, in particular, to notice any indications from the Greek that could have prompted him to change his communication pattern or assumptions. Fate-to-face communication permits the sender of the message to get immediate feedback, verbal and nonverbal, and thus to have some idea as to how that message is being received and whether additional information is needed. What aspects of the Greek employee's kinesic behavior or paralanguage do you think might have been evident to a more culturally sensitive manager? Did both parties' sense of time affect the communication process?
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