Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:46:09.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - ‘Working the Time’

Time Self-Management Practices of Remote Workers

from Part III - New Ways of Organizing Work, Digitality and the Politics of Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2023

By
Claire Estagnasié
Edited by
François-Xavier de Vaujany ,
Robin Holt  and
Albane Grandazzi
François-Xavier de Vaujany
Affiliation:
Universite Paris Dauphine-PSL
Robin Holt
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Albane Grandazzi
Affiliation:
Grenoble Ecole de Management
Get access

Summary

The large-scale implementation of remote work appears as a fundamental shift into the traditional understanding of the relationship between time and work. Drawing on sociomateriality literature and more especially on the concept of temporal structuring, this chapter suggests that remote workers ‘work the time’ by different practices, to (re)create adequate temporalities to work. The analysis results from an exploratory qualitative study conducted between May 2020 and April 2021 in Montreal with 17 remote workers who were already working remotely before the Covid-19 pandemic. It gives an overview of the temporal practices of remote workers, who are mainly blocking time (i), navigating between temporalities (ii) ritualizing them (iii) or an interwoven of all of them to try to create time to work (and thus, for non-work as well). It appears that remote workers work the time to be flexible. However, they still do it in the clock time of organizational life. They also experiment with temporal tensions, which leads them to exercise a fourth practice that is indispensable to the other three, that of labeling times.

