Time Orientation

Today we round out our discussion of Hofstede’s dimensions of culture. The fifth and final dimension — time orientation — was not discovered in Hofstede’s original surveys. Sensing that something was missing — something important about Asian cultures — Michael Harris Bond, a professor in Hong Kong, designed and carried out a separate set of surveys. The results yielded this fifth dimension. Hofstede saw the shortcoming of his original surveys, which had been designed exclusively by Westerners, and added time orientation to his inventory.

In essence time orientation has to do with patience: how quickly do we expect results? The higher the score, the longer-term the time orientation.

Here the difference between the U.S. and China is staggering. The U.S. comes in at 29. China is literally off the charts at 118. (The 100-point scale had been fixed before the Chinese data came in.)

Apocryphal or not, there’s a famous story that tells this tale perfectly. It goes like this:

In 1972, when Nixon was visiting China, one day he was strolling the grounds of the Forbidden City with Premier Zhou Enlai. Kissinger had told Nixon that Zhou was an avid student of French history. Looking to make conversation, Nixon asked: “What has been the effect of the French Revolution on Western civilization?” Zhou’s answer: “It’s too early to tell.”

If you’ve never visited China, it’s hard to convey just how thoroughly this deeply long-term orientation permeates the culture. The sense it leaves is that “We’ve seen it all before. We’ve been here 5,000 years, and we’ll be here 5,000 more.” Contrast this with the get-it-now mentality in the U.S., and you’ll begin to see how vast this discrepancy truly is.

Neither way is better than the other. But the yawning gap demands our attention. So many woes of Americans doing business in China have stemmed from a failure to understand this one dimension.

Perish any thoughts of a “fast buck” in China. It’s just not going to happen. Gird yourself for the long haul. Discipline yourself to be patient. Only then do you stand a realistic chance of success in China.