Leading with Cultural Intelligence, 2012a

Time
The dimension of time speaks to how communities are oriented toward space and time, including their
tendencies toward traditions and the past, and their orientation toward the future and the present. In
many cultural systems, holding on to traditions is important in current day-to-day operations and
relationships. Some societies will refer to traditions to preserve and maintain cultural norms, that is, to
protect what currently exists.
Time is also a reference to a culture’s orientation toward tasks or relationships. For example, a manager
from the United States who travels to India to negotiate a business contract needs to know that meetings
will occur whenever people show up to the meeting, which could be hours after it is scheduled. A taskoriented
leader is certain to be frustrated when he meets up with an Indian who is more time-oriented
toward relationships. In the American perspective, promptness is professionalism; yet, in the other
perspective, the concept of time is more loose and flexible. The value of time is illustrated in Figure 2.9
"Time Value Dimension".
Figure 2.9 Time Value Dimension
Understanding these five value dimensions and their impact in different cultural systems will be helpful to
your work in cultural intelligence. Like any cultural model, you need to recognize that cultural factors in
leadership and organizations, as indicated by Taylor Cox, differ “across gender, nationality, and
racial/ethnic groups as it relates to time and space orientation, leadership style orientations,
individualism versus collectivism, competitive versus cooperative behavior, locus of control, and
communication styles.” [6] You must recognize that microcultures exist within macrocultures; this is
significant in working effectively on a cross-cultural level. [7]
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