Organizational change and the meaning of time

This paper probes into the social process of sense making in changing organizations, trying to observe how participant individuals interpret contextual events and configure their notion of time. This notion of time then interacts with the dynamics of the lives of individuals and contributes to the adaptation to the new reality they are facing. The study was conducted in eight organizations and data were collected by means of 133 in-depth interviews with participants in the change processes. Results indicate that individuals establish a reference to central events in their attempt to make sense out of changes and in their effort to adapt to the new situation. In accordance with Lewis and Weigert (1981), the results also indicate the dominance of institutional time over interaction time as well as over self time. Finally, the results suggest that such configurations of time are influenced by official organizational rhetoric and by actions in change management

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Silva,José Roberto Gomes da, Wetzel,Ursula
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração 2007
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1807-76922007000300003
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