Time to Change: Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Time to Change: Temporal Shifts as Enablers
of Organizational Change
Nancy Staudenmayer • Marcie Tyre • Leslie Perlow
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708
Brandeis University, Women's Studies Research Center, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454-9110
Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts 02163
tyre@shore.net • lperlow@hbs.edu
Nancy Staudenmayer died in November of 2000, at the age of 36, after battling a long illness. This paper is a
testimony to Nancy's dedication, creativity, extraordinary colleagueship, and enthusiasm for her emerging career.
Nancy was a gifted scholar whose love of learning shone in all her work. She brought energy, vision, and abundant
talent to all that she did. She was an inspiring colleague who brought not just good ideas, but also the care and
commitment to make those ideas happen. Nancy always contributed more than her share to projects, and she taught
us all a good deal about the meaning of colleagueship and the importance offollow-through. As a friend, Nancy
was unwavering, caring, thoughtful, and generous. She had a knack for reaching out to others and for providing
just the kind words or warm gesture they needed. We feel extremely fortunate to have known Nancy as a colleague,
a friend, a student, and a teacher.
have all demonstrated the enormous power of time and
Abstract timing to structure organizational life. The timing of
In this paper, we integrate findings from three field studies of
events has been found to enforce routines, focus energies
technology intensive organizations to explore the process
through which change occurred. In each case, problems were and attention, shape how people approach their tasks, and
well recognized but had become entrenched and had failed to give meaning to actions and events. Albert (1995) showed
generate change. Across the three sites, organizational change that military policy and action in the Persian Gulf War
occurred only after some event altered the accustomed daily were heavily influenced by the limited time window
rhythms of work, and thus changed the way people experienced available to stage an attack. At a micro level. Van de Ven
time. This finding suggests that temporal shifts—changes in a and Polley (1992) describe how "red flag" problems typ-
collective's experience of time—can help to facilitate organi- ically go unrecognized when they occur very early in a
zational change. Specifically, we suggest that temporal shifts new technical project, but are attended to, at a much
enable change in four ways: (1) by creating a trigger for change, higher cost, in later stages. At a practical level, in many
(2) by providing resources needed for change, (3) by acting as
industries a promising new product becomes a mere also-
a coordinating mechanism, and (4) by serving as a credible
ran if it is introduced just days after a competitor's offer-
symbol of the need to change.
{Time and Timing; Organizational Change; Punctuated Change; Qualita- ing.
tive Methodology) In this paper, we explore the idea that the opposite is
also true: In many cases, events shape time itself. We
flnd that many unusual events are not only surprising in
content, but they also alter entrenched organizational
rhythms. Such rhythm-changing events, in tum, can
change actors' experience of time. That is, such events
can change actors' perceptions of time pressures and time
Introduction horizons, their sense of competing time demands, their
It is well accepted that the timing of events can shape
sense of control over time and, ultimately, the way they
the significance of the events themselves. McGrath et
understand time. Furthermore, our data suggest that this
al. (1984), Ancona and Chong (1996), Barley (1988),
ability of events to alter the experience of time can help
Gersick (1988), Eisenhardt and Brown (1998) and others
1047-7039/02/1305/0583/$05.00 ORGANIZATION SCIENCE, © 2002 INFORMS
1526-5455 electronic ISSN Vol. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002, pp. 583-597NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enabters of Organizational Change
to facilitate organizational change. This paper contributes literature focuses on how problems instigate (or don't in-
to our understanding of the mechanisms that enable stigate) change. There is however a second stream of re-
change in organizational structures, processes, and ways search that explores how time and timing help to trigger
of acting and thinking. It suggests that disruptive events change (Gersick 1988, 1989; Eisenhardt 1988; Weick
can facilitate change by altering the experience of time. 1990; Van de Ven and Polley 1992; Ancona and Chong
1996; Brown and Eisenhardt 1997; Eisenhardt and Brown
1998). These researchers' theoretical models and empir-
Theoretical Background ical data suggest that time (e.g., rhythms, pattems, mark-
A fundamental question in the organizational literature is ers, dependent paths, and legacy effects) plays a role in
how companies and groups within them adapt and change enabling people to refocus their attention and behave in
as intemal or extemal conditions evolve. The most well- nonroutine ways.
developed view is that change generally is motivated by For example, in their investigation of firms that excel
events in an organization's environment—some problem at constant product change, Eisenhardt and Brown (1998)
or surprise such as a shortfall in expected performance, describe the importance of time-paced transition pro-
unexpected moves by competitors, shifts in technology, cesses. Predictable intervals (e.g., a new product required
every two years) have been found to serve as a powerful
or new customer demands triggers a change (March and
punctuating device to help actors tum their attention to
Simon 1958; Cyert and March 1963; Hedberg 1981;
change (Gersick 1989). Ancona and Chong (1996) also
Levitt and March 1988). In this view, repeated perfor-
reveal a relationship between time and change, explaining
mance of an organizational task leads to routinization,
that cycles of activities often become entrained to pow-
efficiency, and eventually complacency. Unexpected erful "metronomes" such as the fiscal year; thus, stasis
problems, however, reveal weaknesses in established and change often altemate in an almost predictable pat-
strategies and processes, and thus provoke adaptation and tem. Dutton's (1993) work on opportunity framing also
change. The link between problems and adaptation is both highlights the importance of time by suggesting that
direct and logical. An unexpected problem triggers a re- events labeled as "opportunities" often serve as "time sig-
alization that existing routines are insufficient, and this nals" that shift an actor's focus from the past, or even the
realization in tum triggers reevaluation and change. present, to the future and its possibilities.
