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It’s about time! Increasing
the temporal focus in organizational research Symposium
held at Maastricht University METEOR
and Department of Organization & Strategy Maastricht,
the Netherlands June
8-9, 2006 FINAL PROGRAM June 1 2006 |
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Section
1: Measured Time – Empirical approaches Dawna Ballard,College
of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Organizational
temporality over time: Activity cycles as sources of entrainment Current
research on organizational temporality is, largely, timeless. That is,
despite the growing corpus of scholarship in this area, much of the research
ignores fundamental changes in member and team temporality across time. Additionally, researchers often fail to
consider the cyclical processes that shape and are shaped by members’
experience of time, as well as the overlapping activity cycles within which
members find themselves engaged at any one point in time. The resultant theories can offer a
misleading portrayal of workplace temporality. One notable exception, the entrainment
perspective, recognizes that cycles are definitional to time and the temporal
processes experienced by living systems.
This perspective, introduced into organizational research by McGrath
and Rotchford (1983) and elaborated by Ancona and Chong (1996) and Bluedorn
(2002), has been under-utilized in theoretical discussions and under-studied
in empirical investigations of organizational temporality (see Ancona,
Okhuysen, & Perlow, 2001; Blount, 2004; Waller, Zellmer-Bruhn, &
Giambatista, 2002; and, Zaheer, Albert, & Zaheer, 1999 for notable
exceptions). The value of entrainment
in highlighting the communicative bases of organizational temporality is
illustrated in the present discussion through the introduction of a typology
of activity cycles—characterized variously as concentration, cultivation,
commotion, and creation cycles. These
activity cycles, the temporal “containers” of work processes, enable and
constrain members’ behavior through the symbolic functions they serve, and
the frame (Monge & Kalman, 1996) they create acts as a zeitgeber for
members’ activities and interaction patterns. |
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Mary J. Waller, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Deborah G. Ancona, Sloan
School of Management, Cambridge MA, USA The dance of entrainment: Temporally navigating across multiple
pacers Previous research
on teams suggests that teams pace their changes either internally to coincide
with the midpoints, deadlines, or phases of assigned tasks, or externally by
entraining to exogenous pacers. Other
research suggests that teams simply change to adapt to random environmental
shocks. This paper investigates if, how, and when endogenous, exogenous and
random pacers affect the patterns of change in groups. We studied five
software development teams during a particularly turbulent two-year period.
Our case studies and supporting quantitative analyses suggest that teams
perform a “dance of entrainment” – simultaneously attending to several
rhythms and choreographing their actions by using different pacers at different
times while attending to both legitimizing and task activities. * The authors thank Connie Gersick and Keith Murnighan for
their helpful comments. An earlier
version of this paper was presented at the 2000 |
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Anneloes M.L. Raes, Mariëlle G. Heijltjes, Ursula Glunk, Robert A.
Roe, Maastricht University, the Netherlands Conflict, trust, and effectiveness of teams performing complex tasks:
A study of temporal patterns In this study, we explore the temporal nature of task conflict,
relationship conflict and trust in teams that perform complex tasks. Since time is an inherent aspect of
team functioning, we want to give more insight in the temporal nature of these three
constructs that have been extensively investigated in cross-sectional designs. Using a
longitudinal research design with six measurement points over a period of ten months, we collected data
on 41 teams. These data allow us to thoroughly explore temporal patterns of conflict and
trust, as well as consequences of these patterns in terms of team effectiveness. In our
discussion, we reflect on theoretical explanations for the observed patterns. |
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Franziska Tschan, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland Joseph E. McGrath,
Research on temporal aspects
of group processes: A conceptual schema and some research examples Time is still too
often a neglected aspect of group research. In this paper, we first present
CAST, a theoretical
framework about groups that views groups as complex acting systems over time. The frame theory
emphasizes various time-related aspects important in the study of groups. In the second part
of the paper, in order to identify specific time-relevant variables to
include in a given research project,
we suggest the use of a time-sensitive task analyses. The third part of the paper presents
empirical examples of ‘time-sensitive’ group process analyses drawn from an ongoing research
program investigating Medical Emergency Driven Teams working in simulator settings. |
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Josette M.P. Gevers, Brigitte Claessens, Wendelien van Eerde,
Christel C.G. Rutte, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands Robert A. Roe, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
Beyond conscientiousness: Testing the predictive validity
of pacing styles This paper
addresses the value of using a measure of pacing styles for the prediction of
individual and team-based performance beyond the personality trait
conscientiousness. Pacing style refers to the way an individual generally
uses his or her time under deadline conditions and is, as we will show,
closely related but clearly distinct from the concept of conscientiousness.
