This document summarizes a literature review on the concept of time in organizational studies. It discusses three main levels: theoretical, methodological, and implications. At the theoretical level, it reviews key concepts of time including clock time, event time, and temporal structuring. At the methodological level, it examines how time has been incorporated as a variable, design element, and measurement tool in research. It concludes by discussing implications for theory building, research methods, and identifying opportunities for future studies to further develop understanding and integration of time within organizational research.

1. LITERATURE REVIEW
TIME IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES:
AN OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON THE STAGE
OF THEORY, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
BRUNELLE P., 2017.
PIERRE
BRUNELLE
MRES STUDENT
SDMR ’16
Master of ResearchRestricted 2017
8 FEBURARY 2017

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OUTLINE
METHODOLOGICAL LEVEL
THEORETICAL LEVEL
INTRODUCTION
DISCUSSION
DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND RESEARCH

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INTRODUCTION
General Interests
‒ Is time about the course of actions? (M. Heidegger)
‒ Is time a currency? (E. P. Thompson)
‒ Is time a duration?
Organizational interests
‒ Time always coexists within the organizational settings (Butler et al. 1995)
‒ Everything people do involves time (Roe et al. 2005), (Lewin 1943)
‒ Crucial to perform cultural analysis (Schein 2010)
“Time is as fundamental a topic as any that exists in human affairs” (Bluedorn et al. 1988)
Managerial Perspectives of Time
‒ H. Ford (1926) implemented W. Taylor’s principles (1924)
‒ Timing issues : elementary aspects of firms’ strategies (Das 1987)
Temporal conflicts (Mohammed 2014, Dougherty 2013, Gersick 1994, Gevers 2006)
‒ Time Management Studies : specified tactics (Shipp 2015) manage temporal issues (Claessens 2007)

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THEORETICAL LEVEL
Review of Related Research
‒ Comprehensive review (Adam 1994, Ancona et al. 2001, Bluedorn 2002, Blyton et al. 1989, Clark 1985,
Hassard 1990, 1991, Mitchell and James 2001).
Time was seen as a control variable (George 2000, Langley 2013)
Plurality of thinking about time, either as a socially construct notion or as a fundamental dimension
Essential dimension of organizational life (Orlikowski 2002)
Most studied concepts
‒ Objective perspectives (Clock time)
‒ Subjective perspectives (Event and Process time)
‒ Practice-based perspectives (Temporal structuring)

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THEORETICAL LEVEL
Strategic manipulation of time (Bourdieu 1977) – Time can be organized (Hall 1983) -> Clock timeFormalization
Deadline oriented, Strategic use of time as resources, Structured organizational life (Adam 94, Zerubavel 81)Orientation
Absolute, Unitary, Invariant, Linear Progression, Quantitative, Independent from human exp.Description
Organizing
Principle
(Objective)
Different time metaphors (Clark 1985) – Temporal conflicts (Dubinskas 1988) -> Event- / Process-based viewFormalization
Contextual feature, not easily manipulated (Chia 2010)Orientation
Relative, Organic, Cyclical, Qualitative, Dependent on human exp.Description
Multiple
Possibilities
(Subjective)
Temporal structuring (Orlikowski 2002) from:
Structuration Theory (Giddens 87) – Enactement (Weick 79), (Sahay 97) – (Adam 94) & (Halinen 98)
Formalization
Temporal structuring of processes: practices, interactions and structuresOrientation
Multi-faceted phenomenon (Peters 2012): Clock- and Event-based temporal structuresDescription
Temporal
Structuring
(Practice-based)

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SYNTHESIS
Clock time
“Succession of now-points” (Shalin 1986)
Event time
“Events shaped by humans and enacted through social construction together form the event-time” (Halinen et al. 2012)
Events may define time itself such as lunchtime, bedtime, banana time (Roy 1959) that describe specific activities.
Process time
“The river is not an object, but an ever-changing flow; the sun is not a thing but a flaming fire” Rescher 1996)
Temporal structuring
“Integral to the experience of being human, as it is threaded through the practices that shape, and are shaped by our day-to-day
actions” (Hernes et al. 2013)
*) Ancona 2001
*
*

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METHODOLOGICAL LEVEL
Review of Related Research
‒ Latest research on time-related theory building :
(Ancona and Waller 2007, Bakker et al. 2016, Grzymala-Busse 2011, Navarro et al. 2015, Peters et al. 2012,
Shipp and Cole 2015, Sonnentag 2012, Hernes 2013)
‒ Methods literature including temporal lens :
(Arundale 1980, George and Jones 2000, Klein and Kozlowski 2000, Lewin 1943, Mitchell and James 2001,
Ployhart and Vandenberg 2010, Zaheer et al. 1999).
It is emphasized that any behavior or any change in a psychological field depends only upon the psychological
field at that time – Kurt Lewin 1943