The theory that problems provoke adaptation and Some work has been done to bring together theories of
change is elegant, intuitively attractive, and widely ac- problem-driven change, on the one hand, and time-driven
cepted in the organizational literature. However it is ob- change, on the other. Indeed, March and Simon's (1958)
vious that, in organizations and in everyday life, problems classic work on problem-driven change made an early
do not always induce change. Many well-known cases contribution by suggesting the importance of deadlines
exist where problems were ignored or silenced until or- and time urgency for focusing attention on nonroutine
ganizations experienced full-blown disasters—e.g., the behavior. More recently, Gersick has delved into the re-
Challenger disaster (Vaughan 1990) and the Pfizer heart lationship between these two theories. Her work illumi-
valve debacle (Lawless 1997). Indeed, there is no empir- nates the different circumstances that create a tendency
ical evidence that the level of problems organizations ex- for event-based versus time-based change. An important
perience is associated with their propensity to undertake point in Gersick's argument, however, is that event-based
change (Mansfield 1961). and time-based change are "distinct systems" (1994, pp.
36, 40), operating in different organizations facing dif-
A great deal of research has attempted to explain the
ferent kinds of competitive and strategic environments.
frequent failure of organizational change in response to
problems. One explanation is the tendency to ignore dis- Our work also focuses on bridging the views of event-
and time-based change. However, we focus on the inter-
confirming or discrepant information by individuals
connections between event- and time-triggered change
(Feldman 1981) and organizations (Kiesler and Sproull
within an organizational setting. We show that many
1982). Another explanation is that organizations tend to
events—from well-considered managerial decisions to
adjust goals to fit actual outcomes, making it harder to exogenous distractions—can alter or interrupt work
notice, and therefore react to, problems (Lant and Mezias rhythms. Following such rhythm-changing events, our
1990). Some argue that small failures are likely to be data suggest that people and groups often experience time
ignored (Louis and Sutton 1991, Van de Ven 1986). Still differently. Frequently, these groups then undertake sig-
others suggest that failure to react proactively to new nificant organizational change and resolve previously en-
problems is often the result of leamed helplessness trenched problems. Our research thus documents the im-
(Seligman 1975) or mindless behavior (Langer 1989). portant role that such "temporal shifts" play in facilitating
In short, a major stream of work in the organizational organizational change.
584 ORGANIZATION SCIENCE/VOI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
The origins of this paper are somewhat unusual. We to more accurately schedule and predict market launch
draw on data from three separate field studies of organi- dates, and thus better meet customer expectations. Sec-
zational change—studies originally designed and exe- ond, teams found that adding buffer time did not in fact
cuted by different people with different research agendas lengthen schedules; it appeared to do so only if one based
in mind. Only in retrospect did we realize the interesting the comparison on unrealistically optimistic estimates for
questions about time and change that none of our research projects without buffers. Third, by monitoring what ac-
could address alone, but that we could explore collec- tivities filled the buffer time. Desktop teams improved
tively. Below we first briefly summarize the relevant as- their project-management and problem-solving pro-
pects of the three original field studies. We next describe cesses. Finally, Desktop managers and engineers gained
the methods we developed to collectively analyze our ret- a new way of thinking about scheduling and timing that
rospective data. We then present our analysis and discuss helped them improve project outcomes.
our findings.
BBA. At BBA, a precision metal manufacturer, the cen-
tral problem was to understand how employees found op-
portunities for ongoing improvement to process technol-
Three Field Studies of Organizational ogies already in use, despite pressures to focus on current
Change production requirements. Regular use of the technologies
Table 1 provides an overview of some of the dimensions was not consistent with the kind of mental and physical
along which the three original studies varied.* effort required to develop and implement new ideas. Pro-
Desktop.' At Desktop, a market leader in personal com- duction schedules and efficiency requirements left little
puter software, a central problem was how to create op- time or attention for experimentation and adaptation.
portunities for reevaluation and revision during the prod- Routines became established and, even when recognized
uct development process, to respond to frequent market as flawed or inefficient, were protected if they served to
shifts and unexpected events without sacrificing effi- get the work done.
ciency and speed. In response to this challenge, some de- Adaptation was found to occur during brief and inten-
velopment teams at Desktop began experimenting with sive spurts of activity that were almost always triggered
inserting temporal space into their product development by some disruptive event that caused a temporary line
cycle, creating specific "buffer times" in the schedule. stoppage. Significantly, these events themselves did not
Buffer time enabled team members to periodically stop signal a new problem with the technology itself—they
software production and tum their collective attention to merely interrupted the normal rhythm of production.
broader issues, such as revising product strategy, sched- Based on data from 41 projects, rhythm-changing events
ules, or design. The original study examined buffer time included introducing new machines or tools (17 cases, or
in three major development projects, which included six 40%), adding new product or process requirements (11
buffer periods. cases, or 26%), taking the machine temporarily off-line
(8 cases, 20%), and interrupting the production schedule,
With buffer time, the software development cycle was
e.g., for a brief shutdown (3 cases, 9%). Only occasion-
typically broken down into alternating segments. The first
ally were disruptive events the outgrowth of technical
segment consisted of several weeks of regular develop-
problems, such as a sudden machine breakdown (2 cases,
ment time (for coding and testing of features), followed
6%). In each situation, project teams not only dealt with
by a limited period of unallocated buffer time. At the end
any immediate problem (e.g., corrected the source of the
of the buffer period, the project team returned to multiple
breakdown), but also attended to outstanding problems
weeks of development and testing, followed by another
that had been ignored during normal production time and
buffer period. Project managers deliberately left unspe-
which had caused chronic inefficiencies or inconven-
cified the tasks to be performed during buffer time. Buffer
iences. (See Tyre and Oriikowski 1994 for more details.)
time enabled teams to capitalize on unexpected compet-
itive events in the industry, new customer demands, or to Managers often recognized, in retrospect, that these
respond to problems or ideas discovered through "learn- temporal breaks in the action proved beneficial for a given
ing by doing" during product development. Buffer time project, enabling a team to make significant improve-
also enabled teams to deal with intemal events that would ments to the technology. However, none of the engineers
otherwise wreak havoc on preplanned schedules, such as or managers recognized that interruptions in production
an unanticipated illness. might be consciously exploited. "Breaks in the action"
Teams that experimented with buffer times attributed therefore were never instituted as a legitimate mechanism
several benefits to their use. First, team leaders were able for enabling technological improvement.
ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA^OI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002 585NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enabters of Organizationat Change
Table 1 Cross Study Comparison
Desktop BBA Ditto
Industry Personal computer software High-precision metal components High-tech office equipment
Research Setting Main Western U.S. campus of Eight plants in three major Main Eastern U.S. campus of a
dominant market player geographic divisions (Italy, West Fortune 500 company
Germany, U.S.) of a European-
based firm
Research Question How does a company balance the How do employees find How do people use time at work
need for rigorous planning during opportunities for problem solving (and at home)—And can the
the development of very complex around new process work structures be changed so
software products with the technologies? Investigations that people can accomplish the
flexibility necessary to respond to focused on incremental technical same amount of work but also
frequent market shifts and changes made by users, as well have more time to spend outside
unexpected events? as larger organizational changes of work?
that may have been triggered by
experience with the new
technology.
Firm Size & Age 17,000 employees 10,000 employees 100,000 employees
20 years old Over 100 years old 50 years old
Firm Culture Entrepreneurial, internally and Traditional, quality focused; Engineering, formal and
externally aggressive; "ship on "precision counts; build quality bureaucratic
time!" products"
Organization Structure Cross functional product teams Divisional with geographic Functional within product divisions
organized within business units subdivisions
Research Methods Field observation Periodic field observation Continuous field observation
Data Hundred page field notebook; Hundreds of pages of field notes, Thousands of pages of field notes,
recorded interviews; projeot and interviews, and in-depth interviews, tracking logs, half-day
company documents questionnaires shadowing, and post-intervention
survey
Number of Projects 41 1
Studied
Interviews 34 (averaging two hours long, 95 (averaging two hours long, 117 (averaging one hour long,
recorded and transcribed) recorded) recorded and transcribed); there
were also hundreds of informal
interviews.
Ditto. At Ditto, a manufacturer of high-technology of- development process. She then designed a field experi-
fice equipment, the problem was that engineers could not ment, collaboratively with the engineers, to explore
get their work done in a "reasonable" amount of time. whether work structures could be changed so that people
Engineers had to come in early, stay late, and work week- could accomplish the same amount of work but also have
ends to complete their work. They continually com- more time to spend outside of work. Blocks of time dur-
plained about the lack of uninterrupted time to work dur- ing the day were set aside when engineers could not in-
ing normal business hours. teract ("quiet time"). At the end of the intervention pe-
The researcher first observed this group for four riod, the formal "quiet-time" schedule was lifted. Even
months. She noted that people constantly interrupted each when interruptions were not constrained to certain pe-
other and thereby perpetuated a vicious cycle of crises riods of the day, there was still evidence of a lasting shift
and individual heroics, adversely affecting the product in attitudes and assumptions. One engineer noted: "I
586 ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA'OI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
believe people have begun to respect others' work time. context and apparent relationship between time and
The focus has moved from themselves to the team. In- change at each site. These early summaries enabled each
terruptions still occur, but people take the time to think of us to become more familiar with the other two sites
about what they are doing before interrupting." Indeed, and to recognize the unique pattern of relationships in
most engineers at Ditto agreed that the quiet-time inter- each, before attempting to generalize across sites
vention changed their ways of thinking about time use— (Eisenhardt 1989). Once we had revisited our three sets
from an individual's responsibility to the group's respon- of data and had become convinced there was indeed some
sibility. relationship between time and change in each, we wanted
Managerial assumptions were also altered. The soft- to better understand what that relationship was. In other
ware manager originally had been greatly concerned words, what about time and what about change were be-
about the "quiet-time" intervention. He worried about ing affected? What did these concepts mean? What was
what would happen when a crisis arose during quiet time their relationship to each other? And, how were the an-
and he urgently needed one of his engineers. At the end swers to these questions similar and different across our
of the intervention period, however, the same manager three sites?
said: "The value was that I leamed to define a task and To delve deeper into these relationships within and
then just give the engineers time to do it without con- among the three sites, we decided to use "change stories"
stantly interrupting." This manager had come to recog- as an analytic tool to facilitate cross-site comparisons. We
nize his own pattern of changing engineers' priorities defined change stories as scenarios where changes were
only to change them back again later. He came to realize observed or reported to occur in the task behavior or cog-
that if he just left the engineers alone, they would accom- nitive belief structure of an individual or group as a result
plish more of what ultimately needed to get done. The of a change in work rhythms. Because the changes in
engineers noticed this change as well. One engineer said: work rhythms (6 at Desktop, 41 at BBA, and 1 at Ditto)
"I do not feel like I am constantly looking over my shoul- often had multiple effects, we wrote a different change
der. Managers are not constantly standing over me and story connecting each rhythm change with each effect.
pulling me to do other things." (See Perlow 1997, 1999 These effects were either observed by a researcher or re-
for more details.) counted by a subject. Each change story outlined: the pre-
existing situation, the rhythm-changing event, how the
person or people interpreted time and events in the situ-
Methods ation, and the short-term and/or long-term nature of the
resulting effect. We had 12 change stories from Desktop,
The integration of these three studies grew out of a series
50 from BBA, and 20 from Ditto.
of informal "hallway" conversations among the authors.