In three studies among engineers (students and professionals) operating in a
training context or a real-world organizational environment, we test two
versions of a pacing style measure. Pros and cons of both measures are
discussed. |
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Fred R.H. Zijlstra, Faculty of
Psychology, Maastricht University The weekly cycle of work and rest: A diary study
Strain and
fatigue are the most common short-term effects of a workday. These are the
consequences of our effort investments throughout the day in order to meet
the demands of work. During the day our energetic (and emotional) resources
are depleted, and need to be replenished from time to time. This process is
referred to as ‘recuperation’, or ‘recovery’. Recovery is important because
it allows us to prepare and be ready for the challenges of a new (work)day. In
this paper we want to explore the daily cycle of work and rest during a
regular working week. And also we would like to explore how leisure
activities and (the quality of) sleep affects the cycle of work and rest. |
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Section
2: Experienced Time – Interpretative approaches Ida Sabelis, Free University Amsterdam, the Netherlands ‘To develop a sensitivity for the temporal
dimension of organizational life (…) means being attentive to what tends to
be taken for granted. (…) Such sensitivity is extended not only to the
subject matter of research but also to theory and method’ (Adam et. al.
2002:23). In
temporally–focused research, a tricky point for in-depth exploration of organizational
life is to develop sensitivity to find the implicit and invisibly–influential
temporal patterns that influence the processes of everyday life in
organizations. One of the ways to handle this is via a timescape view: a
multi-perspective view to exemplify the workings of time in terms of ‘full’
time politics (Adam, 1995; Whipp, 1994, 2002;
Purser, 2003; Clark, 2005). Theoretically, the timescape
view is complicated enough – in empirical work it produces pitfalls and
opportunities. In my contribution, I propose to present examples, in which a timescape view was applied with various levels of
success, to contribute to the methodological debate. |
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Miguel Pina e Cunha, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal The organizing of rythms, the rythm of organizing Time has been a central
notion in the life of modern organizations. With the fin de siècle, the relationship between time and organization
moved to the center of the management debate. The idea that organizations and
their members are now pressed by time urgency became common knowledge. Rather
than considering time pressure or techniques to make better use of time as a
competitive weapon, I consider a complementary theme: the rhythms of
organizational life. More precisely, I discuss how the organizing of rhythm
(the management of chronos) influences and is
influenced by the rhythms acquired/entrained by the organization (the
experience of kairos). Four types of organizations
are distinguished in function of how they experience the objective and
psychological dimensions of time, chronos and kairos. The four types are the hypercompetitive, the
pulsed, the pressed and the out of time organization. The theoretical
analysis of organizational types from the perspective of time may complement
typologies developed from other perspectives (e.g., structure, strategy,
culture) and open alternative approaches to the analysis of the relationship
between time and organization. |
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Stewart Clegg, Maastricht University, the Netherlands / University of
Technology, Sydney, Australia The ghosts of time past in organization theory Organization requires power and, while not
all power requires organization, most does. Power is to organization as
oxygen is to breathing.[i]
Politics are at the core of public life and their expression is invariably
dependent on organization, be it organized in government, business,
administrative, religious, educational life, or whatever. Formal politics are
organized and all organizations are themselves crucibles of political life.
