On Time and Public Relations

1. On Time and Public Relations Tyron Love Lecturer in Public Relations Murdoch University t.love@murdoch.edu.au

2. A study on corporate philanthropy in New Zealand Premise: Donors and recipients are driven to give, receive and reciprocate in a process of exchange over time. Aim: To understand how giving (corporate) and receiving (non-profit) managers made sense of corporate philanthropic partnerships. Method: A form of narrative collection and analysis (Gabriel, 2000). Time: Employed ‘the attribution of time’ as a mechanism for understanding how managers made sense of partnerships using notions of time (Cunliffe et al., 2004).

3. Corporate philanthropy as time-confined “…we funded the work they did for 5 years…” (giving-manager) “…that’s a 3 year funding thing that’s just ended…” (receiving-manager) Managers impose finite timeframes on philanthropy to control partnerships. Giving is explained as uniform, precise and measurable with beginnings and endings. Efficiency and productivity are written into the corporate philanthropy lexicon. Philanthropy appears to have less relevance to the objectives of non-profit organisations.

4. Corporate philanthropy as cyclical “they send us a certain amount each month” (receiving-manager) “we made a commitment to build two houses a year” (giving-manager) The repetition of giving creates consistency thereby organising philanthropic life. Cyclical giving locates participants in stable networks of philanthropic partnerships. Giving and receiving become routine, mechanical and un-reflexive.

5. Time, organisation and culture Monochroniccultures: People do one thing at a time (Hall, 1983). Polychroniccultures: People do lots of things at once (Hall, 1983). Clock (objective) time: Time structures action into quantifiable, uniform, regular, precise and measurable units (Anconaet al., 2001), driving the need for efficiency and production, making control and function possible (Cunliffe et al., 2004). Subjectivetime: Ties duration to human experiences and feelings (Cunliffe et al., 2004).

6. Time, organisation and culture Short-termorientation: Societies focus on achieving quick results (Hofstede, 2012). Long-termorientation: People show an ability to adapt traditions to changed conditions and persevere to achieve results (Hofstede, 2012). Māori (Indigenous New Zealand) time: Refers to (1) Māoripeople’s supposed lack of regard for time and implies laziness and unreliability, but also (2) values of human relating, discussion and collective consensus (McKay &Walmsley, n.d.; Walker, 1982).

7. Research questions: Indigenous communities and corporations How do actors of Indigenous communities and corporations construct time to make sense of each other and their partnerships? What can a focus on time reveal about the cultural (in)compatibilities between Indigenous communities and corporations?

8. References Ancona, D. G., Okhuysen, G. A., & Perlow, L. A. (2001). Taking Time to Integrate Temporal Research. Academy of Management Review, 26(4), 512-529. Cunliffe, A. L., Luhman, J. T., & Boje, D. M. (2004). Narrative Temporality: Implications for Organizational Research. Organization Studies, 25(2), 261-286. Gabriel, Y. (2000). Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, Fictions, and Fantasies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hall, E, T., (1983). The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time. New York: Anchor. Hofstede, G., (2012). Long-term versus short-term orientation (LTO). Retrieved from Hofstedewebsite: http://geert-hofstede.com/dimensions.html. McKay, B., Walmsley, A. (n.d.). Maori Time: Notions of Space, Time and Building Form in the South Pacific. Retried from IDEA website: http://www.idea-edu.com/Journal/2003/Maori-Time-Notions- of-Space-Time-and-Building-Form-in-the-South-Pacific. Walker, R. (1982). A Lot to Learn About Time. New Zealand Listener.