During these initial conversations we realized that our To analyze change stories, we used the constant com-
independent studies collectively contained situations parative method (Yin 1984). We compared pairs of
where changes in work rhythms, and people's experience change stories first within and then across sites. Through
of them, appeared to be important factors in facilitating this analysis, a basic overarching story began to emerge
change. Intrigued by this commonality, we decided to ex- for each site. We also identified the core components that
plore it further. At this point, each of us returned to our are shared across the three overarching stories and how
original data set to highlight examples that documented they are similar and different for each site. These are out-
the concept of time and its role in organizational change. lined in Table 2. For example, at Desktop and BBA the
Consistent with a multiple case-study design and induc- temporal shift took the form of a full stop to routine ac-
tive theory-building approach, we drew on our inter- tivities, whereas at Ditto it represented a shift in the
views, field notes, surveys, and archival records to con- rhythm of ongoing activities. At Desktop and Ditto, the
struct an explanatory framework of the relationship temporal shift was introduced to provide a refiective
between time and organizational change (Glaser and "time-out" from regular activities; at BBA, however, tem-
Strauss 1967, Eisenhardt 1989, Yin 1984). poral shifts occurred because of unrelated and largely un-
We began with a broad research question—what role, predictable events. Further, although the organizational
if any, does time play in the change process? We then change that resulted sometimes consisted of fundamental
faced the analytical challenge of combining three com- shifts in people's core beliefs, in other settings change
pleted studies to answer this question—an approach with was limited to the adaptation of specific technologies or
few precedents (exceptions include Van Maanen and operating parameters.
Kunda 1989, Tyre and Oriikowski 1994). We started by The analysis itself was a highly iterative process. We
writing individual case histories describing the overall challenged each other's early conclusions and returned
ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA^OI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002 587NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
Table 2 Core Components of Overarching Change Stories
Desktop BBA Ditto
Primary Task Software development and testing Precision metal component High-ievel and low level software
manufacturing design coding
Pre-existing Problem No opportunity to reassess software Production inefficiencies become Engineers need to work very long
during development, leading to entrenched—hard to find hours to complete their work;
development delays and opportunities to develop new products introduced late.
suboptimal product routines
Principal Souroe of Project management decision to Exogenous or random events, such Outside researcher with cooperation
Rhythm Change insert "buffer" periods into as production shutdown to install of project manager
development cycle new equipment
Principal Type of Prescheduled full stops in Unscheduled full stops in production Alteration of work rhythm (dividing
Rhythm Change production of fixed duration (e.g., for introduction of new the day into individual work time
(approximately two weeks) equipment) lasting approximately versus times to discuss/meet with
one to three weeks colleagues)
Intended Purpose To enable team reflection and None, since time-outs were not To better balance individual and
reassessment of technical and intended by management group work
strategic goals
Types of Changes in product design, feature Adaptation in technical features and Team members internalized new
Organizational set, schedule and work processes routines interaction patterns; respect for'
Change "quiet time" remained after the
imposed schedule was lifted.
Types of Cognitive It is both possible and beneficial to None Interrupting other people all day
Change add time into the schedule—Time long harms the whole group's
is an input under the group's productivity.
control.
Perception of Success Products respond better to market Useful technical improvements, but More control over work time, on-time
Within Site need; on-time introduction with no most managers thought of time- product launch
increase in development time. outs as "unavoidable evils."
again and again to the data. During this period, we made involved changes in five dimensions of people's experi-
sure to circle back to the overall environmental and or- ence of time. These five dimensions are outlined in Table
ganizational context of each site, reading and revising our 3. Below we overview a few of the key changes that oc-
case histories in the process. We also began to review the curred at each site.
existing literature and to compare our preliminary find- In the case of Desktop, engineers experienced a tem-
ings to it. poral shift after management inserted specific "buffer pe-
riods" for reevaluation and revision into software devel-
Temporal Shifts in the Work Process opment projects. Buffer periods provided a sense of
At each site, significant events occurred that changed or "found time" because engineers' major productive activ-
interrupted the normal rhythm or temporal structure of ity (software coding) was suddenly suspended. Also, the
work. These rhythm changes, in tum, caused people to time horizons that engineers considered shifted from the
experience time in new ways—for example, to perceive entire project (driven by end-of-project deadlines) to
different levels of production pressure or to feel greater several-week chunks ("coding periods" with milestone
(or less) discretion over their time. We refer to these reviews after each one and "buffer periods" for resyn-
changes in the way that organizational actors experienced chronizing and strategic reevaluation). Engineers' sense
time as "temporal shifts." In our cross-study comparative of time pressure was also altered. While engineers still
analysis, we noticed that in all three sites a temporal shift felt intense time pressure during buffer periods, they
588 ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA'OI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
Table 3 Temporal Shifts Involved Changes in Multiple Dimensions of People's Experience of Time
Desktop BBA Ditto
Sense of Time Pressure: Nature of pressure changed: Normal production pressures Time pressure was still perceived
People's sense of externally There was felt urgency for halted or modulated by as intense, but felt more
imposed urgency to undertaking reassessment and disruptive events: time manageable with fewer
accomplish task revisions, but intense pressure for adaptation was disruptions at work.
production pressure was significant but was perceived
sidelined. as less wearing.
Perceived Discretion Over Time; Individual discretion over time Perceived discretion increased Perceived discretion increased
People's sense of their own decreased during buffer time significantly during production with introduction of quiet time:
ability to determine how they (no coding allowed: many shutdowns. People felt greater control over
ailocate their time to various groups meetings), but groups' their time due to fewer
activities discretion increased (tasks interruptions.
were not specified).
