Charting Time: Timelines as Temporal Boundary Objects

This article investigates the use of visual artifacts to represent time. Timelines, or "Gantt charts," are widely used for scheduling, budgeting, and project management, and they are woven into the fabric of organizational life. Timelines embody objectivist, monotemporal assumptions about...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Academy of Management journal 2002-10, Vol.45 (5), p.956-970
Main Author: Yakura, Elaine K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Budgeting
Gantt charts
Management
Management science
Measurement
Occupations
Organization
Organization theory
Project management
Scheduling
Studies
Time
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Summary:This article investigates the use of visual artifacts to represent time. Timelines, or "Gantt charts," are widely used for scheduling, budgeting, and project management, and they are woven into the fabric of organizational life. Timelines embody objectivist, monotemporal assumptions about time yet allow organizational and occupational subgroups with different assumptions to negotiate and manage time prospectively and retrospectively. Timelines thus function as temporal boundary objects, visual representations of time that are both interpretively flexible and robust. The study examined timelines in a context to which their use is especially prominent: the implementation of large information systems. Because of their complexity, these projects provide a rich source of data about the use of timelines in practice. This context is also interesting because information technology consultants represent a large and growing sector of the workforce.
ISSN:0001-4273
1948-0989
DOI:10.5465/3069324