Why Do Extreme Work Hours Persist? Temporal Uncoupling as a New Way of Seeing
Journal
Academy of Management Journal
ISSN
0001-4273
1948-0989
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper develops temporal uncoupling as a new way of seeing the puzzling persistence of extreme work hours, as well as the temporal relations of organizations and their environments. Drawing on a historical case study, we trace and analyze the genesis, reinforcement, and maintenance of extreme work hours in an elite consulting firm over a period of 40 years. We find that a small shift in temporal structuring mobilized two positive feedback processes. These processes consolidated a temporal order that increasingly uncoupled from the traditional workweek. Grounded in these findings, we make two contributions. First, we challenge the orthodox view of entrainment as an ideal synchronous relation between organizations and their environments. Instead, we offer temporal uncoupling as an alternative lens. It enables us to see how both synchrony and asynchrony are potentially viable options, which coexist and sometimes coconstitute each other. Second, we shed new light on temporality as a constitutive force that underpins extreme work hours and offer a novel explanation of their persistence as a case of systemic temporal lock-in. We develop positive feedback as a mechanism that explains how small temporal shifts can become consolidated into hardly reversible temporal lock-ins.
Language
English
Keywords
complexity
Covid-19
entrainment
plurality
temporality
temporal patterns
temporal research
time
Publisher
Academy of Management
Volume
62
Number
6
Start page
1818
End page
1847