Perceived Tension Among Buffers neatly separated revision Schedule interruptions lifted Quiet time ied to a significant
Competing Task Demands: time and coding time, so feit demands for production, so decrease in the felt tension
People's sense that multiple tension decreased with buffer production and adaptation no between getting one's own
tasks compete for attention use. longer competed in the same work done versus responding
during the same time and that time slot. to colleagues' questions and
not all requirements can be requests.
satisfied during that time slot
Time Horizon Considered: From whole project to two (or From daily production to two to From focus on current crises to
The length of time that people more) week segments three week (average) period of preparation for longer term
take into account when production shutdown work requirements
planning activities and
measuring progress
Sense of "Found Time": Buffer periods provided time (for Workers perceived unexpected Engineers found that reducing
Time that was previously revision and review) previously "found time" (due to the number of interruptions
perceived as allocated seen as unavailable. production halt) to devote to gave them more time for
becomes available—providing technical work. productive work and for
the perception that more time refiection.
is available
reported that pressure to complete revisions felt different it was described as feeling less oppressive than normal
from normal pressure to complete software coding. production pressure.
At BBA, events that halted normal production activi- At Ditto, an abrupt rhythm change (the introduction of
ties, such as new product introductions, process revisions, an enforced "quiet time" during each workday) caused a
or equipment changes, also created temporal shifts. By temporal shift. Quiet time created an ordered work
halting the production line, such rhythm changes pro- rhythm: It meant that engineers' days were broken up into
vided a sense of "found time" to workers. Rhythm discreet chunks (specific times for individual "quiet"
changes also shifted workers' time horizons: The focus work, other times for collaborative interactions with col-
shifted from production periods of an hour or day to leagues). As a result, engineers felt less tension between
longer periods of days or weeks as individuals undertook "getting my own work done" and "responding to constant
special projects while the line was down. Workers' sense interruptions" by colleagues. Engineers also reported an
of discretion over time increased dramatically: In the ab- increased sense of control over their time. In addition, the
sence of daily production, workers made their own de- time horizons that engineers considered shifted from the
cisions about how to allocate time. The time pressure felt present (completing the most urgent tasks) to the future
by workers also changed. The urgency to complete (planning their own work to better fit into quiet-time and
changes and to return to production was often intense, but interactive-time periods).
ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA'OI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002 589NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
How Temporal Shifts Facilitated period to resolve these issues, people focused their en-
ergies. In another project at BBA, an engineer explained
Organizational Change that the line shutdown required to bring in new tooling
The temporal shifts, in tum, appeared to enable organi-
was a critical point of inflection (and reflection) in the
zation change in four ways: (1) by creating a trigger for
project:
change, (2) by providing resources needed for change, (3)
by acting as a coordinating mechanism, and (4) by serv- When the new tools came in [and the line was stopped], we
ing as a credible symbol of the need to change. Below, were forced to take the time to do a great deal of mental testing
we describe each of these functions in more detail, and of the ideas suggested from [all] sides. So instead of running
compare and contrast each function across our three sites. parts, we had to go through a lot of 'what-ifs' in our minds.
Temporal Shifts as Triggers The production halt made it impossible for normal pro-
Temporal shifts helped to trigger reevaluation of the cur- duction to continue. Workers addressed problems through
rent situation and enabled people to entertain the possi- experimentation and reflection, instead of simply running
bility of change. Established temporal boundaries, such the machine faster. During this period of "mentai testing,"
as normal schedules or project deadlines, were generally project members reviewed project logs and their own rec-
treated as inviolable in ways that prevented change. But ollections of events. In tbe end, they not only developed
this assumption of inviolability fell away when temporal a successful new tooling package, but also addressed
shifts occurred. People suddenly found themselves cut some longstanding problems with the new technology.
loose from regular temporal routines, and thus were more At Ditto, the insertion of "quiet time" into engineers'
open to change. schedules triggered change in managers' notions of when
For example, at Desktop, engineers found that the interactions bad to occur. Initially, managers were reluc-
change from normal production periods to "buffer time" tant to schedule quiet time first thing in the morning. As
often enabled a shift in outlook. During normal produc- one manager noted, "After the sunrise meeting (from 8
tion periods, engineers focused on meeting specific pro- to 9 a.m. daily), I need access to my engineers to focus
ject goals, often at the expense of being able to reflect their work on the current issues." IVIanagers felt that wben
about what they were doing and what was happening in these issues were urgent, if they could not be conveyed
their environment. As one engineer commented: to engineers immediately, time would be wasted. How-
ever, as one of the managers most opposed to early mom-
[With an] end-date motivated schedule . . . developers were so
ing quiet time admitted after a few weeks' experience
busy meeting deadlines that there was no time for the reflection
on 'where do we stand' . . . [We] did not stop and reassess using quiet time, "This has taught me that interactions
problems . . . [just] plunged ahead. can wait." In the end, quiet time created change in work
pattems that in tum triggered rethinking of how work had
In contrast, "buffer time" enabled teams to "shift gears" to be conducted. By collectively agreeing to abide by
from a mode of getting things done, to one of reflection, quiet time, the engineers came to better understand their
awareness, and analysis. In the words of one engineer: own interaction pattems; as a result, they became more
[Buffer times] are a time for stopping and insisting that devel- conscientious and considerate of their timing when re-
opers pull their heads up from their work for a reality check on questing information or help. This, in turn, minimized
progress. . . . Too often, teams are too close to projects to see their disruptions of each other and increased team pro-
and admit where they are falling behind. ductivity.
