Icelandic and Spanish employees 10
Moreover, Spaniards keep ends open on purpose as “Spaniards are concerned that too much
planning leads to loss of spontaneity and flexibility” (Wattley-Ames, 1999, p. 102) and thus “…
when agreement is reached, Spaniards often leave details undecided” (p. 105). In addition, when
working on an issue, Spaniards often choose to work nonstop without a break for hours whereas
the Icelanders seem not to work as effectively without short breaks.
MacDuff (2006), in his analysis of cultural differences in the pace of business
negotiations, cautions against simplistic dichotomies of monochronic/polychronic approaches to
time. This is particularly in the global technological age when boundaries between work and
leisure, and home/work are blurred, when employees can theoretically communicate with others
and be available 24/7. Drawing from work by Brislin & Kim (2003), Tompenaars and Hampden-
Turner (1997) and others, he proposes a tripartite framework for understanding cultural
difference in perceptions of time: Punctuality and timeliness (the importance or lack of
importance placed on being “on time”); the use of time (how time is spent e.g. on task or on
relationship-building); and time as issue within business negotiation (how far back one goes or
how far forward one looks in perceiving importance of events, remedies). It seems that the
misunderstandings between Icelanders and Spaniards are based on a combination of the first two
elements. The Spaniards perhaps do not place the same importance on punctuality and may
prefer to spend more time in building relationships (which Icelanders see as less important than
task). These differences taken together with the differences in direct/indirect conversational
preferences seem at the root of much of the communication problems.
A final communication issue involves power distance differences (Hofstede, 2001).
According to the Icelandic employees, Spanish employees expect that their managers have all the
answers and that they will tell them what to do and in what way. Their managers or supervisors
Convention