When Plans Change: Examining How People Evaluate Timing Changes in Work Organizations

Changing to daylight saving time cuts into sleep and increases workplace injuries.

“…Research indicates that clocks are very influential in how humans schedule and pace their work activity (Blount & Janicik, 2001;Gersick, 1988Gersick, , 1989Labianca, Moon, & Watt, 2005). "Clock time" allows for more precise coordination and scheduling of activities than do internal physiological clocks or observation of the position of the sun.…”

Organizational Improvisation

“…Clearly, future research will need to be mindful of this issue. Blount and Janicik (2001) examine the ability of organizational actors to adapt the timing of their activities to unanticipated events. They conclude that while temporal responsiveness--the ability of individuals to adapt their timing--may be critical for organizational performance, individuals create their own temporal references based on individual tendencies, non-work influences such as culture and family, and the surrounding work context.…”

“…Although not explicit, Blount and Janicik (2001) suggest the possibility that temporal orientation may be malleable when they state that "from an organizational perspective, the more readily individuals adjust their schedules to timing changes, the more agile and adaptive the organization will be" (2001: 572). And as previously stated, there may be a "high adaptive factor" (Bluedorn, 1998), where some individuals demonstrate flexibility in their temporal orientation.…”

Temporality in Organization Studies: Implications for Strategic Project Management

“…Since projects become increasingly complex, the accuracy to predict all future actions is decreasing. Hence, the ability of project managers to adapt the timing of their activities to unanticipated events is critical for a firm's performance [65]. This adds another dimension to the temporal skillset required of a project manager, since most people exhibit a preferred temporal orientation [31,66,67].…”

“…Paradoxically, while a project is often used as a strategic vehicle to achieve a long-term organizational goal situated in the future, the actual project work is situated in the present. Blount and Janicik [65] argue that employees are more efficient in work environments that match their personal time orientation. In our case, that would imply that presentoriented people should work in projects, while futureoriented people should work in the strategic department of an organization.…”