Time management practices in an African culture: Correlates with college academic grades

The construct and predictive validity of Western process models of time management was examined in an African culture. Four hundred and seventy two (N = 472) Zimbabwean student teachers of a Shona cultural background took part in the study and the students varied by gender, age, college entry grade point and year of study. Students completed the Britton and Tesser (1991) Time Management Questionnaire. Factor analysis revealed that the time management processes of short term planning, perceived control of time, time attitude and long term planning were valid constructs for the sample of African students. However, when the students' self report time behaviours, time attitudes and demographic variables were regressed on College Grade Point Averages (CGPAs), only perceived control of time, short term planning, college entry grade point and gender singularly accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in CGPA. Findings are discussed with reference to the conceptual and practical issues in time management.