Time to Change: Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change

Nancy Staudenmayer, Marcie Tyre () and Leslie Perlow ()
Additional contact information
Nancy Staudenmayer: Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
Marcie Tyre: Brandeis University, Women's Studies Research Center, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110
Leslie Perlow: Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts 02163

Organization Science, 2002, vol. 13, issue 5, 583-597

Abstract: In this paper, we integrate findings from three field studies of technology intensive organizations to explore the process through which change occurred. In each case, problems were well recognized but had become entrenched and had failed to generate change. Across the three sites, organizational change occurred only after some event altered the accustomed daily rhythms of work, and thus changed the way people experienced time. This finding suggests that temporal shifts—changes in a collective's experience of time—can help to facilitate organizational change. Specifically, we suggest that temporal shifts enable change in four ways: (1) by creating a trigger for change, (2) by providing resources needed for change, (3) by acting as a coordinating mechanism, and (4) by serving as a credible symbol of the need to change.

Keywords: Time and Timing; Organizational Change; Punctuated Change; Qualitative Methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.5.583.7813 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:13:y:2002:i:5:p:583-597

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().