Monthly Archives: August 2012

Polychronic/Monochronic Organizers

 Are you familiar with polychronic and monochronic organizational styles or high context/low context communication? These styles are culturally based and learning about them may serve to help us better relate to those we live and work with.  The following is a link to one of the most concise articles I’ve found on this…

http://www.harley.com/writing/time-sense.html

As for the polychronic organizer the book “A Perfect Mess” may shed some light on why many people (actually 2/3’s of us) organize the way we do.  If you take time to look into this, I encourage you reflect on those students and colleagues who may drive you crazy with their seeming lack of order which is anything but.

http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-646-The-Workplace-Is-a-Messier-Desk-Better/

http://www.ericabrahamson.com/mybooks/aperfectmess.html

On how culture affects communication…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIUilYX56E

Comparative Time Orientation Chart…

Low/High Context Chart…

Mechanistic/Humanistic View of Employee Chart…

CrossTalk: Communicating in a Multicultural Workplace, Sherron B. Kenton and Deborah Valentine, Prentice-Hall, 1997.

As educators, we are much like the cogs of a wheel creating forward motion.  Diverse organizational styles and communication are needed to meet the diverse needs of our students.  Having like organizational styles and communication is akin to all cogs spinning in the same direction going nowhere.

The dichotomy of the educational system is it touts monochronic values while imposing copious polychronic tasks.  This in itself can cause confusion which produces stress, which in turn detracts from effective teaching and learning much like the wearing down of each cog that is not benefiting from the thrust of its opposite.  Having a better understanding of the above styles can help us all in our interactions with each other.

We all have so much to share…