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Hofstede's five dimensions of culture
Hofstede's five dimensions of culture
Analysis of four cultural dimensions given by geert hofstede
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Recommended: Hofstede's five dimensions of culture
I Introduction
Different cultures have a different attitude towards time. There are different concepts of time available. This paper tries to answer the question, if it is necessary to know about the time orientation of a society for building business relationships and how much it influences people’s behaviour.
II Concepts of time
A. Edward T. Hall
Edward T. Hall was an american anthropologist who´s research interests focused on intercultural relations and nonverbal communication. His approach towards time measurement (Hall 1959) was to split cultures into monochronic and polychronic time orientation. This theory implies that time can be used in terms of “one thing at a time” (Dahl 2004) or to deal with multiple tasks at once. The following table shows the differences in these two concepts.
Table 1.: Monochronic vs. Polychronic culture (Dahl 2004)
B. Geert Hofstede
In his major work (Hofstede 1991) Gert Hofstede introduces 5 dimensions of culture, one of them dealing with time measurement. He uses the concept of time orientation in terms of long term vs. short term. In long term oriented cultures future rewards play a major role and with this status in relationships, persistence, thrift, having a sense of shame. On the opposite in short term oriented cultures past and present are important, therefore values like tradition, keeping face, stability and steadiness are favoured.
C. Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodtbeck
Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodtbeck, two cultural anthropologists, stated (Kluckhohn, Strodtbeck 1961) that “There are basic human problems for which all peoples at all times and in all places must find some solution”. According to this they identified 5 basic questions which lead them to their so cal...
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...though it becomes more important to be on time for a business meeting, schedules are only for orientation. Being late is not seen as an offence, meetings take the time they take, no matter what the schedule was.
V Conclusions
Although there was not enough statistic material on this topic for the specific countries I have chosen, especially for Gambia and Kazakhstan, it is still quite obvious that from a European perspective it does matter a lot what time orientation the culture of the country done business with features. To be informed about this topic beforehand surely helps to prevent frustrating business experiences and leads to a better understanding of the business partner as the time orientation heavenly influences people’s behaviour. For a business context it is especially relevant how deadlines, timeframes, meeting schedules, ... are seen and handled.
John McTaggart in his essay “Time” presents a radical argument that claims time is unreal. While the argument is interesting and has attracted much attention for his arguments, I remain unconvinced of the argument he makes. This paper will lay out McTaggart’s argument that time in unreal, critically analyze why I believe McTaggart’s argument fails and present an alternative idea about time, utilizing aspects of McTaggart’s argument.
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I wanted to understand so I went to the dictionary and found that Webster?s had no less than 29 definitions for this tiny word, time. I looked on-line and found self help books that said I could manage it better and scientists who posted things regardi...
Ellis has formed his own theory about what the universe and time must be like. In 2006 he began to formulate his own theory on time and the Universe. The theory he formulated is based on quantum physics rather than relativity, as Einstein’s theory is based on.
People check the time throughout the day, every day, making time essential to lives. The intrinsic importance of time is twofold: biologically people have an internal clock to regulate the most basic behaviors like breathing, sleeping, and blinking, and socially, time regulates daily lives like communication, farming, and business keeping. In fact, Eviatar Zerubavel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, argues that standard time is one of the “most essential” elements of the “social world”; social life is made possible with the ability to relate time (Zerubavel 2). Therefore, any change in the perception of time marks modification in thinking or an alteration to the social fabric. Throughout history perceived time has changed: sundials
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In the western society, our linear time structure has caused us to habitually separate time into intervals that consistently continue. The pressure these milestones place on people is enormous -- we are demanded to live life a certain way as there is always a time limit, even on the length of time we have in this world. Although these constraints tend to create the worry that life may not have meaning and bring with them the mystery of death, one must learn to emotionally separate oneself from this structure. Time as we have defined it is merely a human invention; aging and curiousness about the future are natural human instincts but when a man-made structure begins to cast a shadow of doubt on life’s meaning one must take a step back a realize that there is more to life than the ticking of a clock.
"Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture", is an article for Robert Levine and Ellen Wolff, it extend readers with the authors’ viewpoints and research about ‘time-sense’ in different cultures. Robbert and Wolff emphasize that there is difference of ‘time-sense’ in two levels, which are inter cultural and cross cultural. When we move into a new culture, understanding the differences of ‘time sense’ might help us to set ourselves to new people and also new places. The author also describe how ‘time sense’ vary in different cultures is more explained by the author’s experience and research. Having lived in Brazil meaning "tomorrow" referring to that Brazilians usually defer whatever they need to do. To find out if "the ‘manha’ pattern oversimplified the real Anglo/Brazilian differences in visualization of time", Robert did the research to compare the ‘time sense’ between college students in Brazil and Fresno, California. The result showed that students from Brazil have more flexibility in ‘time sense’ than students from California, and that because Brazilian have different ideas of time...
a context; historically, technically, and psychologically. Gleick dissects time, showing us how the ability to measure time in
McGee, Jon R., and Richard L. Warms. Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Good time management is essential if people rely on you to do their job. Failure of personal objectives can lead to others failing and ultimately the company failing. There are techniques that can be used to help decide what is most important (Important/Urgent Matrix) and by setting SMART objectives this is the plan of action to allow you to achieve individual and Team goals. We must be aware of how our actions affect others in the business. Poor time management to lead to stress, sickness and reduced team productivity
The problem of time management can be said to be universal not only affecting students but also other people in careers. This problem is seen to transition from a person’s life from different cadres of his or her engagement specifically from home, school and at work. It is also a problem that is internal and not external.
In the workplace, time management is an important factor in everyone’s day-to-day work. If a person’s time is well managed, it is possible to achieve a greater amount in a shorter space of time. How effectively people manage their time has a major influence on aspects of their working lives and their personal lives. Effective time management can have a hugely positive effect on a person, it can lead to a focused and disciplined mentality, giving a higher level of productivity, greater efficiency and an all round positive attitude in life. This benefits the individual, their team, the company they work for and also their friends and family. An example of this is an employee who prioritises their jobs at the start of the day; this gives them a structured day and ensures they have time to complete all of the important jobs. However, if time is poorly managed it can lead to inefficiencies, work overload and added pressure, this could eventually lead on to other issues such as stress.
The idea of using an holistic approach in Anthropology is not only demonstrated throughout these works, but the downfalls of failing to use holism is shown as well. When discussing perspective, the standpoint of the individual and the relationship he or she has with the subject or area of study is of vital importance. Any pre-conceived notions one has entering into a study can affect the process and validity of gathering information in the form of facts. In the tale, the men were unable to gather reliable information because they had already made up their minds about what the elephant looked and acted like. Anderson, however, was able to observe from both a participant standpoint and an onlookers point of view when collecting information regarding her various cultures of study. Ones culture provides a frame of reference that places limitations on the way people of varying cultures look at one another (Tversky and Kahneman). If one has only knowledge and experience of their native culture, they will have difficulty comprehending the world around them