How many things do you like to do at once? An introduction to monochronic and polychronic time

Executive Overview Donna Vinton's preceding article provides an overview of many ways that attitudes, values, and beliefs about time can differ. This article presents a detailed look at one of those differences—between monochronic and polychronic time—which, respectively, distinguish between a preference for doing one thing at a time rather than doing two or more things simultaneously. Following an explanation of this difference, Kaufman, Lane and Lindquist's Polychronic Attitude Index, which measures the degree of an individual's polychronic orientation, is described, as is Bluedorn's Monochronic/Polychronic Orientation Scale, which measures the extent to which a department or organization is polychronic. Scoring information for both scales is included to enable readers to identify their individual orientations as well as to provide some indication of their departments' and organizations' orientations. This information can be used to manage one's self and one's organization more effectively, and advice o...