The term, ‘organizational politics’, is not a part of the lexicon of everyday
speech without good reason. Usually it has negative connotations as if there
were an organizational life without politics, which was somehow more
technically rational. I doubt that very much, but do not think that
organizational life and politics are necessarily nasty and backstabbing. They
often are, but power—the central concept of the social sciences—need not
always be regarded as something to be avoided. Power can be a positive force;
it can achieve great things. A great deal depends on the time period of
reckoning.
[1] To allude to something that
Bernard Crick (1982) once remarked with respect to the role of politics in
public life. |
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Alan McKinlay and Jim Smyth, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK Michel Foucault
has a troubled relationship with historians, with narrative and chronology;
and displayed a constant unease with thinking of himself as a historian, to be
held to the same evidentiary protocols as other historians. Here, we consider
Foucault’s status as a historian and the implications of his work for
historiography. The paper is in three sections.
First, we focus on Foucault’s use of events to symbolise particular
theoretical concerns. In Discipline and Punish, for instance, he recounts
in uncomfortable detail, the long public agonies of Damien, the would-be regicide,
to capture something of the nature of monarchic or sovereign power. That is,
a form of power that was vested in a single body, a power that had to be demonstrated
publicly in great acts of punishment or generosity. This was not, argues,
Foucault, necessarily a cruel form of power, but it was episodic,
occasional and precarious. More than this, the underlying system of power was
literally unthinkable, not just offensive, to modern sensibilities. The
seemingly gratuitous description of Damien’s public ordeal also acts as a
counterpoint to disciplinary or carceral power, the
concept that Foucault develops at length in Discipline and Punish. We
shall examine the moment of Damien, drawing upon primary records and the extensive
French commentary on this extraordinary event. |
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Peter
Clark & Giuliano Maielli, Queen Mary University, London, UK
The
revolution of strategic timed-space in organizations: Theory and research In
anticipation In anticipation of the new millennium there
was a renewed interest in organizational time which, although scoping the
directions we propose, has largely remained within established analytic positions
(Clark 2006). Moreover, claims to be longitudinal in terms of life cycles are
problematic (see Clark & Rowlinson 2002, 2006) and
hence claims about the ‘history turn’ are often awkward (Clark & Rowlinson 2004). Although this paper does not expressly
explain the requirement for a comparative geohistorical
approach this has been addressed in other research and is central to our
claims. This paper explores the directions and requirements for a significant
‘temporal turn’ in organizational research. Organizational research
is colonized and pervaded by four sub-genres of temporal analysis which are
mainly limited and limiting. First, the legacy of We distinguish the
position of temporality in organizational research within the academy from
the evolving practices fusing both calendar and clock time (CCT) with heterogeneous
event time reckoning within the state, the military and corporations (Clark 1997;
Clark & Maielli 2005). We contend that
corporate temporalities are more complex and differentiated forms of Penrosian learning-knowing than much of academic research
seems able deploy. We note the extent of temporal innovations associated with
the shift from craft via fragmentation to systemic work systems postulated by
The paper is in four
parts. First, we note the problems of reformulating the Newtonian legacy.
