As I was searching info for a colleague about Polyvalence, I came across things concepts which I've never read before.
This is what I found on wikipedia:
In The Silent Language (1959), Edward T. Hall coined the term polychronic to describe the ability to attend to multiple events simultaneously, as opposed to "monochronic" individuals and cultures who tend to handle events sequentially.
Chronemics is the study of the use of time in nonverbal communication. The way that one perceives and values time, structures time and reacts to time frames communication.
The United States is considered a monochronic society. This perception of time is learned and rooted in the Industrial Revolution, where "factory life required the labor force to be on hand and in place at an appointed hour" (Guerrero, DeVito & Hecht, 1999, p. 238). For Americans, time is a precious resource not to be wasted or taken lightly.
A polychronic time system is a system where several things can be done at once, and a more fluid approach is taken to scheduling time. Unlike the United States, Canada, most of northern and western Europe, and most of East Asia, Latin American, African, South Asian, and Arab cultures use the polychronic system of time.
These cultures are much less focused on the preciseness of accounting for each and every moment. As Raymond Cohen notes, polychronic cultures are deeply steeped in tradition and relationships rather than in tasks—a clear difference from their monochronic counterparts.
SOURCES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_T._Hall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronemics#Monochronic_Time