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Entrainment is a theory of causality wherein different but proximate actants are tied to one another in complementary rhythms. Entrainment proposes a naturalism of interrelatedness. Manuel DeLanda has explored the logic of social entrainment. Opposing assumptions are found in Actor Network Theory. ANT merges the sociology of knowledge and an analysis of power into a theory of pragmatic causality. Social causality is in ANT (micro‐) politically constructed. The goal of this paper is to examine entrainment as a generative theory of social construction wherein linkages of ideas, persons, actions, events and objects, unlike in ANT's translation are not saturated by (principles of) social power. Illustrations of how entrainment and ANT hold up in practice are provided.

The current study aims to investigate the temporal mechanisms in HRM systems by focusing on how HRM systems evolve over time and how such changes affect organizational innovation.

This paper draws on organizational entrainment theory to examine how pace of change in employee involvement programs (EIPs) influences innovation via data from an eight-year longitudinal survey collected by Statistics Canada. The final sample includes 15,679 workplace–year observations.

This research shows that the effects of HRM programs on performance are more than just the mean effect – the pace of change by which changes are implemented in HRM programs matters in the long run. The optimal level of change pace occurs when the EIPs are changing at a pace that entrains (or synchronizes) with organizational rhythm of strategic changes. Results suggest that change pace in EIPs has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with both pace and quality of innovation. The curvilinear effect is more pronounced for organizations with relatively lower mean level of EIPs.

First, this study captures only key measures of the EIPs and may not be generalizable to other dimensions of the HR systems. Second, the results of this paper should be interpreted at the HR program level or bundles of HR practices – the findings may not be generalizable to lower levels of analysis. Third, as a result of annual measurement, this study cannot capture short-lived minor dynamic HR misfits where workplaces quickly adjust to regain alignment. Fourth, to attain meaningful and consistent measures of strategic HR change, this study only includes surviving workplaces with at least five years of observations.

This paper provides insights to managers and business leaders on how to implement strategic changes in HRM systems effectively to attain sustained innovation outcomes in the long run. To achieve an optimal level of innovation, organizations need to consider not only what and how many EIPs should be used but also how to strategically change EIPs to meet dynamic internal and external changes.

The current research introduces organizational entrainment theory to explain and empirically test the conflicting predictions of the universalist and contingency perspectives on the effects of strategic changes in HRM.

The introduction to Volume 17 of Research in the Sociology of Work: Workplace Temporalities, reviews prior literature and issues in the studies of time at work. It provides a brief summary of the chapters in this volume and addresses some of the major themes, particularly those with which sociologists might be unfamiliar, since this volume is, quite deliberately, interdisciplinary. The chapters in this volume demonstrate the complexities of workplace temporalities in the new economy and suggest that incorporating inquiry about time will inform understanding not only of the contemporary workplace, but also of social life more broadly.

To provide ways of how organizations can benefit from entrainment, the purpose of this paper is to create a better theoretically grounded understanding of entrainment in organizations by reviewing the literature, describing managerial implications and identifying future research directions.

A systematic literature review of relevant literature based on peer-reviewed research papers published in highly ranked scientific journals.

It provides a clear understanding as to what constitutes entrainment in organizations and emphasizes its complexity. Further, six benefits of entrainment are highlighted, including the positive relationship between entrainment and organizational outcomes. The review may also provide entrepreneurs and practitioners a scientific basis for developing innovative tools to help managers’ foster entrainment in organizations.

The review indicates that entrainment plays a much larger role in organizations than we think. Change leaders' actions may impact the emotions and actions of change recipients through entrainment. The selected keywords used in the search and the researcher's bias of including or excluding articles for this review are the major research limitations.

It is one of the first papers, to our knowledge, to provide a structured overview and understanding of the entrainment phenomenon in an organizational context, based on 41 peer-reviewed articles.

The centrality of time to the quality and experience of our lives has led scholars from a variety of disciplines to consider its social origins, including temporal differences among social collectives. Consistent across their accounts is the acknowledgment that time is co-constructed by people via their communicative interactions and formalized through the use of symbols. The goal of this chapter is to build on these extant socio-historical accounts – which explain temporal commodification, construction, and compression in Western, industrialized organizations – to offer a perspective that is grounded in communication and premised on human agency. Specifically, it takes a chronemic approach to interrogating time in the workplace, exploring how time is a symbolic construction emergent through human interaction. It examines McGrath and Kelly's (1986) model of social entrainment as relevant to the interactional bases of time, and utilizes it and structuration theory to consider the mediation and interpenetration of four oft-cited practices in the emergence of a Westernized time orientation: industrial capitalism, the Protestant work ethic, the mechanized clock, and standardized time zones. Surrounded by contemporary workplace discussions on managing the demands of personal–professional times, this analysis employs themes of temporal commodification, construction, and compression to explore the influence of these socio-historical developments in shaping norms about the time and timing of work.

