The Silent Politics of Temporal Work: A Case Study of a Management Consulting Project to Redesign Public Health Care

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Silent Politics of Temporal Work

T2 - A Case Study of a Management Consulting Project to Redesign Public Health Care

AU - McGivern, Gerry

AU - Dopson, Sue

AU - Ferlie, Ewan

AU - Fischer , Michael

AU - Fitzgerald , Louise

AU - Ledger, Jean

AU - Bennett, Chris

PY - 2018/8/1

Y1 - 2018/8/1

N2 - In this article, we discuss temporal work and temporal politics situated between groups with different temporal orientations, arguing that attention needs to be paid to covert and unarticulated silent politics of temporal work. Drawing on a case study of a management consultancy project to redesign public health care, we explain how unarticulated temporal interests and orientations shape the construction of problems, which, in turn, legitimate tasks and time frames. We also show how task and time frames are temporarily fixed and imposed through boundary objects, and the way these may then be reinterpreted and co-opted to deflect pressure to change. Thus, we argue, unarticulated, covert and political temporal interdynamics produce expedient provisional temporal settlements, which resolve conflict in the short-term, while perpetuating it in the longer run.

AB - In this article, we discuss temporal work and temporal politics situated between groups with different temporal orientations, arguing that attention needs to be paid to covert and unarticulated silent politics of temporal work. Drawing on a case study of a management consultancy project to redesign public health care, we explain how unarticulated temporal interests and orientations shape the construction of problems, which, in turn, legitimate tasks and time frames. We also show how task and time frames are temporarily fixed and imposed through boundary objects, and the way these may then be reinterpreted and co-opted to deflect pressure to change. Thus, we argue, unarticulated, covert and political temporal interdynamics produce expedient provisional temporal settlements, which resolve conflict in the short-term, while perpetuating it in the longer run.

U2 - 10.1177/0170840617708004

DO - 10.1177/0170840617708004

M3 - Article

SN - 0170-8406

VL - 39

SP - 1007

EP - 1030

JO - Organization Studies

JF - Organization Studies

IS - 8

ER -