Chinese Employees' Time Orientations In American Multinationals In China

Attracted by its rapid economic development and huge market, hundreds of Americanmultinational companies have swarmed into China. Because of the cultural differencesbetween China and United States, Chinese employees in American multinationals in Chinaare subject to frequent conflicts caused by different time orientations with their Americancolleagues. In order to avoid such cultural conflicts and misunderstandings between two sides,it is quite necessary to have a thorough investigation into the differences of employees' timeorientations.Through empirical and quantified study, this thesis seeks to make a portrait of timeorientations of Chinese employees in American multinationals in China. In order to get abetter understanding of cultural influence on time orientations, Chinese employees workingfor Chinese private enterprises without foreign investment and American employees workingfor American companies in U.S. are also surveyed. As milestones in their respective field,Hofstede's, Kaufman's and Zimbardo's theories are used in this study.Based on relevant theories, this paper first analyzes time orientations from three perspectives:polychronic time orientation, past, present, future orientation and long-term orientation. Then,the relationships of polychronic time orientation with other four cultural values, namely,individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation and past time orientation are analyzed. Themajor findings are: Chinese employees in American multinationals in China are polychronic,long-term oriented and future oriented;polychronic time orientation is positively associatedwith past time orientation and long-term orientation while negatively associated withindividualism and masculinity.