Similarly, breaks in the action at BBA spurred unusual At all three sites, while the pace of work did not slow
levels of analysis and change, even though this was not down, rhythm changes triggered much more thoughtful
an intended or expected outcome of random production attention to time and timing. The characteristics of the
stoppages. For example, one project manager noted that: triggering process, however, were subtly different among
our three sites. At Desktop and BBA, rhythm changes left
We did tiot really focus on our problems until the new placer groups without highly structured temporal routines to fol-
was brought in [and the line was shut down for two weeks]; that
low. At Ditto, in contrast, rhythm changes provided more,
sort of focused our attention.
not less, structure to team members' days, because of the
The line shutdown not only triggered work on the spe- imposition of rigid quiet time. Further, unlike full-fledged
cific problem raised by the new placer (the need to run time-outs at Desktop and BBA, the rhythm change at
the line at faster speeds), it also helped the project team Ditto "merely" altered normal production rhythms, with-
stop and reassess several other previously ignored issues. out halting production. Although one might expect that
When the team realized that it had an unusual two-week this would make the rhythm changes at Desktop and BBA
590 ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA^OI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
more powerful or noteworthy than was true at Ditto, we realize that they could not afford to waste time before
found no evidence to support this. Rather, engineers at making change.
Ditto expressed a profound sense that the rhythm changes Besides providing a period of time for considering and
they encountered had jolted them to recognize the prob- accomplishing change, temporal shifts also provided re-
lematic ways in which they had been interacting, and to sources for change at a more conceptual level. At all three
see that their interruptions were often destructive to the companies, managers and employees were normally so
group's productivity. Our flndings therefore suggest there focused on speed and time efficiency that they simply
may be multiple ways in which rhythm-changing events viewed time as a constraint or outcome measure. How-
trigger people to "stop and reflect." One way is to take ever, once organization members encountered altered
people completely out of regular production mode (full work rbythms, they often (but not always) began to see
stop to production); another way is to alter production time as both an outcome measure and a variable to control
rhythms so they are not completely "regular." what happens in a project.
This was certainly true at Ditto, where quiet time
Temporal Shifts as Resourees helped engineers understand that their old pattems of in-
Temporal shifts also provided time as a resource. One teraction—interrupting each other whenever they had a
reason why well-recognized problems went unresolved question—contributed to chaotic work schedules. Engi-
for so long was that people felt they were simply too busy
neers came to realize they had considerable power to af-
to address them. But a change in normal rhythms, and the
fect how much productive work time was available to the
resulting shift in people's sense of time, created a rare
team as a whole during a given day. Similarly at Desktop,
opportunity to focus on problems and pursue a change
people discovered that time can be used differently, and
agenda. For instance, one project leader at BBA was ex-
that this can affect project outcomes. For example, a
plicit about the importance of being able to set aside time
Desktop project manager explained: "The big secret . . .
for change activities:
[is] we finally put time in tbe schedule." As he explained,
[During the time when the line was stopped] we were able to this was not simply a matter of adding weeks to the sched-
set aside time and effort for a special job [involving changes to ule (what he termed "lazy and stupid time") but a matter
tooling and procedures]. . . . That gave a calm environment for of using time in novel and creative ways. This enabled
making these changes, and the people involved could focus very people to do a better job in the same amount of time. For
well. example, many teams used buffer periods to gather input
from users and others to help prioritize potential product
At Ditto, too, an alteration in daily rhythms gave people
changes. As a result, products were often closer to market
the temporal space to undertake new kinds of work. Ditto
needs than they would have been without buffers. Prod-
engineers felt constantly under intense pressure to get
ucts were introduced on time as well, since scheduling
their product to market. But when the introduction of
could be more accurate, and with no increase in overall
"quiet time" altered normal working rhythms, uninter-
product-development time compared to traditional sched-
rupted time blocks provided the time needed to focus on
ules.
technical problem solving. Engineers also found that the
creation of "quiet time" provided an opportunity to reflect At BBA, by contrast, we found no evidence that tem-
on established pattems of interaction and how these pat- poral shifts caused workers or managers to come to new
tems affected their group's effectiveness. understandings about bow they could use time to affect
Across all three sites, when managers suspended nor- organizational outcomes. The difference may have been
mal work rhythms, those involved clearly recognized the related to the contrasting ways in which managers in each
finiteness of the time available for reflection and experi- organization framed rhythm changes as a resource for
mentation. Managers at Ditto and Desktop clearly defined change. Desktop managers consciously and explicitly
special time periods in advance, and people were keenly sent messages that buffer periods were to be used for
aware of the length of these periods. At BBA, in contrast, evaluating and pursuing changes; they were not "free
line stoppages were largely unscheduled in advance and time" and were not to be "wasted" with routine coding.
were almost never of a predefined duration. Nonetheless, At Ditto, managers emphasized from the beginning that
there was always a knowledge that the clock was ticking quiet time was not simply a way of providing time for
during line shutdowns: Workers at BBA understood the accomplishing individual work, but a mechanism for en-
need to return to the regular production schedule as soon couraging people to recognize and review the ways they
as possible. There was a precious quality to the temporal used other people's time. At BBA, however, workers and
space in all three organizations, which helped people to managers widely perceived line shutdowns as unfortunate
ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA'OI. 13, No. 5, Septetnber-October 2002 591NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
necessities that interfered with "real" productivity. Man- dination took was quite different across our three field
agement was never heard discussing the value of produc- sites. At BBA, line shutdowns were sufficiently serious
tion time-outs for reevaluation and change. Indeed, even and attention grabbing that they brought together, in ad-
when the researcher later presented the results of her hoc groups, the experts needed to deal with long-standing
study, managers were resistant to the idea that there was problems. Often, these experts came from offices distant
a highly constructive side to unavoidable shutdowns. from the plant fioor, in other facilities, or even outside of
Another difference across the three companies studied the company. In almost every case, a highly salient reason
was in the form of the "resource" that temporal shifts was required to gather them together. At Desktop, buffer
provided. At BBA and Desktop, temporal shifts provided times did not draw in new team members, but rather pro-
less chaotic time (there were fewer competing demands vided a time for all members of the existing product team
on people's time) that was amenable to contemplation to meet together to share information about tbeir diverse
(people's pace was not dictated by relentless production efforts. Indeed, this was the primary purpose of buffer
schedules, but rather time use was more open-ended). At times. At Ditto, the schedule shift coordinated efforts in
Ditto, quiet time did not interrupt production; the need to the sense that it imposed a schedule for individual work
produce persisted during quiet time. However, because time versus interactive time on all team members simul-
the pace of work felt less frantic without constant inter- taneously, but it also did not draw in new contributors to
ruptions, quiet time helped engineers find time to consider the team. Indeed, such a schedule change could not occur
problems and possible solutions. unless collectively respected.
