From Taking to Shaping – Why Temporal Tensions Matter for Organizations

Abstract

In this paper, we advance the notion of temporal tensions by building on three time-related constructs that address how individuals perceive and think about time: temporal depth, temporal focus, and urgency. Our focus lies on how actors shape and embrace temporal tensions on multiple levels within and outside the organization. Embracing such temporal tensions enables actors to understand the nestedness of conflicting goals, change temporal structures, and to focus their attention on urgent issues in the organization and in the social, ecological, and economic environment. We inform research on time in organizations by advancing the notion of temporal tensions and by emphasizing their multi- and cross-level nature. We contribute to research on tensions and paradoxes in organizations by conceptualizing tensions as the result of different stimuli and of an actor’s cognition. Lastly, we also contribute to research on temporality by bridging the subjective and objective notion of time in temporal tensions.