Emergent Temporal Effects in Community Initiatives

Abstract

Based on a qualitative case study of a multiyear, multicity attempt to forge community coalitions against substance abuse, this article analyzes three categories of organizational temporalities: Cycles, event streams, and temporal style. Community initiatives based on collaboration, coalitions, and cooperation, projects that “bring everyone to the table,” provide an opportunity for naturalistic observation of the unanticipated, but analyzable, effects that emerge when mismatched organizational temporalities interact. This article lays out a theory of these emergent effects of interorganizational time conflicts in communities of organizations. The aim is not to argue for the primacy of temporal effects over other dimensions but to include them in a multidimensional view of the causes of problems encountered in multi-organization community initiatives.