Getting Ahead of Time—Performing Temporal Boundaries to Coordinate Routines under Temporal Uncertainty

Abstract

In this ethnographic study of firefighters we explore how routines are coordinated under high levels of temporal uncertainty—when the timing of critical events cannot be known in advance and temporal misalignment creates substantial risks. Such conditions render time-consuming incremental and situated forms of temporal structuring—the focus of previous research on temporal coordination—unfeasible. Our findings show that firefighters focused their efforts on enacting temporal autonomy or, as they called it, “getting ahead of time.” They gained temporal autonomy—the capacity to temporally uncouple from the unfolding situation to preserve the ability to adapt to autonomously selected events—by relying on rhythms they developed during training in performing individual routines and by opening up to the evolving situation only when transitioning between routines. Our study contributes to literature on temporal structuring by introducing temporal autonomy as a novel strategy for dealing with temporal contingencies. We also contribute to research on routine dynamics by introducing the performance of temporal boundaries as a previously unrecognized form of coordination within and among routines. Finally, we contribute to process research a method that allows analyzing complex temporal patterns and thus provides a novel way of visualizing processes.

The Dynamics of Prioritizing: How Actors Temporally Pattern Complex Role–Routine Ecologies

“…Notwithstanding these advancements of knowledge on the temporal patterning of single routines, Turner and Rindova (2018: 1275) concluded that future research needs to explicitly illuminate “how routine participants coordinate actions not only within, but also across routines.” This call also reflects the more general recognition that routine dynamics research needs to “move beyond organizational routines as the unit of analysis and consider relations among routines” (Feldman et al, 2016: 511). Only very recently, scholars have begun to elaborate on how collective organizational outcomes depend on the orchestration of multiple interdependent routines rather than on the performance of a single routine (e.g., Deken et al, 2016; Sele and Grand, 2016; Geiger, Danner-Schröder, and Kremser, 2020).…”

“…This call also reflects the more general recognition that routine dynamics research needs to ''move beyond organizational routines as the unit of analysis and consider relations among routines'' (Feldman et al, 2016: 511). Only very recently, scholars have begun to elaborate on how collective organizational outcomes depend on the orchestration of multiple interdependent routines rather than on the performance of a single routine (e.g., Deken et al, 2016;Sele and Grand, 2016;Geiger, Danner-Schrö der, and Kremser, 2020).…”

Analyzing Digital Trace Data to Promote Discovery – The Case of Heatmapping

“…RD research has developed some methods that can help analyze (digital) trace data in a way that promotes discovery, such as narrative networks [20,22], path-based analysis [25], or analysis based on clock-and event-time [50]. BPM research also provides many tools that could be used to analyze digital trace data in a way that promotes discovery [6,31,33].…”

Complex Times, Complex Time: The Pandemic, Time‐Based Theorizing and Temporal Research in Management and Organization Studies

“…This also requires scholars to explore alternatives to traditional views of entrainment, which suggest that synchronizing across differing rhythms is often an effective temporal strategy. One potential alternative, vividly observed during the pandemic, is temporal uncoupling (e.g., Geiger et al, 2020), whereby the rhythms of a focal system (e.g., healthcare) are uncoupled or shielded off from the rhythms of other systems (e.g., the economy) as to guarantee adequate internal functioning of the focal system. This view suggests that, in many cases, differences among rhythms need to be maintained rather than dissolved through entrainment.…”