Eternal today : the temporality paradox in strategy-making

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>In this chapter we focus on temporality in managerial strategy-making. In particular, we adopt an ’in-time’ view to examine strategy-making as the fluidity of the present experience. We draw on a longitudinal, real-time study in a small Finnish software company. On the basis of our analysis, we found five manifestations of ‘in-time’ processuality in strategy-making. We further identify a temporality paradox that arises from the engagement of managers with two contradictory times: constructed linear ‘over time’ and experienced, becoming ‘in time’.These findings lead us to re-evaluate the nature of intention in strategy-making and to elaborate the constitutive relation between time as ‘the passage of nature’ and human agency. Consequently, we argue that temporality should not be treated merely as an objective background or a subjective managerial orientation, but as a fundamental characteristic of processuality that defines the dynamics of strategy-making.</p></div>