Identity, Times and Work

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the construction of time as perceived by a group of IT workers. It is argued that two stories about working time have been socially constructed during the 19th and 20th centuries, not as an epochal phenomenon but as a multi-times phenomenon: a clock time story and a task-time story. A quantitative method is used in analysing the IT workers, which breaks with the traditional conception within research that a social constructivist approach requires qualitative data and methods. The analysis reveals that these IT workers do not represent an homogenous group. Rather, four distinct groups are identifiable: Blurred Timers, Invaded Clock Timers, Clock Timers, and Task Timers – with Blurred Timers being the largest group and Task Timers the smallest. Employment status and union membership have a direct and significant impact on these time identities whereas gender, age, educational level, and challenge of the work do not have any direct or significant correlation with these time identities. Finally, the time identities are put into perspective and compared to recent research on gender and industrial relations

Juggling multiple temporalities: the shift work story of mid-life nurses

“…2006). This conceptual development has occurred largely as a consequence of globalization where the assumption of shared time between workers (who are located in vastly differing time zones and attention must be given to finding the windows of shared time where direct conversation may take place if and when required) can no longer be made (Westenholz 2006).…”

‘With a rope around their neck’: grant researchers living in suspended time

“…In that sense, fellowship holders tended to experience a great sense of volatility in their lives, as well as difficulty in evaluating the temporal limits of their work. One could call them ‘blurred timers’ (Westenholz, 2006), as they continuously mixed together times and spaces to which different attributions belonged.…”

Reflections: On Time, Temporality and Change in Organizations

“…Given the pervasiveness and importance of clock time to understanding management and the world of work, Goodman et al (2001) point out how there is a surprising absence of time-related research in theories developed in the field of organization studies. Even within areas where time is clearly a central element (Westenholz, 2006), for example, the change management literature (Boje, Burnes, & Hassard, 2012), time remains largely implicit and unexplored (Burrell, 1992). There is a sense in which intuitive notions of time are sufficient and best left unquestioned and as such, these taken-for-granted assumptions that underlie our everyday understanding of movement, episodes, sequences of activities and temporal events have received little attention by scholars of management (Huy, 2001).…”

“…Conceptualizing time as something that can be precisely calculated and categorized (quantitative temporality) is pervasive in organizations where linear notions of clock time have become deeply sedimented in the way work days are measured, divided and planned through to the strong associations between time and money. This reification of time sidesteps the elusive nature of time as lived experience (qualitative temporality) even though these more subjective elements have been shown to influence decision-making and shape behaviours (Gill, 2013;Weibe, 2010;Westenholz, 2006). In an edited collection on time in organizational research, Roe et al (2009) highlight the absence of studies on time in organizations.…”