Second, we focus upon the strategic time reckoning of contingent and indexical
futures in organizations when heterogeneous event based time reckoning is used
alongside CCT. Third, we sketch the evolution of strategic organizational temporalities
in the Cold War. Fourth, we apply our perspective to the struggles within Fiat
amongst different groupings to define the indexical future directions of the
firm (Maielli 2006). This section also includes an
unforeseen counterfactual for Rover 4WD in 1965-1968. |
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Peter Clark & Michael Rowlinson, Queen Mary University, London, UK
Calendrical time and narrative history in organization theory:
Charting historical narratives We bring together
the concerns with calendrical time, history and
narrative in organization theory. We do this by providing a procedure that
facilitates metahistorical reflection on the
'shape' of historical narratives. The procedure is developed from a starting
point which assumes that not all history is narrative, and not all narrative
is historical, but that the degree to which writing about the past is both
historical and narrative can be detected. Writing can be taken as historical
if there are references to specific points in time, usually indicated by dates
and years. This is calendrical time. We plot
references to years in historical writing against the independent variable,
narrative, for which we take the succession of page numbers as a proxy. The
resulting charts allow us to detect the presence of calendrical
dating and to visualize the shape of historical narratives. In order to
illustrate the variety of historical narratives we apply the procedure to four
accomplished accounts of the past in organizations, namely |
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Allen C. Bluedorn University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia MS, USA Temporal hegemony and the end of times Time is manifested in many forms and along
many dimensions, yet forms once prevalent are supplanted by others and
sometimes fall into disuse, often while the overall form of the temporal
commons changes along many basic dimensions that define its character. Such
change is neither politically, economically, nor culturally neutral because
some forms and changes are favored over others. But what forms and conditions? Forms that are or will become dominant will
be discussed, along with those that have or will become peripheral. Among the issues such changes reveal are
process questions about how such temporal changes occur and how they can be
studied. The political, economic, and
cultural realities in which these processes occur suggest an especially
intriguing question: Is a temporal
pluralism possible? And if so, how is
it possible, and how can it be maintained? |
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Simon Lilley, University of Leicester, UK Organising time: Contraction, synthesis, contemplation In his
exploration of ‘repetition for itself’, Deleuze
(2004), beginning with Hume, invites us to see imagination, prior to
understanding, as site of contraction of instants and place of synthesis
of time, through contemplation. But synthesis and contemplation here
are not the deliberative work of the mind. Rather they occur ‘in the
mind… prior to all memory and all reflection’ (91, original emphasis).
Working through Bergson, Deleuze
moves us up and down different levels of his
contraction-synthesis-contemplation triptych in dizzying whorls of mutuality
of the active and passive. Down to matter, through its contemplation
by the ordering of organism; up to memory and its potential for reflection
and representation; down again (or is that up?) to reminiscence. In the
process time slips, not by, but in and out, as variously both condition and
agent. Kant and Descartes are contrasted, identity put in its place, the difference
between repetitions of the eternal return celebrated. Kierkegaard,
Freud, Lacan, Klein and Borges circle this
difference, both nurturing and threatening it as they invite in and expel the
suffocations of the same. Proust, Joyce, Caroll and, finally, Plato’s Socratic cipher, as
imitation and resemblance transform into the simulacra and ‘give…way to
repetition’ (156). It’s about time and organization and
difference worth repeating. And I might even relate it to the places where we
work! Reference Deleuze, G. (2004) Difference and
Repetition, Tr. P. Patton, |
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Section 3: Measured and
Experienced Time – Towards Integration Robert A. Roe, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Perspectives
on time and the chronometric study of what happens in organizations An often made
distinction in the study of time in organizations is that between objective, linear,
homogeneous, linear, measurable, Newtonian time, also called Chronos, and subjective, non-linear,
heterogeneous, experienced, event time, also designated as Kairos. These conceptions of time are associated
with the positivistic and the interpretative approaches to organizational
research. Are these conceptions of time incompatible? And are there two
mutually exclusive ways of gaining scholarly knowledge about time in organizations?
This paper proposes that the two notions of time can be meaningfully combined
by accepting the possibility of mutual ‘reflection’, that is, the interpretation
of measured time, and the measurement of interpreted time. By adding the
postulate of ‘recursivity’, which entails
reflection at successive (higher order) levels, a broad range of options for
inquiry into the temporality of organizational phenomena unfolds, that allows
for the use of chronometric as well as interpretative methods. It is noted
that prevailing positivistic and interpretative approaches have both lead to
a dramatic neglect of measured time in organizational research. Therefore,
the remainder of this paper focuses on the chronometric study of
organizations. It proposes a research agenda which covers temporal phenomena
at multiple analytical levels, including those of the individual, the group
and the organization as a whole. Since objective as well as subjective
definitions of phenomena are considered, the scope of this chronometric
approach and its descriptive and explanatory potential appear to be
substantial. |