Despite these important differences, underlying simi-
Temporal Shifts as Coordinating Mechanisms larities among the sites are apparent. In each site, the dif-
One of the reasons organizational change is difficult is ferent groupings brought about by the temporal shifts,
that people and groups are usually so busy doing their enabled new pattems of interaction, evoked greater atten-
own tasks that they do not have time to come together to tion to group processes and problems, and brought di-
implement change collectively. Yet, most kinds of change verse individuals (who were used to moving at their own
in complex organizations must be a concerted effort on pace) into greater syncopation. In tum, this enabled the
multiple fronts. The temporal shifts we observed served groups to make organizational changes.
to reconnect disparate actors and create a synchronized
readiness for change among all those who needed to be Temporal Shifts as Symbols of the Importance
involved. Thus, temporal shifts helped teams to undertake of Change
change activities in a coordinated way. By contrast, with- In each company we studied, changes in rhythm held high
out some temporal shift it was often hard to capture the symbolic value. This symbolic role of rhythm changes
attention of the critical mass of people necessary to ac- further reinforced their role as a trigger, a resource, and
complish real change. According to one experienced pro- a coordinating mechanism.
ject manager at BBA: Because managers typically focused on maximizing
speed to market or meeting tight production schedules,
For all the high-level managers and technical experts involved events that inserted real or perceived "time-outs" from
at different times with this machine, we were not able to get relentless schedules had considerable power to demon-
them to focus together on the [problem] until we were forced
strate the importance of change. This was especially true
to take the machine off-line. So, we wasted a huge amount of
at Ditto and Desktop. Here, time was considered the most
time fixing things on the shop floor instead of attacking the real
problem at the level of the technology. The whole process was
valuable and scarce resource of all, yet changes in the
very frustrating . . . . We wasted a lot of time. normal rhythm of work were intentionally created, rather
than simply a product of exogenous events. In the soft-
At Desktop, buffer times provided important "resynch- ware industry, most firms focus on compressing the de-
ing" points during product development. Engineers nor- velopment cycle as much as possible. The notion of de-
mally concentrated on coding and testing individual soft- liberately inserting unallocated "buffer" time into the
ware components. This created a tendency for pieces to development schedule, as Desktop management did, runs
"drift apart," which often led to problems in the finished counter to current industry practices. As one Desktop en-
product. By temporarily, but collectively, stopping pro- gineer explained:
duction to reassess project status at buffer points, team
[Traditionally,] what happens is when you schedule in buffer
management ensured that the work of the team was co- time . . . everyone goes crazy! They say 'you bozo, you idiot,
ordinated. how could you schedule [that]? That pushes our ship date way
As these examples illustrate, the exact form that coor- past the point we want it, get rid of that!'
592 ORGANIZATION SCIENCE/VOI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
By legitimizing breaks in the normal schedule, despite a small and large changes, incremental and more radical
crisis mentality, management ensured that people took ones, and changes both in work content and organiza-
notice of the equally important need to stay flexible and tional process.
adaptive. Similarly at Ditto, the fact that quiet time was Rhythm-changing events created temporal shifts that
executed during a high-pressure period of product devel- acted in four different ways to create organizational
opment was a strong symbol of management's commit- change. First, temporal shifts acted as a trigger, helping
ment to addressing the problem of long and chaotic work- individuals and groups shift gears from production and
ing hours and days. At both Desktop and Ditto, by productivity to reflection and reassessment. Thus, tem-
explicitly and deliberately changing the pace of work, poral shifts frequently served as "punctuating devices"—
managers signaled their belief in the importance and, ul- experiences that helped to shift organization members'
timately, the utility of reflection and change. attention from present routines to future possibilities, and
In particular, the symbolic content of these temporal to bring new, more conscious modes of thinking into use
shifts affected how people interpreted their change in (Gersick 1988, 1991; Louis and Sutton 1991; Dutton
schedules. For instance, at Desktop, instead of seeing buf- 1993).