The central focus of this chapter is the mutually constitutive relationship between time and group interaction. Groups shape individuals' experiences of time and individuals' experiences of time enable and constrain their group interactions. The chapter begins with a brief history of time in groups to situate early concerns which still shape many contemporary investigations, and then examines several theoretical perspectives as well as midrange frameworks and constructs which inform research on time and group communication. The chapter concludes with a summary and directions for future research in the area.

Drawing from findings in sociology and anthropology on time as a symbol of status, this paper examines the role that status differentials affect how group members internally align the pace of their activities over time (group synchronization). We examine the psychological process of group synchronization from the perspective of the individual, the nature of status differentials in work groups, and how one’s status within a group affects a person’s willingness to adjust the timing of his/her activities to match other people’s timing. We then identify three types of status structures within work groups and analyze how each affects the group’s ability to synchronize. We close by considering the implications of our approach for better understanding temporal dynamics in work groups.

How and whether the rhythm, synchronization and sequence of firms' M&A and alliance activity over time impact firm performance is our core question. We seek to advance a temporal lens in the M&A and alliance discourse by explicitly incorporating time-associated theories, constructs and methods. A temporal view of M&A and alliance activity requires strategists to study fundamental questions related to when and under what conditions firms should accelerate, slow down and coordinate their M&A and alliance initiatives, whether firms' trajectory of M&A and alliance have discernible and distinctive patterns over time, and whether these initiatives demonstrate a temporal pattern that becomes an integrated part within firms' M&A and alliance routines that create a time-based source of competitive advantage. Using a sample of 57 small to medium-size firms in the global specialized pharmaceutical industry and their M&A and alliance activities for 19 years we find support for our temporal-based hypotheses.

This study aims to unlock a ritual chain mechanism that promotes socio-mental (or socio-psychological) resilience. This study draws on interaction ritual chains theory and the concept of transformative service to answer the question of how people could be inspired toward an elevated level of group solidarity, emotional energy, morality and, thus, socio-mental resilience.

This study took a qualitative approach resting upon online reviews and observations from an augmented food festival about hot pot delicacies dedicated to medical workers fighting hard amid the early coronavirus outbreak.

The results of this study point to four primary ritual outcomes (e.g. emotional energy, group solidarity, symbols of relationships and standards of morality) along with a two-tier micro–macro socio-mental resilience sustainability paradigm.

Empirical findings from this study could help operators to justify their transformative initiatives as means for customers to replenish their depleted physical and mental resources.

This inquiry presents new nuances to interaction ritual chains. This study also extends the transformative role of hospitality services to accentuate a linkage among individuals, communities and the society.

This paper aims to provide new evidence regarding the firm performance implications of using temporal orientation (time pacing) and information technology (IT) to align an organization with its task environment.

Using questionnaire data provided by top management team members, the results indicate that time‐based strategies (i.e. time pacing) and IT mediate the effects of environmental disruptions on performance. To validate the scales and to test the hypothesized model of relationships, the study employs structural equation modeling through LISREL 8.52, as it is able to examine both the measurement and structural model simultaneously while including individual errors for the respective parameters.

The results suggest that time pacing should be used in association with IT, as time pacing had a much stronger relationship to environmental disruptions than did IT. This finding supports that a time pacing orientation is effective at helping managers react to disruptions in their task environment. In relation to firm performance, IT was directly linked to firm performance; whereas time pacing was only indirectly associated with firm performance.

The findings suggest that the application of time pacing strategies enables managers to increase firm performance via IT. The results therefore suggest that managers should not assess their use of temporally‐based mechanisms (e.g. time pacing, IT temporality) and IT in isolation, but rather consider them in conjunction. This recommendation is consistent with findings elsewhere that components of strategy may need to be cohesive and integrative and require a supportive firm structure if they are to have their greatest effects on firm performance.

The study extends the research on temporal strategies and IT as mechanisms for offsetting environmental pressures and improving firm performance. It alerts managers to the notion that time pacing will enable them to generate improved firm performance and competitive advantage, through the synchronistic use of IT.