Assignment Problem: Negotiating concepts of time:
You are working with a Native American community. In your culture, as well as that of your agency, people set appointments for meetings and conduct meetings in offices. The beginning and end times are fixed, with about 5 minutes of flexibility for lateness or running overtime. Most people from the community you are working with have a different sense of time. People meet when needed and when the time is appropriate, rather than at an artificially predetermined time. Meetings are often held out in the community or in someone's home rather than in an office building. Meetings seem informal to you, with no clear boundary between when the meeting begins and ends. What are the implications of these cultural differences for negotiations between you and members of the community? How do you negotiate a set of norms for meetings that are acceptable to both you and members of the community?