Keywords

Timeself-managementpracticesremote worksociomateriality
Type
Chapter
Information
Organization as Time
Technology, Power and Politics
 , pp. 185 - 210
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ajzen, M. (2021). From De-materialization to Re-materialization: A Social Dynamics Approach to New Ways of Working. In Mitev, N., Aroles, J., Stephenson, K. A. & Malaurent, J. (eds), New Ways of Working: Organizations and Organizing in the Digital Age (pp. 205–33). London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ajzen, M., Donis, C. & Taskin, L. (2015). Kaléidoscope des Nouvelles Formes d’Organisation du Travail: L’instrumentalisation stupide d’un idéal collaboratif et démocratique. Gestion 2000, 32(3), 125–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alfanza, M. T. (2020). Telecommuting intensity in the context of COVID-19 pandemic: Job performance and work-life balance. Economics and Business, 35(1), 107–16.Google Scholar
Alter, N. (2003). Mouvement et dyschronies dans les organisations. L’Année Sociologique, 53(2), 489–514.Google Scholar
Ancona, D. G., Okhuysen, G. A. & Perlow, L. A. (2001). Taking time to integrate temporal research. Academy of Management Review, 26(4), 512–29.Google Scholar
Aroles, J., Bonneau, C. & Bhankaraully, S. (2022). Conceptualising ‘meta-work’ in the context of continuous, global mobility: The case of digital nomadism. Work, Employment and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211069797CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aroles, J., De Vaujany, F-X. & Dale, K. (2021a). Experiencing the New World of Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Aroles, J., De Vaujany, F-X. & Dale, K. (2021b). Conclusion: Experiences of Continuity and Change in the New World of Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Aroles, J., Mitev, N. & de Vaujany, F-X. (2019). Mapping themes in the study of new work practices. New Technology, Work and Employment, 34(3), 285–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barad, K. (2013). Ma(r)king Time: Material Entanglements and Re-memberings: Cutting Together Apart. In Carlile, P. R., Nicolini, D., Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (eds), How Matter Matters (pp. 16–31). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, M. & Orlikowski, W. (2021). Scale matters: Doing practice-based studies of contemporary digital phenomena. MIS Quarterly, 45(1), 467–72.Google Scholar
Becker, S. D. & Messner, M. (2013). Management control as temporal structuring. Managing in Dynamic Business Environments. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781782544531.00015Google Scholar
Beyes, T. & Steyaert, C. (2012). Spacing organization: Non-representational theory and performing organizational space. Organization, 19(1), 45–61.Google Scholar
Bonneau, C. & Aroles, J. (2021). Digital Nomads: A New Form of Leisure Class? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdeau, S., Ollier-Malaterre, A. & Houlfort, N. (2019).Not all work-life policies are created equal: Career consequences of using enabling versus enclosing work-life policies. Academy of Management Review, 44(1), 172–93.Google Scholar
Bouty, I. (2017). Robert Chia: Approches processuelles et pratiques en management, une ontologie alternative. In Petit, S. C. (ed.), Les Grands Auteurs en Management (pp. 268–80). Caen: EMS Editions.Google Scholar
Chia, R. (1995). From modern to postmodern organizational analysis. Organization Studies, 16(4), 579–604.Google Scholar
Chia, R. & King, I. W. (1998). The organizational structuring of novelty. Organization, 5(4), 461–78.Google Scholar
Choudhury, P., Foroughi, C. & Larson, B. (2021). Work‐from‐anywhere: The productivity effects of geographic flexibility. Strategic Management Journal, 42(4), 655–83.Google Scholar
Claessens, B. J. C., van Eerde, W., Rutte, C. G. & Roe, R. A. (2007). A review of the time management literature. Personnel Review, 36(2), 255–76.Google Scholar
Clegg, S. R. & Kornberger, M. (eds) (2006). Space, Organizations and Management Theory (Vol. 17). Copenhagen: Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press.Google Scholar
Colley, H., Henriksson, L., Niemeyer, B. & Seddon, T. (2012). Competing time orders in human service work: Towards a politics of time. Time & Society, 21(3), 371–94.Google Scholar
Como, R., Hambley, L. & Domene, J. (2021). An exploration of work-life wellness and remote work during and beyond COVID-19. Canadian Journal of Career Development, 20(1), 46–56.Google Scholar
Cook, D. (2020). The freedom trap: Digital nomads and the use of disciplining practices to manage work/leisure boundaries. Information Technology & Tourism, 22(3), 355–90.Google Scholar
Dale, K. (2005). Building a social materiality: Spatial and embodied politics in organizational control. Organization, 12(5), 649–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vaujany, F-X., Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, A., Munro, I., Nama, Y. & Holt, R. (2021). Control and surveillance in work practice: Cultivating paradox in ‘new’ modes of organizing. Organization Studies, 42(5), 675–95.Google Scholar
De Vaujany, F-X. & Mitev, N. (2013). Introduction: Space in Organizations and Sociomateriality. In de Vaujany, F-X & Mitev, N. (eds), Materiality and Space: Organizations, Artefacts and Practices (pp. 1–21). London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Del Fa, S. (2019). Ce que différer veut dire: Absences, présences et processus de différenciation dans deux universités alternatives. (PhD thesis). Montréal: Université du Québec à Montréal.Google Scholar
Desmarez, P. & Tripier, P. (2014). Travail et santé dans la sociologie industrielle de Max Weber. La nouvelle revue du travail, 4. https://doi.org/10.4000/nrt.1678Google Scholar
Eddleston, K. A. & Mulki, J. (2017). Toward understanding remote workers’ management of work–family boundaries: The complexity of workplace embeddedness. Group & Organization Management, 42(3), 346–87.Google Scholar
Enel, L., Millerand, F. & Aurousseau, C. (2019). Comment penser le pouvoir d’agir dans un contexte de travail médiatisé et à distance? Terminal. Technologie de l’information, culture & société, 125–6.Google Scholar
Erickson, C. L. & Norlander, P. (2022). How the past of outsourcing and offshoring is the future of post‐pandemic remote work: A typology, a model and a review. Industrial Relations Journal, 53(1), 71‑89.Google Scholar
