Leslie A. Perlow

The Speed Trap: Exploring the Relationship Between Decision Making and Temporal Context

Despite a growing sense that speed is critical to organizational success, how an emphasis on speed affects organizational processes remains unclear. We explored the connection between speed and dec...

Putting the Work Back into Work/Family

This article locates the source of the work/family conflict in our shared underlying assumptions about how work must be done if one is to succeed. Based on a 6-month field study of engineers in a Fortune 100 company, three barriers to the successful implementation of work/family policies and programs were identified. Examining the source of these barriers reveals an assumption that individuals must be present at work to succeed. Giddens theory of structuration is applied to explain why this assumption perpetuates. The article further indicates that to alter this assumption will require rethinking the organizations reward system and the recurrence of impromptu interactions that result. At the end, the article suggests that surfacing this and other underlying assumptions about work has potential benefits for organizations, as well as individuals.

Time to Change: Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change

In this paper, we integrate findings from three field studies of technology intensive organizations to explore the process through which change occurred. In each case, problems were well recognized but had become entrenched and had failed to generate change. Across the three sites, organizational change occurred only after some event altered the accustomed daily rhythms of work, and thus changed the way people experienced time. This finding suggests that temporal shifts--changes in a collectives experience of time--can help to facilitate organizational change. Specifically, we suggest that temporal shifts enable change in four ways: (1) by creating a trigger for change, (2) by providing resources needed for change, (3) by acting as a coordinating mechanism, and (4) by serving as a credible symbol of the need to change.

Is silence killing your company

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Contextualizing Patterns of Work Group Interaction: Toward a Nested Theory of Structuration

The focus of this article is the patterns of interaction that arise within work groups, and how organizational and institutional factors play a role in shaping these patterns. Based on an ethnographic study of groups across three national contexts, we describe the variation in patterns of interaction that we observed. We further suggest how different patterns of interaction form mutually reinforcing systems with aspects of the organizational context. In addition, we suggest how these mutually reinforcing systems are perpetuated by aspects of the broader institutional context. Our findings point toward a nested theory of structuration, expanding structuration theory to multiple levels simultaneously. In turn our findings have theoretical and practical implications for better understanding and managing interaction patterns among group members.

Toward a Model of Work Redesign for Better Work and Better Life

Flexible work accommodations provided by employers purport to help individuals struggling to manage work and family demands. The underlying model for change is accommodation—helping individuals accommodate their work demands with no changes in the structure of work or cultural expectations of ideal workers. The purpose of this article is to derive a Work Redesign Model and compare it with the Accommodation Model. This article centers around two change initiatives—Predictability, Teaming and Open Communication and Results Only Work Environment—that alter the structure and culture of work in ways that enable better work and better lives.

Time to Coordinate Toward an Understanding of Work-Time Standards and Norms in a Multicountry Study of Software Engineers

Engineers in the United States are expected to work 70- and 80-hour weeks routinely. Research on groups of software engineers working in India, China, and Hungary indicates that such work hours are not inherent in the work. Rather, work-time standards and norms are found to vary across the three sites studied. Moreover, the way work is coordinated among engineers and between engineers and their managers appears to perpetuate these work-time standards and norms. Both the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Challenges for Work and Family in the Twenty-First Century

of factors. First, participation itself is an umbrella concept, covering a variety of practices, many of which may be indifferently implemented, as Heller points out. Second, the results of participation are likely to vary across companies and industries-meta-analyses are likely to reflect this variation. Third, there seems to be some variation over time. Hellers conclusions reflect studies done in the 1970s and 1980s, whereas Strauss bases his optimism on more recent findings. Fourth, and most important, participation and its effects are a contingent phenomenon, as the title of Strausss chapter suggests. Despite their differences, the authors appear to agree that participation can work, given the right circumstances.