fer periods as times to rest or to finish up loose ends, Second, temporal shifts provided a resource for under-
project team members interpreted buffers as, in part, a taking organizational change: People could set aside time
message from management about the importance of re- and attention that was not precommitted to routine activ-
evaluation. At Ditto, quiet time signaled that management ities. In this sense, temporal shifts were important at a
was committed to address issues with the work processes practical level. Temporal shifts also were important psy-
and with work-life balance. In both companies, the mes- chologically. As Hedberg (1981, p. 17) points out, "a mo-
sage sent by management helped actors impose the dis- ment of hesitation is necessary in order to allow an or-
cipline necessary to use the temporal space provided for ganization (or group) to change from execution of action
reflection and change, and not just as a catch-up period programs to genuine problem solving." That is, some oth-
for regular work. erwise uncommitted transition time is needed if actors are
At BBA, by contrast, temporal shifts were the result of to disengage mentally and emotionally from routine ac-
events outside of managers' control and were not in- tivities and refocus on reassessment and change (Bushe
tended to provide opportunities for reflection. They still and Shani 1991). Also important was that these relatively
carried symbolic weight, but in a different way. Because uncommitted blocks of time were finite: They provided
the need to meet production goals was normally so dom- much-needed breathing and thinking room, but people
inant, events that halted production had special power to were always aware of the need to use such limited time
signal that normal assumptions and constraints were not wisely. By providing resources—but finite ones—for
in place. As one manager commented, "a production halt change, temporal shifts enabled individuals and groups
speaks louder than words." Another manager explained, to avoid both the rigidity that stems from overload
"It [a production halt] sticks out like a sore thumb." That (Dutton 1993) and the laxness that stems from too much
is, a production halt dramatized that a situation was ab- slack (March and Simon 1958).
errant, and that action was needed. Numerous quotes like Third, temporal shifts acted as powerful coordinating
this provided further evidence that the one value shared mechanisms (Zerubavel 1981, Barley 1988). Such shifts
across all levels of actors in BBA was that production grabbed the attention of the diverse and often far-flung
must continue on schedule; any alterations in that sched- individuals needed to undertake change, and helped en-
ule were perceived as a noteworthy aberration to which sure that all of them were focused on the need for change
people attached important meaning. at the same time. In this sense, temporal shifts helped to
entrain actors' schedules so that they could better work
Discussion together (Ancona and Chong 1996).
The above data suggest that temporal shifts are an im- Finally, temporal shifts were often symbolic of orga-
portant enabler of change in organizational settings. This nizations' need for change and of management's com-
finding emerged in all three of the settings we studied, mitment to action. In two of our sites, managers who nor-
despite significant differences in the organizational and mally pressed relendessly for greater speed, deliberately
competitive contexts involved, the role of management altered the use of time to enable reflection and reassess-
in supporting organizational change, and the nature of the ment. In so doing, these managers used time not just as
rhythm-changing events observed. It also occurred de- a simple linear measuring stick, but as a shaper of social
spite differences both within and across sites, in the de- reality and meaning (Bordieu 1977). Zerubavel (1981)
gree and size of the changes involved: Outcomes spanned points out that by assigning priorities, managers wield the
ORGANIZATION SCIENCEA'OI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002 593NANCY STAUDENMAYER, MARCIE TYRE, AND LESLIE PERLOW Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change
tremendous symbolie power of time. The schedule temporal shifts—such as important schedule alterations
changes imposed by these managers indicated a commit- or delivery of new equipment—were not problems. (Tl.e
ment to change more forcefully than any simple pro- only exceptions to this were two cases out of the 41 stud-
nouncement could have done. Even in our third site ied at BBA, involving machine breakdowns.) Although
(BBA), where rhythm changes were unintended by man- the rhythm-changing events we studied altered actors'
agement, an alteration in regular, high-pressure produc- schedules, they were not disruptive to capabilities or as-
tion schedules still signaled that normal operating as- sumptions in the way that a strike or natural disaster
sumptions were not in place. Just as unexpected "acts of might be (e.g., Meyer 1982). Rather, rhythm-changing
God" such as floods or meteors often take on symbolic events were almost always introduced as a means of deal-
meaning (Rowley 1962), brief time-outs from relendess ing with outstanding issues, and their only disruptive fea-
production pressures took on special meaning for partic- ture was the interruption in normal temporal routines that
ipants. Such meaning, in tum, heavily influenced how they produced.
people and groups responded to the opportunities avail- This is not to say that problems cannot trigger change.
able. The power of events, and specifically problematic events,
Figure 1 summarizes our findings. It describes how as instigators of change is well documented in the orga-
rhythm-changing events can help to jump-start action nization literature (Cyert and March 1963, Nelson and
around pre-existing (but previously ignored or en- Winter 1982, Kiesler and Sproull 1982). Our argument
trenched) problems by changing actors' experience of does not contradict that finding. Rather, we suggest an
time. altemative route to change in cases where long-standing
Notably, in contrast to established theory, organiza- problems have become entrenched. Our findings also
tional change was not primarily problem driven in any of complement existing theory by suggesting an additional
our sites. Problems were obviously relevant; they were reason why problems may elicit change. That is, prob-
generally well recognized and openly discussed (some- lems themselves are sometimes rhythm-changing events.
times incessantly) by people at every level, but they Strikes, natural disasters, system breakdowns, and unex-
somehow failed to provoke change. Thus, the source of pected absences not only surprise and startle, they also
any organizational inertia was not that problems were un- insert a time-out or a change in entrenched rhythms. Thus,
recognized. However, until there was some sort of shift when problems do facilitate change, one way that they
in people's experience of time, those involved felt and may do so is by altering familiar work rhythms and thus
acted as if they were unable to address these problems. enabling people to think differendy about time and how
It is also important that most of the events that created they use it.
Figure 1 The Role of Temporal Shifts in Facilitating Organizational Change
Rhythm- Temporal Shift Serves as: Facilitates Organizational
Changing Change
Trigger for
Event Involves changes in
Action
actors' experience By finding new ways to use
Resource of
of time in terms of: time, people are abie to take
time and
attention action around pre-existing
• Sense of time problems.
pressure Coordinating
mechanism By adopting new ways of
• Perceived
discretion over Symbol of thinking about and using time,
time need for people develop new
• Perceived tension change approaches to their work.
among competing
time demands
• Time horizons
considered
• Sense of "found
time"
594 ORGANIZATION SCIENCE/VOI. 13, No. 5, September-October 2002You can also read
