First published 2008
Organizations today operate under the illusion that time doesn't matter. Robert A. Roe challenges this assumption by examining how employees and managers actually experience temporal pressures in their daily work lives. The book reveals that while organizational theories ignore time, real people face constant deadlines, career disruptions from strategic changes, and identity shifts tied to temporal demands. Roe explores whether time can truly be managed and how collective behaviors create organizational rhythms that either enhance or damage effectiveness. He examines power dynamics embedded in temporal control, from industrial relations to management practices that shape how groups experience time together. The research spans individual coping strategies to organizational structures that enforce particular temporal regimes. Rather than accepting abstract models that treat organizations as existing outside time, Roe argues for recognizing the central role of temporal analysis in understanding workplace behavior and offers concrete methods for studying time's impact on organizational life.
Genres: business, sociology, organizational-culture, academic
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic-setting, workplace-drama
Period: 20th-Century, 21st-Century
352 pages · Kindle Edition · Routledge