How do you make life decisions?
Do you anchor your reasoning in the past, basing logic on tradition and precedence?
Or do you look toward the future, anchoring decisions on what could be?
In the same vein, think about your culture.
Does your culture go back millennia or a mere few centuries?
Or maybe it was born yesterday?
The answers to these questions can tell us about our culture’s concept of time orientation.
We’ve talked a bit about time orientation and perception in a past blog.
But let’s dig a little deeper into each of the 4 Types of Cultural Time Orientation and Time Perception.
Past-Oriented Values
“The past is the beginning of the beginning and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn.” – H.G. Wells
In past-oriented cultures, the past is honored and revered and heavily nostalgic, and it plays a large part in how present society is run and how decisions are made.
Past-oriented societies include China, Japan, Britain, and many Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.
They often follow formalities when it comes to working relationships and tend toward conservatism, meaning they are not often progressive in business matters.
Work culture is thoroughly grounded in ways of management that are tied to the past.
They also hold traditional values because feeding a collective memory is key to their cultural identity.
Due to the importance of tradition in these countries, their societies are slow to change.
If you try to intervene in tradition, you are not to be trusted.
As individuals, too, ancestral worship and family traditions are highly valued.
The Past Guides Us
Past-oriented societies don’t just make decisions based on past experience; they see their hope and inspiration in what has already been.
History, tradition, and precedence inspire them and direct their future.
They invest in businesses and other organizations that already exist.
All resources and efforts are put toward what has been established, and the past is used to evaluate the present.
Past-oriented cultures also tend to be risk-averse, and hiring is done with loyalty of company in mind.
Staff is expected to adhere to policies and procedures, as well as established norms.
Moreover, when planning for important changes that might also require a change in mentality, long time frames accommodate for resistance to said changes.
Change for change’s sake is not appreciated, and the past is led into the future, remaining very much alive in the present.
Visionary leaders of such cultures are able to balance their concept of time enough to ensure change is not too jarring and that the past is not left behind.
Success Across Cultures 