{"title":"Navigating Temporary Organizations: A Narrative Perspective","authors":"Jothsna Rajan, Srivardhini K Jha, Gopal Naik","doi":"10.1177/10564926231208117","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Temporary organizations (TOs) can be viewed as a collection of narratives about the past and the future that can potentially shape organizational outcomes. An in-depth, longitudinal study of a time-bound inter-organizational project that served rural India's educational needs shows how multi-authored narratives and practices in temporary organizations influence each other. When the narratives are coherent with respect to the past and the future, the actors engage in mitigative practices, and the project develops. If the narratives diverge, the actors engage in self-serving practices hindering the project. The narrative view affords us a novel lens to understand the dynamics that shape practices and outcomes within temporary organizations. Our findings also have practical implications for TO management—understanding the plurality of narratives and emphasizing the importance of aligning them.","PeriodicalId":47877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Management Inquiry","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Management Inquiry","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10564926231208117","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MANAGEMENT","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Temporary organizations (TOs) can be viewed as a collection of narratives about the past and the future that can potentially shape organizational outcomes. An in-depth, longitudinal study of a time-bound inter-organizational project that served rural India's educational needs shows how multi-authored narratives and practices in temporary organizations influence each other. When the narratives are coherent with respect to the past and the future, the actors engage in mitigative practices, and the project develops. If the narratives diverge, the actors engage in self-serving practices hindering the project. The narrative view affords us a novel lens to understand the dynamics that shape practices and outcomes within temporary organizations. Our findings also have practical implications for TO management—understanding the plurality of narratives and emphasizing the importance of aligning them.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Management Inquiry, sponsored by the Western Academy of Management, is a refereed journal for scholars and professionals in management, organizational behavior, strategy, and human resources. Its intent is to explore ideas and build knowledge in management theory and practice, with a focus on creative, nontraditional research as well as key controversies in the field. The journal seeks to maintain a constructive balance between innovation and quality, and at the same time widely define the forms that relevant contributions to the field can take. JMI features six sections: Meet the Person, Provocations, Reflections on Experience, Nontraditional Research, Essays, and Dialog.