The OSG Seminar welcomes

1. The OSG Seminar welcomes Allen BluedornUniversity of MissouriThe Human Organization of Time, Part 1: PolychronicityFriday, Oct.29th, 1-2:30pm, E52-598 ABSTRACT:The perspective that time and times are social constructions generates a fundamental question: What times do people construct? A fundamental answer is that they construct them to emphasize a greater or lesser degree of polychronicity. Poly-chronicity is the extent to which people prefer to do two or more things simultaneously (more on this at the seminar), and it was developed in the late 1950s as a way to describe both cultural and individual differences by anthropologist Edward Hall. However, aside from Hall few investigators studied polychronicity until the later 1980s. Since then an increasing amount of attention has been paid to this variable, both by me and by others. What has been learned from this increased attention will be the major focus of this seminar, in which we shall discuss: polychronicity's conceptualization and measurement; its manifestation as both a cultural and indi-vidual difference pattern; and its relationship with other variables, including punctuality, planning, space, creativity, and organiza-tional attractiveness, commitment, and change. Results obtained by other researchers as well as from several of my own polychron-icity studies will inform the discussion. And as we discuss results from data I collected this summer from a sample of top executives from 193 randomly selected American companies, we will see that as important and fundamental as polychronicity is, there is more than one important temporal variable. For more on Prof. Bluedorn and a full schedule of OSG Seminars, visit http://web.mit.edu/sloan/osg-seminar/index.html