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The relevance of time in organizations and organizational studies: Introduction to the special issue The relevance of time in organizations and organizational studies: Introduction to the special issue This special issue addresses the relevance of time in organizations and organizational research. Given that time is inherent to all activity and interaction, it is an important factor for understanding the functioning of people in the workplace. The realization of this fact has recently led to a rediscovery of the theme in contemporary industrial and organizational psychology. In this introductory article, we offer a historical overview of the work devoted to time in I/O psychology, which shows a clear shift from objective time, as given, to subjective time, as experienced. We provide some examples from practice to show that both approaches are relevant for our field of research. Additionally, we describe the history and current state of affairs regarding theory development and research methodology. We go on to provide an introduction to the articles in this special issue. Finally, we briefly outline some directions for future research.

A brief historical review of test methods used for selecting air traffic controllers (ATCOs) shows that in contrast to e.g. ability tests and job samples, personality tests have been used rather infrequently. The lesser popularity of personality tests may be explained from the belief that personality tests are generally less valid predictors of work related performance, which prevailed in the selection literature until the 1990’s, but also from a lack of empirical findings demonstrating their validity in ATC environments. In the context of a validation study of the Dutch Air Traffic Control Selection System (DATCOSS), we examined the predictive validity of ten personality scales against several criteria of success in ATCO training at Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL). Our study shows that the validities of personality scales vary with the stage and content of training, but reach substantial levels in Unit Training. They also show modest incremental validity over ability tests. We conclude that personality tests can make meaningful contributions to the prediction of ATC training success and to the effectiveness of selection.

Whereas many struggle to meet deadlines, 'the time by which some task is supposed to be completed' (Locke & Latham 1990: 7), some seem to have developed ways to pace effectively before reaching a deadline. Although there has been considerable attention among researchers regarding time-related individual chamcteristics (for an overview, see Francis-Smythe & Robertson 1999), only a few studies have addressed how individuals pace themselves before a deadline. Waller Conte, Gibson and Carpenter (2001) suggested that a combination of time urgency and time perspective may be used to classify persons into four categories to distinguish the way in which they handle deadlines. To our knowledge, empirical analysis of these categories has yet to be conducted. In our research, we have adopted a different approach by developing a graphic scale to assess people's pacing styles (Gevers, Rutte & Van Eerde 2006). This scale inquires into the preferred distribution of effort over the time interval towards a deadline. Building on earlier work from Lim and Mumighan (1994) and Blount and Janicik (2002), we developed several graphs showing pacing styles with steady, increasing, or decreasing activity over time, or combinations of these styles. In this chapter, we aim to explore the value of the pacing style and the use of gmphic scales to predict individual and team-based performance. [n particular, we examine how the pacing styles we identified are distributed in three samples, and whether they explain variance in performance outcomes over and above the personality mit 'conscientiousness'. We describe three projects, involving students and professionals operating individually and in teams in a training context and a real organizational environment, in which we test two gmphic scales for measuring pacing styles.

This study investigated two mediation models of time management. The first model consisted of parts of Macan's ([1994]) model. The second model combined this model with Karasek's ([1998]) Job Demand-Control model. Two sets of self-report questionnaires were collected and were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The first model, in which perceived control of time was hypothesized to fully mediate the relation between planning behavior and work strain, job satisfaction, and job performance, was found to be less adequate than the second model, which added workload and job autonomy as independent variables. Results also indicated that partial, rather than full, mediation of perceived control of time fitted the data best. The study demonstrated the importance of studying both planning behavior and job characteristics, which was not part of past research.

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Earlier research on situational leadership theories has produced little and partly contradictory evidence about the role of situational moderator variables in explaining the relationship between leadership and outcomes. In this article, we propose to concentrate on need for leadership as a singular moderator of the relationships between leadership and employee outcomes. Using a sample of 958 dutch employees from various organizations, the moderator hypothesis was tested. Need for leadership was paired with three leadership factors and five outcome variables, generating 15 possible moderating effects. Five of these were significant. Although the findings compare favorably with other studies using leadership moderators, the effects are weak, and there is not much evidence that leadership–outcome relations are reversed by need for leadership.