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METHODOLOGICAL LEVEL
Time as a / in … Examples
Meta-construct Zaheer (1999) - Define how the investigation will take place and impact the conception of the object of our
study and the outcome
Research design Halinen (1995) – different types of longitudinal studies (historical, follow-up and future studies)
used different conceptions of time
Mitchell (2001) – Theoretical effects: research sustainability (Sonnentag 2012)
Navarro (2015) – « elapsed time »: duration of an event
George (2000), Klein (2000) – interpreted as a boundary condition
Measurements Adam (2008), Gielnik (2014) – timescale, timing, frequency may guide to inaccurate reasoning
Zaheer (1999) – recording intervals and the timing of effects
- How long does it take a variable X to affect Y .. And for Y to become observable? (Mitchell 2001)
A tool to enhance
research design
Navarro (2015), Halinen (2005) – better knowledgeable theoretical and methodogolical tools to analysis time
Independant
Dependent
variable
Butler (1995) – must be apprehend in both ways

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IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY, RESEARCH AND
PRACTICE
Implications Examples / Supports
Theory building Where and when concepts and hypotheses are applicable? – Duration and rate (Shipp and Cole 2015)
Allow to include temporal features in organizational research (Navarro 2015)
-> add significant value to propositions and observations (Sonnentag 2012, Gilenik 2014)
Assisting in
developing theory
Navarro (2015) – clearly define the constructs, why and how they are related, scope of applications and the
boundary conditions.
Methodological
implications
Peters (2012), Orlikowski (2002) – viewpoint and moment of observation may affect what they see
Reinecke and Ansari (2016) – decisive to determine the way we decode organizational phenomena
Enable to identify
future research
strems
Shipp and Cole (2015) suggest to investigate change with-in individual through cross-level research and
with a temporal lens.
-> Examine how human recollect the past, forecast the future, and can experience the passage of time
differently
Observations
Practice
Grzymala-Busse (2011) – Temporal issues: tempo, speed, entrainment, frequency, timing…
Shipp and Cole (2015) – Patterns of events and processes, Scheduling, Synchronization..
Whetten (1988) – timing issues may have negative impacts on organizational activities

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DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Recent
Developments
Examples
Org. studies Slawinski and Bansal (2015) – intertemporal tensions
Bakker et al. (2016) – Temporary organizing
Asimakou (2015) – Potentials of subjective time to structure work in knowledge organizations
Fleischer (2013) – Time in crisis management: how to use time to navigate through critical situations?
Remaining gaps
in knowledge
Examples
Neglected topics “Time is still esoteric and far from becoming common knowledge” (Fried and Slowik 2004)
- Lack of knowledge of the why and how some linkages between the past, present and future take place
- Little understanding on how organizations adapt to complex dynamic environment (Schmitt 2015)
Atemporal
situations
(Ancona et al. 2001, Hernes et al. 2013, Orlikowski et al. 1999) Does atemporal and static process exist?
Goals of studies Examples
Improve research
design
Anderson (1999), (Rousseau 1994) - need for more integrative, cross-level research and study process by
which org. Contexts are constructed by social dynamics
Shipp and Cole (2015) – Consider both obj. and subj. time as a focal construct
Conduct new
research
Kaplan & Orlikowski (2013) – How actors make interpretive links in time, as this significantly shapes
organizational choices and actions?
Reilly et al. (2016) – Improve understanding of the role of time horizon (investment, strategy, forecast)
Reinecke and Ansari (2016) – How people experience, use and relate to time

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DISCUSSION
Discipline-specific field of study
‒ Time as a linkage for many disciplines
Ø Ex: Bluedorn (2002), Blyton et al. (1989), Das (1990), Hofstede (1993), Nadkarni (2016)…
‒ Time-related research requires cross-disciplinary investigations (Shipp and Cole 2015)
Continuous needs:
‒ Systematic collaborative initiative integrating the managerial perspectives
‒ Accelerated the examination of time in management research (Dawson and Sykes 2016)
‒ Promoted to study the impact of activities and processes using a practice-based view of time
‒ Developed a Meta-theoretical framework for empirical investigations of time in Org. studies

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CONCLUSION
Takeaways - Time addressed in relation to organization studies and organizational research
‒ “Any investigation must indicate what kind of time is it” (E. D. Ermarth)
‒ “The past … is … a constantly shifting sea of meaning that gets reconfigured every time we invoke it”
(Bakken et al. 2013)
Key questions
1. How is time both conceived and interpreted at the theoretical level?
2. What is the right approach to conduct our research considering our ontological perspective of time?
3. Are theory and research designed to persist over time or are they temporary investigations?
Future Work
‒ Performed a selective review on a topic that seems the most neglected topic in the methods literature
‒ Move from a descriptive review to an analytical one

13. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
ANY QUESTIONS?
Q&A
Time is not a simple linear dimension but something to be explored (Ryan et al. 2012)