Waiting in organisations

Abstract

Waiting is a pervasive feature of organisational life and, as such, is likely to be important for a range of individual and organisational outcomes. Although extant research has shed light on the waiting experiences of diverse groups such as those suffering from illness, waiting in detention centres or queuing, there have been no previous attempts to theorise waiting specifically from the perspective of the employee. To address this gap, we draw on theories of temporality and waiting in fields such as consumer behaviour as well as the wider social sciences to develop the notion of ‘situated waiting’ which uncovers the complexity of the lived experience of waiting from the perspective of the employee. This experience is associated with factors at the level of the individual, the wait itself, and the broader waiting context. We outline the implications for future research on this hitherto hidden domain of the employee experience.

The Psychology of Queuing

“…Time spent in a queue has an opportunity cost for all members, taking up time that could be used to do something else. The time spent is valued subjectively for each queuing member (Bailey, 2019). For self-perceived high-status people, waiting in queues can be seen as submission; for productive people, queuing means that can't get work done; and those who highly schedule themselves and more time-conscious may be more conscious of the time they are losing.…”

Temporal digital control: Theorizing the use of digital technologies to provide a temporal autonomous space

“…Scholars have explored the concept of ‘waiting’ (Hage, 2009), including why we wait (Bailey, 2018), waiting as a state of being between phases (Lahad, 2012), different types of waiting (Hage, 2009; Klingemann et al., 2018; Liang, 2017) and issues of power relating to waiting (Bailey, 2018; Farman, 2018). A subjective experience of waiting has been aligned with being ‘stuck’ (Hage, 2009), powerlessness (Farman, 2018), having prolonged liminality and uncertainty (Lahad, 2012), and having little control or agency (Minnegal, 2009).…”

“…A subjective experience of waiting has been aligned with being ‘stuck’ (Hage, 2009), powerlessness (Farman, 2018), having prolonged liminality and uncertainty (Lahad, 2012), and having little control or agency (Minnegal, 2009). Others have highlighted how choosing to do other things while waiting (multi-tasking) enables the wait to feel shorter (Bailey, 2018; Liang, 2017). Whilst studies such as Klingemann et al.’s (2018) acknowledged that waiting can be stressful, they claimed it can also be pleasurable.…”

“…Within the temporal autonomous space , political statements are made, including who is in power, and who has power over (Waltz, 2017). The person who is waiting is deemed to be less important than the person who is being waited for and they are dependent on the person they are waiting for (Bailey, 2018). Consider being in a waiting room of a doctor’s office, and from the waiting room, the doctor can be seen in his or her office looking at a screen with no-one else in their consultation room.…”

Editorial

“…This issue begins with a series of seven original essays that explore this very question from a range of perspectives that constitute a diversity of ‘timescapes’ in their distinctive subject-matter. Waiting, we read, can be painful and felt vicariously in the waiting of others; it can be experienced distinctively as gendered; waiting can be even experienced as enjoyable; and can be a particularly felt experience at a life stage; or be an inescapable element in organisations, and therefore a temporality to be understood from the perspective of employees (Bailey, 2019).…”