Finding Creativity in Predictability: Seizing Kairos in Chronos Through Temporal Work in Complex Innovation Processes

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Managing temporal complexity is a fundamental challenge in complex innovation processes, yet the temporal work whereby actors seize opportune moments (kairos) in an environment dominated by clock-time structures (chronos) remains elusive. Temporal tensions can partly be resolved through entrainment, that is, by aligning activities with dominant temporal structures. However, although entrainment ensures the exploitation of a predefined path, it is unable to harness unexpected developments as opportunities for exploration. Thus, navigating the competing temporal demands of chronos and kairos requires not just ambidextrous but also ambitemporal organizing. Collecting and analyzing in-depth interview and observational data from pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, we find that actors sometimes resolve temporal tensions through entrainment to ensure coordination and predictability. In other instances, however, actors abductively transform temporal tensions into novel interpretations and new courses of action. As such, temporal tensions become more than a bothersome deviation from the planned schedule, but an opportunity for creative agency. This understanding of kairos—as a process unfolding through temporal work—relies not only on detraining from chronos (i.e., momentarily detaching from the dominant temporal structure to question underlying assumptions), but also on its reframing and reconfiguration. We contribute to the literature on complex innovation and temporality by theorizing a transformative perspective on ambitemporal organizing, which relies less on paradoxical notions and instead emphasizes how kairos is enacted and seized within and from chronos.Funding: This work was supported by German Research Foundation (DFG) funding for the Research Unit “Organized Creativity” [Grant FOR 2161] as well as by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/I4884].
Original languageEnglish
JournalOrganization Science
Volume35
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)1795-1822
Number of pages28
ISSN1047-7039
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.09.2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • Management studies - mbidextrous organizations, creativity, entrainment, innovation, organization processes, qualitative research, time and temporality in organization, R & D projects

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Mechanical performance prediction for friction riveting joints of dissimilar materials via machine learning
  2. Intersection tests for the cointegrating rank in dependent panel data
  3. Volume of Imbalance Container Prediction using Kalman Filter and Long Short-Term Memory
  4. A guided simulated annealing search for solving the pick-up and delivery problem with time windows and capacity constraints
  5. Foundations and applications of computer based material flow networks for einvironmental management
  6. From pre-processing to advanced dynamic modeling of pupil data
  7. The Replication Database: Documenting the Replicability of Psychological Science
  8. Training effects of two different unstable shoe constructions on postural control in static and dynamic testing situations
  9. Artificial intelligence
  10. Monitoring of microbially mediated corrosion and scaling processes using redox potential measurements
  11. Mimicking and anticipating others’ actions is linked to social information processing
  12. The erosion of relational values resulting from landscape simplification
  13. Metaphors and Paradigms of the Language Animal—or—The Advantage of seeing “Time Is a Resource” as a Paradigm
  14. Construct- and criterion-related validity of the German Core Self-Evaluations Scale
  15. Facing complexity through informed simplifications
  16. Special Issue The Discourse of Redundancy Introduction
  17. “Circuits of Commons”: Exploring the Connections Between Economic Lives and the Commons
  18. Soil conditions modify species diversity effects on tree functional trait expression
  19. Modelling, explaining, enacting and getting feedback: How can the acquisition of core practices in teacher education be optimally fostered?
  20. Creep behavior of AE42 based hybrid composites
  21. Developing a Complex Portrait of Content Teaching for Multilingual Learners via Nonlinear Theoretical Understandings
  22. An Overview of Electro Hydraulic Full Variable Valve Train Systems to Reduce Emissions in Internal Combustion Engines
  23. Reciprocal Relationships Between Dispositional Optimism and Work Experiences
  24. How to support teachers to give feedback to modelling tasks effectively? Results from a teacher-training-study in the Co²CA project
  25. Introduction
  26. Visual Detection of Traffic Incident through Automatic Monitoring of Vehicle Activities
  27. Semiparametric one-step estimation of a sample selection model with endogenous covariates
  28. More than a YouTube Channel
  29. How generative drawing affects the learning process
  30. Missing links
  31. Application of design of experiments for laser shock peening process optimization
  32. On the Difficulty of Forgetting
  33. A slow-fast trait continuum at the whole community level in relation to land-use intensification
  34. Measurement in Machine Vision Editorial Paper
  35. Hacking the Classroom
  36. Knowledge Spaces of Globalization
  37. Relevance of the Basset history term for Lagrangian particle dynamics
  38. Influence of measurement errors on networks
  39. A geometric approach for the model parameter estimation in a permanent magnet synchronous motor
  40. Emotion Prediction by Facial Expressions in Human-Computer Interfaces
  41. Using latent class analysis to produce a typology of environmental concern in the UK
  42. Ablation Study of a Multimodal Gat Network on Perfect Synthetic and Real-world Data to Investigate the Influence of Language Models in Invoice Recognition
  43. Implementation of Chemometric Tools to Improve Data Mining and Prioritization in LC-HRMS for Nontarget Screening of Organic Micropollutants in Complex Water Matrixes
  44. Theory-based course design for professional master's degree program in business engineering
  45. Value of semi-open corridors for simultaneously connecting open and wooded habitats
  46. Covert and overt automatic imitation are correlated
  47. Grounds different from, though equally solid with
  48. Solvable problems or problematic solvability?