The Importance of Retaining A Good Sense of Time
Every culture has its own perception of the significance of time, and while some cultures consider punctuality a virtue others treat it more casually.
In some countries there is a tradition that the time required for a decision is directly proportional to its importance.
To make, what would appear to a foreign visitor, an apparently minor decision may take a local person an inordinately long time. If a foreigner, in all sincerity, tries and speed up the process it could well result in a perceived reduction in the status of the person concerned, irrespective whether he is a government official or a business executive. In some cultures, to set someone a deadline during negotiations may well be considered impolite, pushing or derogatory and it is likely to be counter-productive.
There are countries, where the time required to get something accomplished depends on the degree of relationship with the person concerned. The closer the relationship the faster the service, and really close relatives may well take absolute priority. This can be a reason why, having made a firm appointment in, say, an Eastern country, a visitor has been kept waiting, because the person who has granted the interview may consider it far more rude to tell the visitor, probably a relative, with whom is currently conversing that his time is up, than to keep the foreign visitor waiting.
Time, in many countries in the Middle East for example, is not their personal possession. It is a commodity controlled by outside forces — God and the family-based society and therefore something about which the individual cannot and should not be unduly concerned. Sense of time is the theme of many amusing stories.
When a Spanish ambassador said to his Irish opposite number: ‘Tell me, do the Irish understand the Spanish concept of ‘manana’?’ The Irish
ambassador replied doubtfully, ‘Yes, but nothing so precise’. There are different attitudes to future time. While in Western culture countries planning for the future is normal, in some cultures the future, even if in the format of a five or ten year business plan, is too far away to be of significance and therefore difficult even to consider or reflect upon. This often results in local officials and businesspersons not wishing to engage in forward planning, sometimes quoting what may appear to Western culture executives, unrealistic lead-times.
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