Time perspective balance and team adaptation in dynamic task contexts

• Published date: 01 March 2020
• Author: Dana B. Parcher,Mary J. Waller,Ashley E. Franklin
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2431
• Date: 01 March 2020

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Time perspective balance and team adaptation in dynamic task

contexts

Mary J. Waller

1

| Ashley E. Franklin

2

| Dana B. Parcher

3

1

Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian

University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

2

Harris College of Nursing and Health

Sciences, Texas Christian University, Fort

Worth, Texas, USA

3

College of Engineering and Applied Science,

University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder,

Colorado, USA

Correspondence

Mary J. Waller, Neeley School of Business,

Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX

76129.

Email: m.waller@tcu.edu

Summary

The concept of time perspective balance has attracted increased attention from

scholars in the past decade, reflected in published evidence suggesting positive out-

comes ranging from enhanced mood to life satisfaction for those individuals

possessing balance among their past, present, and future time perspectives, and

assumedly able to shift their time perspective to match situational demands. In this

paper, we consider the notion of time perspective balance in an organizational setting

within which much consequential adaptation often occurs—the team environment—

and explore different configurations of time perspective balance in teams facing

dynamic task contexts. Drawing from work on situational awareness, we first con-

sider the mechanism by which time perspective balance likely influences individual

adaptation in dynamic task-focused situations. Next, we postulate what types of

team configurations—ones with more balanced time perspective uniformity or ones

with more time perspective variety—might be more appropriate in dynamic contexts

given key team conditions. We illustrate our analysis with examples from healthcare

team settings and offer ideas for future research.

KEYWORDS

situation awareness, team adaptation, team dynamics, temporal focus, time perspective

balance

1|INTRODUCTION

The human experience of time is both universal and, as numerous

researchers have demonstrated, an experience that is filtered to pro-

duce unique, idiosyncratic perceptions and interpretations (Bluedorn,

2002; Shipp, in press). Regarding the latter, Zimbardo and Boyd's

(1999) foundational work on time perspective (TP) has catalyzed

additional research in a number of ways. In particular, in addition to

demonstrating that individuals develop characteristic patterns of

focusing on the past, present, and future, Zimbardo and Boyd

suggested that the more balanced an individual's TP, the more closely

that individual might approach realizing their human potential. At the

very core of this suggestion is the notion of adaptability. People with

TPs that are balanced—that is, with near-equal emphasis across past,

present, and future TPs—would be able to “switch flexibly among TPs

depending on task features, situational considerations, and personal

resources rather than be biased toward a specific TP that is not adap-

tive across situations”(1999, p. 1285). For example, should a situation

require future-oriented thinking, individuals with more balanced time

perspectives (BTPs) could agnostically shift their temporal perspec-

tives accordingly to the future. Boniwell and Zimbardo (2004) charac-

terize BTP as “a more positive alternative to living life as a slave to

any particular temporal bias”(p. 171) and suggest that this balance

involves both temporal flexibility and the capability of choosing the

temporal mode appropriate to the situation.

Given the potential rewards of BTP, researchers have explored

the measurement and outcomes of BTP in numerous ways, with

The authors thank their editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and

suggestions.

Received: 21 December 2018 Revised: 12 September 2019 Accepted: 14 January 2020

DOI: 10.1002/job.2431

J Organ Behav. 2020;41:263–275. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 263