The dynamics of prioritizing: How actors temporally pattern complex role-routine ecologies

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This paper examines the emergence of temporal coordination among multiple interdependent routines in a complex work setting that does not allow for up-front scheduling. We propose that when actors continuously have to prioritize their expected contributions to multiple interdependent routines, they address this challenge by orienting not just toward routines but also toward person-roles. Drawing on an ethnographic study of an agile consulting project team confronted with continued scheduling failures, we demonstrate how the dynamics of prioritizing enabled the actors to resolve what at first appeared to be an irresolvable and highly complex problem of temporal coordination. We add to the literature on routine dynamics and temporality by setting forth the dynamics of prioritizing as an explanation for the temporal patterning of complex work settings. We introduce the notion of role–routine ecologies as a novel way to conceptualize such complex work settings and contribute to developing a performative theory of person-roles and their significance for coordinating.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAdministrative Science Quarterly
Volume66
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)339-379
Number of pages41
ISSN0001-8392
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.

    Research areas

  • Management studies - work, rolle, routine, interdependence, conflict, cooperation, ecology

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Researchers

  1. Martin Wendt

Projects

  1. SoundsLike?

Activities

  1. Language and Communication (Fachzeitschrift)
  2. The innovation process: A linear succession of phases or chaos?
  3. An Optimal Polynomial Trajectory for Electromagnetic Actuators
  4. Negotiating normativity: discourses of (non) belonging and (non) coincidences in the context of transnational adoption
  5. Building Collective Institutional Infrastructures for Decent Platform Work: The Development of a Crowdwork Agreement in Germany
  6. Multi problem families”, “overburdened mothers”, and where is the child? Physical violence and symbolic power of definition
  7. Effective working hours and wages: the case of downward adjustment via paid absenteeism
  8. International Conference in University Learning and Teaching - 2010
  9. Dynamics Days Europe 2018
  10. Fachtagung Sucht 2020
  11. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education: Perspectives from Academic Staff.
  12. The control of life and everything living. Biohacking as a Technology of Cybernetic Biopolitics
  13. “Visual Rhetoric as a three-dimensional practice”
  14. 24th International Conference on System Theory, Control and Computing - ICSTCC 2020
  15. Midterm Conference: Sociology of the Arts and Creativity - ESA-Arts 2016
  16. The systematic approach: Residue management according to ISO 14 001 and EMAS-Scheme of the European Union.
  17. BNE sowie Trasformatives Lernen in der Hochschullehre
  18. Spontaneous thoughts and images
  19. Lodz University of Technology
  20. Contracting for Space - 2009
  21. Career paths and cross-roads: Metaphor as a conceptualisation device (Universität Paderborn, invited talk)

Publications

  1. Effekte unterschiedlicher Kollaborationsskripte in chatbasiertem Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning am Beispiel von Lernprotokollen
  2. Development and prospects of degradable magnesium alloys for structural and functional applications in the fields of environment and energy
  3. Comparative effectiveness of guided internet-based stress management training versus established in-person group training in employees – study protocol for a pragmatic, randomized, non-inferiority trial
  4. An Adaptive Two-Stage Observer in the Control of a New Electromagnetic Valve Actuator for Camless Internal Combustion Engines
  5. Conception and analysis of Cascaded Dual Kalman Filters as virtual sensors for mastication activity of stomatognathic craniomandibular system
  6. Heterogenitätssensible Hochschullehre
  7. Climate-smart socially innovative tools and approaches for marine pollution science in support of sustainable development
  8. A Unified Contextual Bandit Framework for Long- and Short-Term Recommendations
  9. Robust Control as a Mathematical Paradigm for Innovative Engineering Applications
  10. Illegal Migration in Postfordism
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  13. Hommage to the unknown viewers
  14. Life satisfaction in Germany after reunification: Additional insights on the pattern of convergence
  15. Exploring Affective Human-Robot Interaction with Movie Scenes
  16. Image, Process, Performance, Machine
  17. Mathematik als Fremdsprache?
  18. About the Sense of Useless Software
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  20. Frame-based Optimal Design
  21. Assessment of age-correlated occupational strain as a prerequisite for age-appropriate work organization
  22. Integrated curvature sensing of soft bending actuators using inertial measurement units
  23. Team Ambidexterity and its Prerequisites: An Exploratory Study of an IT Service Management Team
  24. Nitrate Pollution of Groundwater Long Exceeding Trigger Value
  25. Exploring the potential of using priority effects during ecological restoration to resist biological invasions in the neotropics
  26. Development of environmental fate models for engineered nanoparticles--a case study of TiO2 nanoparticles in the Rhine River