One culture may view time as an absolute, you must be on time for meetings and meet deadlines, while another might view time as fluid and punctuality n is perhaps not as important. They set the example that in Africa, the Middle East and South America, they don't work in minutes and seconds like we do in America. Instead, they work in chunks of time (morning, afternoon, half day, etc.), so they place less emphasis on the exact time it takes to complete a project rather than what they can do in the desired time frame. . Another example they gave was France, which they say is a cultural anomaly. They said that in this culture, punctuality is not a priority. Being late for appointments, meetings, maybe even a doctor's office would not offend the person you are meeting like it would here in the United States. However, punctuality is very important when it comes to food and restaurant reservations. This anomaly occurs because the French place great importance on food and food-related events. If you arrive late for a reservation, it is considered an insult to gastronomy.