The Impact of Temporal Schemata: Understanding When Individuals Entrain Versus Resist or Create Temporal Structure

Abstract

As the pace of contemporary work increases, organizations seek to coordinate their employees’ efforts, particularly through the temporal coordination of pace and rhythm. Yet, little research has examined individual cognition, affect, and behavior in response to the “pull” of entrainment to an organization’s temporal structure. In this paper, we develop theory highlighting how individuals use temporal schemata—cognitive frameworks about time—to interpret and respond to temporal cues provided by an organization’s temporal structure (i.e., “push back”). We propose that individuals can automatically or deliberately entrain, actively or passively resist, or create additional temporal structure. By identifying how individuals compare temporal cues against their temporal schemata within a situation, we develop a temporal cognitive-affective processing model to explain how individuals navigate the tension between their individualized view of time and social pressures for coordination. This model emphasizes the underdeveloped individual-level aspects of entrainment and contributes to future research by demonstrating that, contrary to prior research findings, (a) entrainment varies in degree and type, (b) entrainment (or lack thereof) is both cognitive and affective, and (c) entrainment may not be sustained.