Estagnasié, C. (2022). ‘Nourrir’ sa créativité malgré la distance: Le métatravail ambivalent des métiers créatifs à l’ère de la covid-19. Commposite, 22(2), 88–121.Google Scholar
Estagnasié, C., Bonneau, C., Vasquez, C. & Vayre, É. (2022). (Re)creating the Inhabited Workspace: Rematerialization Practices of Remote Work. In Vayre, É (ed.), Digitalization of Work, New Spaces and New Working Times. London: ISTE.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. S. & Orlikowski, W. J. (2011). Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organization Science, 22(5), 1240–53.Google Scholar
Ferriss, T. (2009). The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. New York: Harmony.Google Scholar
Fleming, P. & Spicer, A. (2004). ‘You can checkout anytime, but you can never leave’: Spatial boundaries in a high commitment organization. Human Relations, 57(1), 75–94.Google Scholar
Gerson, E. (2008). Reach, Bracket, and the Limits of Rationalized Coordination: Some Challenges for CSCW. In Ackerman, M., Halverson, C., Erickson, T. & Kellogg, W. (eds), Resources, Co-Evolution and Artifacts (pp. 193–220). London: Springer.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. (2016). Sociomateriality in Posthuman Practice Theory. In Hui, A., Schatzki, T. & Shove, E. (eds), The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations, Practitioners (pp. 50–63). London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. (2019). Theorizing affective ethnography for organization studies. Organization, 26(6), 741–60.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. & Strati, A. (1988). The temporal dimension in organizational studies. Organization Studies, 9(2), 149–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. (ed.) (1984). Elements of the Theory of Structuration. In The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structure (pp. 1–40). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gillet, N., Huyghebaert-Zouaghi, T., Austin, S., Fernet, C. & Morin, A. J. (2021). Remote working: A double-edged sword for workers’ personal and professional well-being. Journal of Management & Organization, 27(6), 1060–82.Google Scholar
Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Gregg, M. (2014). Presence Bleed: Performing Professionalism Online. In Banks, M., Gill, R., & Taylor, S. (eds), Theorizing Cultural Work: Labour, Continuity and Change in the Cultural and Creative Industries (pp. 136–48). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. & Labanyi, J. (2008). Introduction: Time, materiality, and the work of memory. History & Memory, 20(2), 5–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hand, M. (2020). Making Time, Configuring Life: Smartphone Synchronization and Temporal Orchestration. In Kaun, A., Pentzold, C. & Lohmeier, C. (eds), Making Time for Digital Lives: Beyond Chronotopia (pp. 85–102). London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Hernes, T., Simpson, B. & Soderlund, J. (2013). Managing and temporality. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 29(1), 1–6.Google Scholar
Holt, R. & Johnsen, R. (2019). Time and organization studies. Organization Studies, 40(10), 1557–72.Google Scholar
Hussenot, A. (2016). Introduction au tournant processuel. In de Vaujany, F-X, Hussenot, A. & Chanlat, J. F. (eds), Théories des organisations, nouveaux tournants (pp. 261–78). Paris: Economica.Google Scholar
Hussenot, A., Bouty, I. & Hernes, T. (2019). Suivre et retranscrire l’organisation à partir des approches processuelles. In Garreau, L. & Romelaer, P. (eds), Méthodes de recherche qualitatives innovantes (pp. 125–44). Paris: Economica.Google Scholar
Hussenot, A., De Vaujany, F-X. & Chanlat, J-F. (2016). Introduction: Changements socio-économiques et théories des organisations. In de Vaujany, F-X, Hussenot, A. & Chanlat, J-F (eds), Théories des organisations: Nouveaux tournants (pp. 11–21). Paris: Economica.Google Scholar
Hussenot, A., Hernes, T. & Bouty, I. (2020). Studying organization from the perspective of the ontology of temporality. In Reinecke, J., Suddaby, R., Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (eds), Time, Temporality, and History in Process Organization Studies, (pp. 50–66). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kahrau, F. & Maedche, A. (2013). Knowledge Workers’ Time Management as Sociomaterial Practice. ECIS Completed Research. 195. http://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2013_cr/195Google Scholar
Kalleberg, A. L., Reskin, B. F. & Hudson, K. (2000). Bad jobs in America: Standard and nonstandard employment relations and job quality in the United States. American Sociological Review, 65(2), 256–78.Google Scholar
Langley, A. N. N., Smallman, C., Tsoukas, H. & Van de Ven, A. H. (2013). Process studies of change in organization and management: Unveiling temporality, activity, and flow. Academy of Management Journal, 56(1), 1–13.Google Scholar
Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (2016). The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Magni, F., Tang, G., Manzoni, B. & Caporarello, L. (2020). Can family-to-work enrichment decrease anxiety and benefit daily effectiveness in remote workers? The unlocking effect of work-life balance. OB Plenary Spotlight Rapid Research Plenary (Covid19 and Organizational Behavior), 11, 2021.Google Scholar
Martins, H. (1974). Time and theory in sociology. In Rex, J. (ed.), Approaches to Sociology (pp. 246–94). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Massey, D. (2005). For Space. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Mulki, J. P., Bardhi, F., Lassk, F. G. & Nanavaty-Dahl, J. (2009). Set up remote workers to thrive. MIT Sloan Management Review, 51(1), 63.Google Scholar
Mumby, D. K. (2012). Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach. Sage.Google Scholar
Nowotny, H. (1992). Time and social theory: Towards a social theory of time. Time & Society, 1(3), 421–54.Google Scholar
O’Leary, M. B. & Cummings, J. N. (2007). The spatial, temporal, and configurational characteristics of geographic dispersion in teams. MIS Quarterly, 31(3), 433–52.Google Scholar
Ollier-Malaterre, A. (2009). Télétravail, horaires flexibles, crèches et projets humanitaires: Quand la nouvelle organisation du travail brouille les frontières. Personnel, (499), 76.Google Scholar
