ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

168 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIPof behavior, as when a subordinate knows just where to stand at ameeting relative to the boss and how to time his questions or commentswhen he is disagreeing with the boss. The boss, for her part,knows that she must sit at the head of the table in the boardroomand time her remarks to the group appropriately. But only insidersknow the full meaning of all these time/space cues, reminding usforcefully that what we observe around spatial arrangements andthe behavioral use of time are only cultural artifacts, difficult todecipher if we do not have additional data obtained from insidersthrough interview, observation, and joint inquiry. It would behighly dangerous to use our own cultural lenses to interpret whatwe observe, as when I misjudged the feeling tone of the meeting atthe British company mentioned earlier.Time, Space, and Activity InteractionOrienting oneself in both time and space is fundamental in any newsituation. Thus far we have analyzed time and space as separatedimensions, but in reality they always interact in complex waysaround the activity that is basically supposed to occur. It is easiestto see this in relation to the basic forms of time. Monochronic timeassumptions have specific implications for how space is organized.If one has to have individual appointments and privacy, one needsareas in which they can be held, thus requiring either desks that arefar enough apart, cubicles, or offices with doors. Because monochronictime is linked with efficiency, one also requires a space layoutthat allows a minimum of wasted time. Thus it must be easy forpeople to contact each other, distances between important departmentsmust be minimal, and amenities such as toilets and eatingareas must be placed in such a way as to save time. In fact, at DECthe liberal distribution of water coolers, coffee machines, and smallkitchens around the organization clearly signaled the importance ofcontinuing to work even as one satisfied bodily needs.Polychronic time, in contrast, requires spatial arrangementsthat make it easy for simultaneous events to occur, where privacy is