ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE NATURE OF TIME AND SPACE 155brought up in relation to the task. But a monochronically orientedmanager can become very impatient and frustrated in a polychronicculture when his boss gives attention to several subordinates at thesame time, or in a more relationship-oriented culture when he mustgive time to social events before business can be discussed.Though there is an emphasis on monochronicity in the UnitedStates, polychronic time concepts do exist in U.S. organizations. Adoctor or dentist, for example, may simultaneously see several patientsin adjacent offices, and a supervisor is usually totally availableat all times to all of his or her machine operators. Parents and homemakersmay simultaneously cook, clean house, and deal with each ofseveral children. In an airport check-in line an agent will askwhether any of the people in the line are scheduled for an immediateflight and pull them out of the line so as not to hold up the flightdeparture. When Alpha Power was required by a court order tobecome environmentally responsible, electrical workers were toldthat cleaning up an oil spill from the emergency truck was just asimportant as fixing the hospital generator—that, in effect, they hadto view these tasks synchronously, not sequentially.Time concepts such as these also define in a subtle way how statusis displayed, as illustrated by the frustrating experiences thatAmericans and northern Europeans have in Latin cultures, where“lining up” and “doing things one at a time” are less common. Ihave stood in line at a small post office in Southern France only todiscover that some people barge to the head of the line and actuallyget service from the clerk. My friends have pointed out to me thatin this situation not only does the clerk have a more polychronicview of the world, leading her to respond to whoever seems to shoutloudest, but a higher-status person considers it legitimate to breakinto the line and get service first as a legitimate display of his status.If others live in the same status system, they do not get offended bybeing kept waiting. In fact, it was pointed out to me that by stayingin line and fulminating, I was displaying a low sense of my own status;otherwise, I would be up at the head of the line demanding serviceas well.