Ollier-Malaterre, A., Jacobs, J. A. & Rothbard, N. P. (2019). Technology, work, and family: Digital cultural capital and boundary management. Annual Review of Sociology, 45(1), 425–47.Google Scholar
Ollier-Malaterre, A., Valcour, M., Den Dulk, L. & Kossek, E. E. (2013). Theorizing national context to develop comparative work–life research: A review and research agenda. European Management Journal, 31(5), 433–47.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (2000). Using technology and constituting structures: A practice lens for studying technology in organizations. Organization Science, 11(4), 404–28.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (2007). Sociomaterial practices: Exploring technology at work. Organization Studies, 28(9), 1435–48.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (2010). Sociomateriality of organisational life: Considering technology in management research. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34(1).Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. & Scott, S. V. (2008). Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 433–74.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. & Scott, S. V. (2016). Digital work: A research agenda. In Czarniawska, B. (ed.), A Research Agenda for Management and Organization Studies (pp. 88–96). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. & Yates, J. (2002). It’s about time: Temporal structuring in organizations. Organization Science, 13(6), 684–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ozimek, A. (2020). The future of remote work. Available at: https://content-static.upwork.com/blog/uploads/sites/6/2020/05/26131624/Upwork_EconomistReport_FWR_052020.pdf.Google Scholar
Palumbo, R. (2020). Let me go to the office! An investigation into the side effects of working from home on work-life balance. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 33(6/7), 771–90.Google Scholar
Pickering, A. (1995). The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Popovici, V. & Popovici, A-L. (2020). Remote work revolution: Current opportunities and challenges for organizations. Ovidius University Annals Economic Sciences Series, 20, 468–72.Google Scholar
Reichenberger, I. (2018). Digital nomads: A quest for holistic freedom in work and leisure. Annals of Leisure Research, 21(3), 364–80.Google Scholar
Reinecke, J. & Ansari, S. (2015). When times collide: Temporal brokerage at the intersection of markets and developments. Academy of Management Journal, 58(2), 618–48.Google Scholar
Reinecke, J., Suddaby, R., Langley, A. & Tsoukas, H. (2020). Time, Temporality, and History in Process Organization Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rothbard, N. P., Phillips, K. W. & Dumas, T. L. (2005). Managing multiple roles: Work-family policies and individuals’ desires for segmentation. Organization Science, 16(3), 243–58.Google Scholar
Salzman, M. & Palen, L. (2004). The tools we live by: A description of personal support media in work life. Computer Science Technical Reports CU-CS-981, 4, 1-10.Google Scholar
Schatzki, T. R., Knorr-Cetina, K. & Von Savigny, E. (2001). The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Şentürk, E., Sağaltıcı, E., Geniş, B. & Günday Toker, Ö. (2021). Predictors of depression, anxiety and stress among remote workersduring the COVID-19 pandemic. Work, 70(1), 41–51.Google Scholar
Sewell, G. & Taskin, L. (2015). Out of sight, out of mind in a new world of work? Autonomy, control, and spatiotemporal scaling in telework. Organization Studies, 36(11), 1507–29.Google Scholar
Shipp, A. J. & Jansen, K. J. (2021). The ‘other’ time: A review of the subjective experience of time in organizations. Academy of Management Annals, 15(1), 299–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shirmohammadi, M., Au, W. C. & Beigi, M. (2022). Remote work and work-life balance: Lessons learned from the covid-19 pandemic and suggestions for HRD practitioners. Human Resource Development International, 25(2), 163–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shortt, H. & Izak, M. (2020). The Contested Home. In Parker, M. (ed.), Life After Covid-19: The Other Side of Crisis (pp. 43–52). Bristol: Bristol University Press.Google Scholar
Spagnoli, P., Manuti, A., Buono, C. & Ghislieri, C. (2021). The good, the bad and the blend: The strategic role of the ‘middle leadership’ in work-family/life dynamics during remote working. Behavioral Sciences, 11(8), 112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sullivan, C. (2012). Remote Working and Work-Life Balance. In Reilly, N. P, Sirgy, M. J & Gorman, C. A (eds),Work and Quality of Life (pp. 275–90). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Taskin, L. (2006). Télétravail: Les enjeux de la déspatialisation pour le management humain. Revue Interventions économiques. Papers in Political Economy, 34.Google Scholar
Taskin, L., Ajzen, M. & Donis, C. (2017). New Ways of Working: From Smart to Shared Power. In Redefining Management (pp. 65–79). London: Springer.Google Scholar
Thompson, B. Y. (2019). The Digital Nomad Lifestyle: (Remote) Work/Leisure Balance, Privilege, and Constructed Community. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 2(1), 27–42.Google Scholar
Toffler, A. (1981). The Third Wave. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Tyler, M. & Cohen, L. (2010). Spaces that matter: Gender performativity and organizational space. Organization Studies, 31(2), 175–98.Google Scholar
Van de Ven, A. H. & Poole, M. S. (1995). Explaining development and change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 510–40.Google Scholar
Van Marrewijk, A. & Yanow, D. (2010). Introduction: The Spatial Turn in Organizational Studies. In Organizational Spaces: Rematerializing the Workaday World. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Vásquez, C. (2016). A spatial grammar of organizing: Studying the communicative constitution of organizational spaces. Communication Research and Practice, 2(3), 351–77.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1905). L’éthique protestante et l’esprit du capitalisme. Paris: Plon.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (2012). Sur le travail industriel. Trans. P-L. van Berg. Belgium: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Winch, G. M. & Sergeeva, N. (2021). Temporal structuring in project organizing: A narrative perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 40(1), 40–51.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×