C48IB Intercultural Issues in Business and

Management

Week 5
Intercultural Perspectives of Work, Leisure and
Time
Work and
Leisure
How many hours a day do you work?
When do you stop checking emails?
Do you work on weekends?
Do you separate work and leisure? How?
How do you define the boundary between
work and the rest of non-work life?
Consider the rise of technological and
managerial developments such as laptops,
smartphones, flextime, and opportunities for
working from home, which allow (or require)
employees to take work home with them and
wherever they go.
Work and
Leisure
Think of an activity that might be understood
in terms both of ‘work’ and in terms of
‘leisure’.
What are the boundaries between one term
and the other?
What does this say about your own
understanding of ‘work’ and ‘leisure’?
How does this compare to your classmates’?
In this lecture, we will…

•Discuss key concepts related to work, leisure

and time
•Discuss how culture has influence on these
concepts
•Begin to consider the implications for
different understandings of work, leisure and
time for intercultural contexts
What are the boundaries
of ‘work’?
Paid work?

Office hours?

Travel time?

Unpaid work?

Working at home?

Working remotely?

Discuss: how might individualistic and collectivist approaches to

work differ?
What are the boundaries
of ‘leisure’ ?
Cooking
Housework
After-work drinks
Dinner with colleagues
Leisure
= an ‘activity chosen in relative freedom for
its qualities of satisfaction’ (Kelly 2012, p. 3)
However, these boundaries are also unclear.

Can such activities take place during

working hours?
 In many Western cultures for example, leisure is
linked to freedom and seen as a reward for
work; however, they are not necessarily
consistent.
Scitovsky (1976): American Puritan heritage and
production-oriented education system impedes
Americans’ capacity to properly consume and
enjoy leisure, unlike Europeans whose social
status is tied to the effortlessly expert
Work, leisure management of leisure
and culture American and European approaches diverge
and have broad implications for attitudes
towards issues such as state provision of
leisure or transport facilities, welfare provision
and consumerism.
Short-term orientation + so-­called ‘Protestant
Ethic’ in the US, which considers hard work
good in and of itself (Ferraro and Briody, 2017,
p. 49).
 Non-Western perspectives on leisure have
historically gone under-researched (Ito et al.
2014). However, in China, for example, the
concept of leisure is highly influenced by
Taoism and Confucianism.
Intercultural
perspectives In contrast to Western emphases on
consumption, the Chinese perspective on
of leisure leisure instead emphasises harmony with
nature (Liu et al. 2008)
Question

What does this all mean for interactions in

the workplace?
Time expressions
in English
Time flies when you’re having fun
Time is money
[something] is worth my time

Others ?
Others in your language?

What do these expressions say about the

cultures of the speakers?
Getting things
done
How do you deal with time pressures?
Do you multitask?
Or do you prefer having a clearer structure and
finishing one thing at a time ?
 There are three perspectives on time that tend to vary from
culture to culture:

(1) the strict or relaxed accountability of time

Switzerland v. Lyon; ‘African time’
(Mbiti, 1969); Mañana in Mexico
Intercultural (2) a sequential (monochronic) or synchronic
perspectives (polychronic) perspective on time
Getting things done v. sticking to
on time schedule or adherence to rules
Hall (1989): West-monochronic, v.
Mediterranean-polychronic.
Ferraro and Briody (2017) – salami
ex.
Clock-time v. event-time

(3) a focus on the past, present, or future

 Clock-time cultures, like the USA, adhere
to schedules and punctuality,
Event-time cultures, like Latin America,
go more with the natural flow of social
events.
Although perhaps still prevalent, these
distinctions may blur with globalisation
Ferraro and Briody, 2017, p. 44 and the advance of technology and
multitasking in all developed countries.
Sircova et al, 2015, p. 171
Does Context Matter?
Much research into approaches to time ignore the context of the
situation. What time would you arrive at each of these meetings?
1. A meeting with your friends arranged for 11am?
2. A meeting with your professor arranged for 11am?
3. A restaurant booking for 8pm?
4. A hospital appointment scheduled for 1pm?

Would everyone from a similar culture to you answer the same? Where
does personality fit in?
Ferraro and Briody, 2017, p. 47

Which type do you think would display a strict

separation of work and personal life?
Question
When deciding a course of action, do you:
1. Look more to the past, what has worked before and try to replicate
that?
2. Look more to the present, what is going on in the moment and the
current environment?
3. Look more to the future, what is the desired outcome long-term,
and how do we get there?
So what?
 What issues related to understanding of
work, leisure and time might you anticipate?
Example 1: Business meeting
 A business meeting between two
organisations is scheduled for 4pm.
When do you arrive?
Why?
Example 1: How does your attitude towards the meeting
Business time link to cultural values attached to work
and time?
meeting
What intercultural implications does this
have?
What challenges might it present?
How would you deal with them?
 Everyone arrives and the meeting begins. Is
there any small talk?
Does small talk:
- Break the ice?
- Show a concern for colleagues and their
Example 1: personal lives?
Business - Delay negotiations?
meeting - Become inappropriate?
What do attitudes towards small talk say
about how you think about concepts of
leisure and time?
How much potential is there here for cultural
misunderstanding?
 The organisations begin to draft a joint
business plan. How do their approaches to
time affect their plan?
What would a linear business plan look like?
Example 1: What would a synchronised approach look
Business like?

meeting Should the partners adopt a short-term or

long-term perspective on their work? Why?
What might their approaches to time say
about their respective cultural values?
 The meeting continues until it was
scheduled to finish at 6.30pm. What
happens next?
People leave at the stated finish time?
People stay until the meeting is finished?
Example 1:
People take work home with them?
Business
meeting
How would these approaches be linked to
ideas about leisure and work?
What business consequences might different
cultural approaches to leisure and time have
for the partnership?
 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-4291359
Example 2 – 4
How late is
too late? How would you manage a team with such
differences?
 •Assume nothing but good intentions. ...
•Clarify the time frame. ...
•Add in cultural buffer time. ...

Saunders, •Look at the work more frequently.

2016:
Saunders, E.G. (2016): Four ways to manage
deadlines in cross-cultural teams, Harvard
Business Review, June 10, 2016-2
 This section has highlighted the
concepts of work, time and leisure as
culturally implicated.

In intercultural contexts, understanding

these concepts as culturally-rooted can
Conclusions help anticipate people’s behaviour and
expectations, as well as avoiding
cultural miscommunications.
What implications does this have for
business contexts?
Review Questions
What do you see as the ideal balance
between work and leisure?

Then reflect on this follow-up questions:

what considerations might have influenced
your answer?