The Effect Of Individual Perceptions of Deadlines on Team Performance

Abstract

The focus of this paper concerns perceptions of deadlines among team members, and how these perceptions influence team performance under deadline conditions. Based on a review of existing literature, we propose that two time-oriented individual differences -time urgency and time perspective -influence team members' perceptions of deadlines. We present propositions that describe how time urgency and time perspective affect individuals' deadline perceptions and subsequent deadline-oriented behaviors, and how different deadline perceptions and behaviors among team members affect the ability of teams to meet deadlines. The paper closes with implications for existing theory and future research.

Multiple Team Membership: A Theoretical Model of its Effects on Productivity and Learning for Individuals and Teams.

“…In fact, they present data from one firm showing that the "percent of [engineers'] time on value-adding activities" rose from 70% to 80% as engineers added a second project. In addition to these load-balancing benefits, being on multiple teams forces individuals to be more conscious about how they spend their time and to develop more efficient work practices rather than just letting the work expand to fill the time (Svenson & Maule, 1993;Waller, Conte, Gibson, & Carpenter, 2001).Despite these benefits, we argue that the costs of MTM accrue as the demand for context switching grows. Research on the related but more narrowly focused construct of task switching has shown that people switch tasks as often as every three minutes (Mark, Gudith, & Klocke, 2008), and managers spend as many as 10 minutes per hour responding to interruptions, which keeps them from re-focusing on their original task 41 percent of the time (O'Conaill & Frohlich, 1995).…”

“…In fact, they present data from one firm showing that the "percent of [engineers'] time on value-adding activities" rose from 70% to 80% as engineers added a second project. In addition to these load-balancing benefits, being on multiple teams forces individuals to be more conscious about how they spend their time and to develop more efficient work practices rather than just letting the work expand to fill the time (Svenson & Maule, 1993;Waller, Conte, Gibson, & Carpenter, 2001).…”

Time, Change, and Development

“…As Waller, Conte, Gibson, and Carpenter (2001) note, most work on the temporal perspective tends to assume a single, shared perception of time by all group members. Yet, how individual members socially construct time may vary.…”

Technology‐assisted supplemental work: Construct definition and a research framework

“…However, we counter this dire prediction by proposing that time and boundary management has the power to lessen the intrusion of TASW on the family domain. Researchers are just beginning to unpack the time-and boundary-management constructs and relate them to work outcomes (Macan, 1994;Rastegary & Landy, 1993;Waller et al, 2001). However, our analysis indicates that workers who schedule and exploit their time wisely in their responsibilities at home and work and who set reasonably separate boundaries between work and family should be far less likely to experience work-to-family conflict due to performing TASW (Ashforth et al, 2000;Nippert-Eng, 1996).…”

“…Individuals who excel at time management are inclined to differ in their experience of time by overestimating the passage of time, scheduling numerous objectives to be achieved within a specific period of time, engaging in self-set deadlines, and consistently monitoring their performance of time expended to time remaining to complete a task (Rastegary & Landy, 1993;Waller, Conte, Gibson, & Carpenter, 2001). These individuals seek to accomplish a greater number of objectives than available time would ordinarily permit and are driven to improve personal efficiency.…”